The Roadmap

I just wanted to wish everyone at Gaslamp Games a very Merry Christmas!

It will definitely be a great holiday for everyone on my list:

 

Nice to see more people spreading the good news.. game!

 

Do so. It's interesting to see where DoD will go, although I'm sure some of us wouldn't be adverse to Gaslamp focusing more on Odin for now rather than Dredmor.

 

We just want you guys focused when you put the deer in the squid, that's all.

 

If anything, I dare say they should focus on making a version that is without any bugs, so that people would have something to fall back to.
And then, they could do whatever is it that they are planning on doing.

 

Well, no bugs is obviously an impossibility, but I think I know what you're getting at. Stop work on features for now and instead focus on fixes and balance?

 

Yes, that.
And I know getting into the state where there are no bugs is an (almost) impossibility - it would still be "acceptable" if something minor didn't work the way it was intended to. The point is, when you look at the few last versions (ignoring the fact that one can't exactly go back to an earlier version now if he wants to have the third expansion), every one of them had something working funky. Which is why, in my opinion, it would be good if people who just want to play got a stable version to play with.

 

I don't think Steam supports 2 different versions of the same game, so these two versions would have to be inside Dredmor itself (Dredmorception!).
For me, this sounds rather like the way most Linux distros handle their release - release a long-term support stable version every 2 years or such, and some cutting edge versions every 6 months.
But I'm not sure GLG can handle 2 different versions of the game right now, with Odin and all that...
Also, figuring out and abusing the bugs is the best part

 

It's not like DoD requires Steam to play, either way. So they can make a copy.

 

That's excellent to hear, Nicholas.

Judging by David's posts yesterday, the work is already starting on getting back into a state where skills are more balanced, bugs and mistakes are fixed and so on.

 

How about new features? What will happen with the game after all (or atleast most) bugs are fixed? I really love this game and I do realize that mod support is probably your answer for the future, and while the modders are often times quite ingenious with their mods, there is only so much that can be done with current features. While I'm not asking for a new expansion that adds 10 new spell effects 10 new rooms and a unique twist like the pocket dimensions or diggle gods every 3 months please dont let the game stagnate. Even if it was 1 new type of spell, rebalance of 1 vanilla skill (that probably doesnt compare to the quality of the new ones) or perhaps even a new unique skill line every 2-3 months, just dont make it sound like this is as far as the game gets. It somehow doesnt feel right with this being a roguelike game. Hopefully you'll answer these questions in the next roadmap.

 

That they aren't planning on releasing more expansion packs right now doesn't mean they won't release any under any circumstances. It just means they don't want to rush into releasing another expansion with content that would be forced.

If they concentrate on fixing bugs and giving us modding support, they will have slightly more time to work on whatever Odin is supposed to be compared to a situation where they would waste time trying to make another expansion pack straight out of the bat.

 

That's also not to say new features won't arrive in the patches. We just won't have a structured release of features.

 

With all the modding, there is room for the devs to sit back and do other things -- get on with Project Odin, for example -- after the major bugs are stomped out. I wouldn't be opposed to more DLC, paid or otherwise, when the devs have the time, and inclination and inspiration to do something different enough with the game to warrant it.

Don't get me wrong -- I'd love to see an even better crafting interface, I'd love to see new directions for the game, etc. But I have more than enough to tide me over for a while (As good as Dredmor is, you need a change of scenery once in a while).

 

If you're going to release more content but don't want to worry about coming up with the content, is it easier to release a community-made pack? Something collecting mods and putting them together? Or would the bugfixing be way harder than coming up with new content?