DevelopmentRoadmap - MarcelineVQ/endless-sky GitHub Wiki

This page gives big-picture goals for what the game will include when it is "complete." It will probably be a year or more before we reach that point; for more details about changes that are planned for upcoming releases in the interim, look at the milestones page.

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 less than 100% zoom).
  • 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 rest of the galaxy with various sized clusters of systems, with a jump drive needed to travel between them.
  • 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.