Planning, Roadmap and future

[James Munro]

Hello fellow ioq3'ers!

I'll get started by apologizing if the things I'm going to discuss have been
mentioned to-death, and I should make it clear that I have not set out to
criticize ioquake3 in it's current form.

I think that the project would benefit from a specific roadmap and goal. I
also think it is a good idea for the project to fork into 2 branches. For
example, the stable 'thoroughbred' fork that would simply remain as
'ioquake3', which will be the stable base for mod developers to base their
games on. Next we could have 'ioquake3e' or 'ioquake3e'. This would be the
experimental branch and our demonstration engine. For example the
experimental branch should include new functionality provided by code
patches, which could be 'backported' to the stable branch should mod
developers desire this functionality, and should strive to implement new and
interesting features.

I brainstormed a few features which I thought might be quite neat (I'm sure
you all think otherwise!):

- LZMA compression for the packed-file-format.
- General code optimization (this would be focusing on the stable branch).
- Embedded scripting language (Lua, Python anyone?).
- Better control for server admins.
- Revamped GUI system (a massive task, but not unattainable).

I'm sorry if some of these sound lame but these are features widely
requested in game engine discussions on my games development degree.

I also feel that the project needs some further planning, and an easy to use
system for developers to submit patches, discuss new features, plan
development and receive feedback. Has anyone previously discussed moving the
development side of the site to SourceForge or similar?

Like I said, I am not criticizing any of the work that has already been
done!

Regards,
James Munro
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