Current Tasks as of 17 July 2001

Hans Häggström, a.k.a. zzorn
Adam Wendt, a.k.a adam (made all urls hyperlinks)

A lot of new people have shown interest in WorldForge as a result of Linuxtag and the Acorn 0.4 release. A common request seems to be a list of open tasks.

So here's a list of current open tasks and areas that are in active development. A very short project summary is also included, to give a general feeling of what is going on. Apologies in advance if I have forgotten something that should be on the list, please notify me (zzorn) in that case so that I can add it to the web page. Thanks to Aglanor and all the other helpful people on IRC for finding various obscure bits of information for me.

If you are new to WorldForge, first take a look Pato's excellent newbie guide if you haven't already.

Short Project Status

Currently we are

finishing up Acorn,
in the early implementation phase of our new server, STAGE,
finishing the design and starting the implementation of Mason, our next game,
developing the parts of the Dural world that will be used in the Sand of Syllus game,
working to add Atlas support to our 3D client, XClient, and
moving over content from the old web site to the new one.

Coding

People interested on working on our main server, STAGE, should look at the stage pages, introduce themselves on server@worldforge.org, and drop in on the next weekly STAGE meeting (these are usually held on Saturdays, at 2000 GMT, in #stage on irc.worldforge.org ). Morgenes is coordinating STAGE development currently. (more on STAGE)
People interested in doing 3D coding should look into XClient. Xclient is coordinated by Sal. Currently Atlas support is being added to it. (more on XClient)
We will need a better map editor for terrain, and an editor that allows players to design blueprints of houses and machines.
The initial UI design for the blueprint editor, called Gaudi, is available. zzorn is the contact person for anybody that wants to tackle the blueprint editor,

A map editor for terrain, Ptah, is also in development. Brent Bartels is responsible for Ptah, and Ptah can be discussed on client@worldforge.org

Testing

Now that Acorn is almost ready we need to find the remaining bugs and fix them. Finding bugs and generating good bug reports is very valuable help for the coders. Bug reports can be sent to client@worldforge.org (if they are related to uclient), and server@worldforge.org, if they seem server related. (Should we start up a separate bugs@worldforge.org mailing list now, when we actually have a beta test game out there?).
Also, trying to duplicate elusive errors found by other users could be useful, as well as verifying that bugs marked as fixed really have been squished.

Documentation

We could use translations of the acorn installation and player guides.
The process of setting up an Acorn server could perhaps be documented.
The Mason task list also contains some documentation related tasks
We are moving to our new website, currently located at here. All the current content has to be gone through, possibly updated a bit, and moved to the correct place in the new site.

Game Design

Most of the Mason design has been worked out to some degree in many meetings, documented in half finished documents, and presented in email exchanges (mostly on rules@) Now is the time to organize these, and write them down in concrete descriptions and class diagrams. All the current material can be found on the old Mason page The finished implementation documentation will be on the new Mason page mostly in the Technology section. zzorn is coordinating Mason design.
Sands of Syllus is in an earlier stage of development, so if you would like to be able to affect the final game design more, then this could be a good game effort to join. Halsted is currently coordinating Syllus, and is doing a great job of fleshing out the game area, the culture, and the people. The actual way the game would be played, and how that should be implemented, are still somewhat open. (go here)
There's also other planned games, such as Archipelago, Catacombs, Acid Tempest, Werewolf, and others. These games are in a very early planning stage, so if you would like to participate in the initial, brainstorming like development phase of a game, these would be ideal. Lee is coordinating Archipelago, Catacombs and Werewolf have no coordinator. (Archipelago) (Werewolf) (Catacombs)
Also take a look at our master plan, explaining the order of the games, and their general objectives general@worldforge.org or rules@worldforge.org can be used to discuss these ( more specific stuff can stay in rules@, introductions and initial concept ideas could be posted to general@ too.).

World Design

The world design area has been active lately. We have decided to carefully update Ardmor to an early steampunk technology. Also look at recent discussion in rules@, worlds@ and general@. You can use news.worldforge.org to access old emails. Halsted and zzorn have expressed interest in working on this, contact them to coordinate efforts.
There's also a steaming new jungle continent, Sanjarica, that isn't even on the maps yet. It will be located south of Syllus, and have a dark and varied interior, with lots of room for hidden horrors, wonderful treasures, and strange places and creatures. There's some discussion on rules@, worlds@ and general@, as well as in the IRC archives about Sanjarica. You can use news.worldforge.org to access old emails. Halsted and zzorn are working on Sanjarica currently, but there's always room for more writers, as it is a big and varying continent. Discussion could take place on the world@ mailing list, or on IRC.

Media

3D models, textures, some 2D art, and concept sketches would all be welcome. We are even working on a comic to define some of the background for Sands of Syllus, a future game.
Acorn still needs 3D models of the characters. The ones used currently are free only when rendered to 2D animations, not as 3D meshes, so we can't use them in the three dimensional XClient. (To-do list)
See a general task list related to Mason, and information about working on media for Mason.

Infra

We can always use more game servers, or ftp mirrors. Other mirrors have been discussed too, we want to get proper fallback systems for all our major servers. Some requirements for running the different services are listed here Send an email to infra@worldforge.org if you think you have something that we might be interested in.
Our new website is Zope based, and it is relatively easy to integrate python programs with it. Several different databases and utilities are on the wish list for the new site. You might also help with fixing bugs and implementing features to the website code. Look in infra@ archives or the infra board on the new site for desired features. Kosh is coordinating the coding of the new web site.

Anything Else

And remember, this is just a suggestion of some of the things that are currently active and could use help. You are free to look around the website on your own, and find something that you would like to work on. Or if you think of something that you feel should be, but isn't mentioned anywhere, feel free to start working on it. Just drop a mail to general@ or another appropriate mailing list first, presenting your idea, so that you don't accidentally start working on something that already was under way, and so that other interested people can team up with you.

Current Issue: February 2003, Recent Issues: January 2003, November 2002, October 2002