All this week I watched GPG and Stardock QA going back and forth on the demo build. Just little things.

We also went into great detail on the 2 new demigods that are in development. I am anticipating being able to go into significant detail on these in the next couple of weeks now that they’ve moved beyond a bunch of “assets” and are starting to come together.

Tentatively we are looking at one general and one assassin. One will be of the forces of light and the other the forces of darkness. One will be melee oriented, the other projectile oriented.

In addition, version 1.2 is the next major milestone GPG is working on.  It’s due in August so that we can show it off at PAX where we also expect to be showing off the 2 new Demigods.

Prior to version 1.2 we are also very close to a post v1.1 update. I had hoped we were going to release it this week but there’s still a bit more to do.  The post v1.1 update is expected to fix a LUA decompression crash that some people have run into (and by some people we mean those people get it a lot) as well as some fixes to stats.  There may also be some balance tweaks to the bishops-related idols but not sure if they’ll make it in time.

For version 1.2 itself our list is:

• Replays (managed)
• Rematches
• Additional items & balancing
• New Demigod #1 (may be released separately)
• New Demigod #2 (may be released separately)
• Squelch (silence users in game) /squelch frogboy (right from SupCom)
• Option to turn off Arena background
• Various Bug fixes
• More AI improvements (if anyone in the community wants to make LUA suggestions I’ll forward them on)
• New AI options  (on death)
• 1. Gold/ XP: High (= to what it is today)
• 2. Gold/ XP: Normal (= 50% what killing a human player would be worth) [default]
• 3. Gold/ XP: Low (=25% of what killing a human player would be worth)
• New AI option:
• 1. Hitpoints: Very High (2X what they are today)
• 2. Hitpoints: High (1.5 what they are today) [Default]
• 3. Hitpoints: Normal (1.0 what they are today)
• 4. Hitpoints: Low (0.75 what they are today)
• Modding Support:
• 1. Quickie SDK that explains how to make maps
• 2. Quickie SDK that explains how to make demigods
• 3. Quickie SDK that explains how to make items
• New Option: Use Mods (allows mods to be used in single player)
• Hosts would select which mods to use.
• We would begin including mods submitted in updated builds.
• If a player does not have a mod, then it’s not used.
• More robust Pantheon and Skirmish handling (slot time to work with us to make this system work better).
• Connection Info would display a player’s rank/experience to better balance custom games

Other things that are being discussed without a consensus yet:

• Should custom games be ranked?
• How do we make it easy for people to create team games (that doesn’t involve a lot of UI work)
• How do we make pantheon/skirmish games more flexible (1 on 1, 2 on 2, etc.)
• Ways of handling pre-made teams
• Ways for hosts to ban people from joining their games. (personal ban lists)

Ironically, the biggest development resource limitation right now is in the area of UI.  So solutions that require new screens and such are more problematic.  In the long run, we’ll add as much as we can to Impulse’s overlay which is getting a significant revamp in August for better handling for friends and such.

Also high on our list but will probably not make it into v1.2 but likely v1.3 are the Clan Wars.  It was decided that getting modding out earlier rather than later was important because in doing so, Stardock itself can start to create maps and demigods to release as well as let players create their own demigods if they want and in a pinch we can take care of the exporting for them.

So that’s where things stand as we start to near the end of July.