Plan for David Dougher

Team Progress Report. Progress is being made in a number of areas by the team but we all took a giant step backward to make sure we agreed on some key design issues in the last meeting.

Business
On the business front we are holding off on officially announcing the name of our new company until the first of the year in order to make it easier for the accountants.

Copyright and trademark issues remain an area of concern.

Game Design
Debates rage as to race/character class dynamics. A few new ideas surfaced concerning storyline, player growth, and playbility issues. However, the basic game elements remain unchanged for artistic purposes so while we argue the details, we still continue to build foundation models, textures and levels.

Coding
The 1.1 merge apparently broke the code we were using under V12 from the forum concerning the compass. A quick stab at the problem didn't fix it so more work will be needed. This may also effect several other items we picked up around the same time so additional time will be needed to make sure the code in that area is well understood.

A simple process for integrating CVS with multiple submissions from the artists and level designers doesn't seem to be to be a problem.

Moving our CVS to a new server is on hold while we confirm that it can be securely accessed remotely

GUI changes to the editors are being reimplemented from the V12 version to torque. This is to reorganize the layout and stretch the button sizes to allow for better internationalization. This is being done carefully to preserve the changes that Tim Gift and others put into the editors for version 1.1.

A first content cut at the screens for in game use will be hashed out in the next few weeks.

Level Design
The level designers are moving away from using Worldcraft to using Max exclusively.

Some interesting tests using Tempest and Milkshape to bring in static models is underway.

I am also looking at Leveller for the terrain creation process. The bug in the World editor concerning laying down additonal textures does not appear to be fixed yet - or we haven't found which subdirectory we need to place the textures in so they can be found by the editor.

Artwork
While there are numerous textures on the web most of the useful ones are more geared towards metals and grillwork and very little towards the timeperiod we are interested in.

Modeling
Animated modeling continues to remain an annoyance. Attempts to get an animated model working correctly in game or using -show have failed at every turn. While it appears to be a process issue it is annoying to not have one tutorial out there that accurately describes the process.

Animation
Creating an animated logo seems to be on hold while the team looks at the modeling process and why it doesn't seem to work.

Sound
An initial attempt to create sound effects for the game was a spectacular failure. The recording equipment being used created too much background rumble and hiss. However, better equipment will be available next weekend for a new try.

Test
A formal test plan is now on the discussion list for checking and fixing bugs as well as tracking feature implementation.

Documentation
On line help has been rolled into the Game design doc as part of the change process. The idea is to update the documents for online help as changes are made to the system.

Website
A mockup of the proposed website will start trials next week. A review of Forum software is underway.

Special Issues
Jason has entered the forums and has asked for help on some of our modeling issues. So far it hasn't been answered. May need to bump it.