DevelopmentRoadmap

Goals for version 0.8.0:

• Free Worlds plot line fully playable.
• Human and Hai space fully "populated" with planets and star systems.
• Galaxy "map" editor available for content creators.
• Basic plugin system working.
• Thoroughly beta tested on various operating systems and hardware.
• Plugin with high-DPI versions of all the graphics.

Goals for version 1.0.0:

Audio:

• Ambient noise on planets.
• Formats other than .wav.
• Higher quality sound effects.
• Better volume balancing of sound effects.
• Background music (adapting to what's happening in the game or what system you're in).

Graphics:

• Improved ship graphics (more detail; replace ugly models).
• Replace any particularly boring landscapes.
• Website "polls" for letting users mark graphics they don't like.
• More planet sprites.
• More special star types.
• Better space station sprites.
• Better space station landscapes.
• Portrait pictures.
• Fill in missing outfit sprites (for alien outfits).

User interface:

• Allow zooming map in or out.
• Allow zooming the main view independent of the UI zoom (and allow < 100% zoom).
• Allow taking off in a fighter?
• When boarding a ship, allow choosing between repair and plunder.
• When boarding a ship, give control over how much fuel you transfer.
• Support for Unicode text.
• Add a "log book" with entries that are added to mark major story line events.

Universe:

• Fill the galaxy (even if some systems are not populated).
• More alien species.
• Random fluctuations in commodity prices.

Game Engine:

• Missiles using different tracking modes (optical, infrared, radar).
• Consider limiting how fast turrets can turn?
• Have disabled pirates pay you a bribe to patch them up and leave them alone.
• Reverse thruster support in the combat AI.
• More options for controlling escorts (tactical commands, hold secondary fire).
• Better AI for missile boats that run out of ammo.
• Weapons with salvo firing (must pause to reload for N seconds after M shots).
• Escape pods and other changes to support "hard core mode."

Missions:

• Two more main story lines.
• More side missions.
• Allow arbitrary condition expressions.

Plugins:

• Centralized website for all available plugins.
• Better support for total overrides.
• Viewing and editing a list of installed plugins.
• Show plugin about text for each plugin.
• Downloading new plugins in-game, from a website repository.

Internal:

• Make sure every class has introductory comments explaining what it is for.
• Regularize passing of pointers vs. references.
• More generic UI code to make it easier to alter the user interface.