Roadmap is confusing/misleading to non-developers

[Markelius]

Right now if I go onto OpenMw's roadmap, I will see that openmw-1.0 only has 15 issues left in it. If I didn't know better (which I hadn't until semi-recently), me, being the uninformed gamer that I am, would assume "wow! only 15 things they have to do until 1.0 will be released!". However, come the next release of OpenMw, I would become discouraged and confused when said release was not 1.0, and return to the roadmap to again see that there were very few issues in the 1.0 section, and wonder why you guys (the OpenMw devs) haven't just cracked down on those specific issues and released OpenMw 1.0 yet.

Of course, obviously, most hurdles are listed under the trackers for both the next numbered release (currently 0.40) and openmw-future. This is simple enough to understand for a developer or someone who has taken the time to figure it out, but I fear it might be off putting or discouraging to a lot of people following the project.

I'm not quite sure how one could go about addressing this, perhaps listing openmw [next release] and openmw-future issues in the tracker for openmw-1.0 by default? That would help clear things up for non developers and interested parties like myself and others. Just wanted to chime and bring this to light.


btw: Absolutely fantastic work as always folks! Every release I see with OpenMw gets me so hyped for the future of Morrowind and OpenMw and I'm always super impressed by what you guys have achieved and continue to achieve on a daily basis here, keep up the great work!

[DestinedToDie]

Right now if I go onto OpenMw's roadmap, I will see that openmw-1.0 only has 15 issues left in it. If I didn't know better (which I hadn't until semi-recently), me, being the uninformed gamer that I am, would assume "wow! only 15 things they have to do until 1.0 will be released!".

What? This seems pretty comprehensive for me. You have A, B and C. We are at A right now. In order to get to C (1.0), you also need to go through B (0.40), which includes 84 issues. C doesn´t come before B, and I´ve no idea why anyone would think that version 1.0 comes out first, then after 1.0 comes 0.40. Or were you thinking we could skip everything in 0.40?

That being said, the Roadmap is not a 100% accurate representation of how soon 1.0 will come out. It just lists things that OpenMW developers plan to tackle in a specific version. We might have a version 0.41, which is not listed currently. Or we might see additional issues filed into 1.0 that aren´t there today. Still, it takes only a tiny amount of common sense to understand that the developers aren´t just going to abandon next release and just jump to 1.0.

Atualpha has been planning to do a video on what´s left to do until version 1.0. Will probably give a better overview of what´s to be done than the roadmap.

[psi29a]

To be fair, the "roadmap" is a feature of redmine, a tool for developers. It isn't something _we_ can just change and hiding it away from non-developers would be silly.

[Rumina]

I'm not quite sure how one could go about addressing this, perhaps listing openmw [next release] and openmw-future issues in the tracker for openmw-1.0 by default?

I think there may be a misunderstanding here, unless I'm wrong. Openmw-future are post 1.0 release ideas and projects. None of these things are issues that need to be completed for a 1.0 release and will in nearly all cases not be in the 1.0 release. Listing them for 1.0 wouldn't clear up things and actually make it far more confusing.

Right now 1.0 has about 15 issues in it and 0.40 has any number. I'll concede that at the moment having a 1.0 listing feels rather moot as there doesn't seem to be much reason to keep them separate from 0.40. Though I'm not a developer so I don't think I really have much room for opinion on this topic, it should be designed for whatever is easiest for the devs, but since it's here I'll throw my two cents in anyways if we're throwing ideas around.

Openmw-future is fine where it is. In my mind it makes more sense to move all OpenCS related issues from 0.40 and OpenCS-1.0 issues into an OpenCS-0.40. Then keep all game related issues from 0.40 and 1.0 in the OpenMW-0.40 roadmap. This would reduce the number from 4 to 3, and organize things in such a way that seeing what remains or needs to be worked on would be more intuitive and organized.

That said, I'm sure it's the way it is for a reason. At the end of the day if users are interested in looking at the technical developmental side then they should take the time to figure things out. The people working on the project have enough on their plate.

[Markelius]

Right now if I go onto OpenMw's roadmap, I will see that openmw-1.0 only has 15 issues left in it. If I didn't know better (which I hadn't until semi-recently), me, being the uninformed gamer that I am, would assume "wow! only 15 things they have to do until 1.0 will be released!".

What? This seems pretty comprehensive for me. You have A, B and C. We are at A right now. In order to get to C (1.0), you also need to go through B (0.40), which includes 84 issues. C doesn´t come before B, and I´ve no idea why anyone would think that version 1.0 comes out first, then after 1.0 comes 0.40. Or were you thinking we could skip everything in 0.40?

No, that's not what I meant, I moreso meant, "okay so there are 84 issues to get to openmw-0.40, and 15 issues in openmw-1.0, so that means after 0.40 1.0 will come out really soon because there's not much left to do!!". Whereas in reality, come 0.40, the devs and people testing openmw will have found more issues that need to be adressed before 1.0, again continuing the cycle, not giving non-developers a clear view of where the project actually is in it's development.

Anyways, I eagerly anticipate to watch the upcoming video of what's left to do before 1.0, I think that should help myself and others understand where things are at.

[darkbasic]

Atualpha has been planning to do a video on what´s left to do until version 1.0. Will probably give a better overview of what´s to be done than the roadmap.

That sounds good, I love his videos