Sharing a roadmap

[sqrw]

Hi!

I was wondering what the chances are of sharing a roadmap with the users? I know it's a bit uncomfortable as it gives the feeling you're being held to promises/dates but even a priority list of those are the next 20 things we hope to get done in rough order would be super helpful.

I think for users it'd be good to see what the plan for the coming month is as well as get to see that feedback makes it on the roadmap so we don't have to beat a dead horse that is already planned anyway (shared dice rolling anyone? :P).

It'll also add a bit of confidence to HLO being a beta stage software and that there is a plan (I don't doubt there is one) to bring it to a full and good state.

I'll give an example of what I'm thinking about so it doesn't sound too scary:

* [PF2][Content] Add book about marshmellows
* [ANY][Feature] Add shared dice rolls
* [SR6][Content] Add Snakepeople source book
* [PF2][Content] Add Snakepeople source book as well (it's system agnostic !)
* [SR6][Fix] Fix essence for Snakepeople
...

[bruuuuuu]

+1 for this from me.

[Farling]

See https://forums.wolflair.com/showthread.php?t=60042 for the only roadmap they've updated recently.

[sqrw]

Oh I should have looked at the updated date not the created date o.O, I thought it's 2 years old.

Not a lot in there but it's something

[dacoobob]

i find it frustrating that "Party Loot Management" and "Streamlined Starship Management for the Whole Party" were touted by LW as the main benefits of an online model-- yet they still aren't close to being implemented, years after the launch of HLO.

[WatersLethe]

Originally Posted by dacoobob

i find it frustrating that "Party Loot Management" and "Streamlined Starship Management for the Whole Party" were touted by LW as the main benefits of an online model-- yet they still aren't close to being implemented, years after the launch of HLO.

The starship management still being absent is seriously galling.

[Dami]

Originally Posted by WatersLethe

The starship management still being absent is seriously galling.

Particularly so when we recall that it was one of the major reasons why Starfinder wasn't going to be made available with HLC.

[Thrawn82]

Originally Posted by Dami

Particularly so when we recall that it was one of the major reasons why Starfinder wasn't going to be made available with HLC.

I believe that is what is classically referred to as a 'bait and switch'

I would really like to see party loot implemented, particularly now with the campaign theater up which i plan to use in my upcoming PF2 campaign

[dacoobob]

Originally Posted by Thrawn82

I believe that is what is classically referred to as a 'bait and switch'

That's too harsh on LW imo. I think it's pretty clear that that the development process for HLO has simply turned out to be vastly more difficult and time-consuming than they anticipated.

Yes, it absolutely sucks that fundamental features like starships are still missing from the product after all this time, but i really doubt that it's part of some conspiracy by LW to defraud their customers. They fucked up for sure by releasing HLO way too early, but they're doing their best to fix it while also keeping the company afloat financially.

Even though the delays are very frustrating, I believe LW is acting in good faith and will deliver on their promises eventually. Until I'm convinced that's not the case, I'm sticking with my subscription.

[rob]

All the negative comments above are valid. Allow me to shed a little light on the situation regarding HLO...

Both starship support and party loot management are wholly dependent upon a solid foundation in the backend. In the same vein, a game as vast and complex as PF1 needs a race car engine under the hood - not a Toyota Corolla. Last August, I discovered that the backend code was atrocious, which amounted to a huge setback for us. I dismissed the employee that had been in charge of it, and two other employees were also lost due to the ramifications of this setback. More importantly to the subject of this thread, there was no way to even consider building those capabilities on the swampland we previously had in place.

I then proceeded to rewrite the backend. But we're talking about more than 100,000 lines of code doing some very complex tasks, so it was a significant undertaking. The first phase of that rewrite finally enabled Campaign Theater to be launched earlier this year. The second phase is nearing completion, which will provide the solid foundation we need. So all of those "big three" will become viable candidates for "what's next" after we complete the current wave of development.

There is no way that we'll be tackling all of them at once, since each of those will entail a hefty chunk of work. There are also other capabilities that will be quite valuable to a large number of users, so the candidate list is more than just those three. We'll have to prioritize them all and choose what to focus on next. But at least one of them should finally be in place this fall.

If you have strong preferences for what we should focus on next, please post them in the HLO Improvement Wishlist thread, which is stickied at the top.