Hey Sven,

Any chance we could get a development roadmap from you for the remainder of the beta? Things are really coming together now and it'd be nice to have a reference for a general idea of "what's next?".

I know we spoke and you mentioned the next big thing is ground combat. Then what?

How much longer, roughly, until diplomacy, the tech tree and strategic zoom? Then I'd guess it's just polish from there, yeah?

Steam Greenlight will be a good move. We need more players and buyers and I *know* that people will like what they see, you just need to get them to see it

Devildogff wrote:I know we spoke and you mentioned the next big thing is ground combat. Then what?

Ground combat is probably going to be the next big thing -- various new techs, improved/expanded NPC encounters, and some incremental improvements to the tactical balance and UI are also on the radar.

Devildogff wrote:How much longer, roughly, until diplomacy, the tech tree and strategic zoom?

Well, of these 3 only diplomacy is on the official "must have" list. A revamped tech tree UI and strategic zoom are both pieces I'd like to get in -- testers consistently ask for them, and I miss the features myself -- but officially, they're both still "nice to haves". Assuming we do see them, it won't happen until we're pretty close to release.

Any rough timeline to these, though?

December: Ground Combat
January: Random encounters, tech, etc.
February: Diplomacy
March: Polish, Tech tree considerations, etc?

You'll want to have something like this if you plan to do Steam Greenlight/Early Access.

Devildogff wrote:You'll want to have something like this if you plan to do Steam Greenlight/Early Access.

Well, we can cross that bridge if/when the greenlight campaign gains some traction. At this point, I can't even be certain whether or not there will be an early access period managed through Steam.

Speaking on a strictly technical level, I have yet to look closely at the Steam C++ SDK, and so I really don't know how much time/effort it would take to take to get the build setup for distribution with Valve. There'd also be various business details to work out with any distribution deal. So even if the greenlight campaign is a go, I'm not in a position to make promises about just when the game might become available on Steam.

I think one fairly plausible scenario is that we'll carry through with an independent release ourselves in Q1, then launch on Steam sometime later, once I've had time to look at the Steam SDK and go through the legal stuff involved in any distribution contracts. If the greenlight campaign really takes off, we could think about trying to get a Steam build up in time for early access -- but, right now, I'm more interested in finishing the missing gameplay features.

Hopefully the campaign does gain traction, as SiS deserves to be on Steam.

Either way, can you provide a rough outline, please? Are you shooting for a March-April release?

Have you given thought to how the diplomacy will work?

Devildogff wrote:Either way, can you provide a rough outline, please? Are you shooting for a March-April release?

Our current policy is not to share detailed timelines. But, I do think we've got a reasonable shot of making a March/April release.

Have you given thought to how the diplomacy will work?

The alpha builds included a skeletal diplomacy system, complete with a UI and tech/money/resource trade system. But those features have been disabled for the last year. Neither Arioch or I are entirely happy with how that first version of diplomacy was coming together, and we've agreed that the system needs rethinking. The rethinking process has begun -- and we'll probably share a working design document with you guys once we have something that's looking like a good candidate spec.

sven wrote:

Devildogff wrote:Either way, can you provide a rough outline, please? Are you shooting for a March-April release?

Our current policy is not to share detailed timelines. But, I do think we've got a reasonable shot of making a March/April release.

Have you given thought to how the diplomacy will work?

The alpha builds included a skeletal diplomacy system, complete with a UI and tech/money/resource trade system. But those features have been disabled for the last year. Neither Arioch or I are entirely happy with how that first version of diplomacy was coming together, and we've agreed that the system needs rethinking. The rethinking process has begun -- and we'll probably share a working design document with you guys once we have something that's looking like a good candidate spec.

Would you be willing to enable that diplomacy system in the mean time?

Devildogff wrote:Would you be willing to enable that diplomacy system in the mean time?

It's already in the current dev build, accessible via the "RACES" link on the top menu bar. It doesn't work very well, however.

Arioch wrote:

Devildogff wrote:Would you be willing to enable that diplomacy system in the mean time?

It's already in the current dev build, accessible via the "RACES" link on the top menu bar. It doesn't work very well, however.

It's actually only turned on for people who have all the dev/modder options turned on, and have enabled "show incomplete features" under the options pane.

Basically, while the alpha diplomacy UI is there, and while you could, in theory, access it, I recommend against it. It's an incomplete feature with known problems -- and thus testing it is going to be frustrating for playtesters, and not really that helpful for us devs.

I think the standard Civ1 style diplomacy has had its day.I think the future is what Paradox has done which feels like diplomacy and not just something to get lots of techs or to exploit the A.I.Even CivBE is trying something different with war goals.

Ashbery76 wrote:I think the standard Civ1 style diplomacy has had its day.I think the future is what Paradox has done which feels like diplomacy and not just something to get lots of techs or to exploit the A.I.Even CivBE is trying something different with war goals.

Yes, I like Rising Tide's diplomacy.