I'm writing this because I am deeply concerned about the future of the project. It has become very quiet around here lately and in irc, too. I don't think we can excuse ourselves much longer by any 'summer vacation'.

Everyone knows that we are no longer a group of pupils and students. A few people are fortunate enough to work in a regular day job, others do stressful Master or PhD studies. I myself are facing the conclusion of my study with the biggest and hardest exam in next year that will demand highly increased learning efforts.

I think it is time to assess our possibilities, see who is still able to actively participate and contribute and how much time is there to spare; concepts and goal need to be cut down accordingly. We might even reach the bitter conclusion that there is no future. We don't have any backup developers, no recruits to take over the work and we lack the major community support prior Clonk titles could claim.

In assessing one's own work, you might just want to consider the following categorisations:
- Unfinished jobs: The most pressing stuff but also the experiments. Finishing what is halfway done is the least we could do and if we can't do it, I guess it's the deathblow for us. The experimental stuff in the other hand is mostly diverting when really we are in such a crisis.
- Possible jobs: This is stuff that in theory is needed to finish current plans according to concepts laid out. But we might just cut down everything that's too much until we end up with something we can finish.
- Concepts: Many and more concepts are lying around waiting to be picked up. I don't think we still can rely on anything of this getting done and thus should stop talking about anything that will be there "in theory".

I will also go through the team members, list, if present, what you are doing and ask what you want to do. Please don't feel challenged by me mentioning something you left unfinished but planned on finishing. I think it's just best to get everyone up to the same state and talk about such things in an objective manner. I don't want to judge anything.

To start off, I will write down thoughts on my own work.

Clonkonaut
I really only started working on the project a year ago when I began my abroad in Ireland. I had this concept on settlement ready and Newton asked me to take over the management of this part of the project. I don't I always spent as much time coding for OC as I could have done (especially seeing what amounts I did on personal projects). By now, I have stopped working on OC. I do have unfinished stuff though:
There are still parts of my settlement concept which aren't done yet. Especially the whole cloth production line, with cotton and related buildings. I don't want to introduce new content which can't be backed up by any graphics whatsoever as there are still other objects waiting for such. As long as this isn't in the repos, it can easily be struck out from the concept.
Also I have starting working on my scenario draft (Raiders of the Lost Castle) but still this would produce a demand for graphics we can't supply. So I would have to downsize the concept and make something I could do with everything currently available.

I actively tried to encourage any 3D artists I know to start working for OC, tried to recruit Matthias and Saiodin to work on buildings but nothing worked out. I can easily assemble every open and possible modelling job but it needs someone to do the work. I see our major problem in not having anyone left to do 3D work. Without new models there will be no new content. All we can do is refine what we have into a playable state.

ck
I'm picking you next because on the last attempt of making a new release you picked a task that was chosen as 'needed for release'. The results are in the rope branch. Yet there remains work to do and I'm asking you if you see the opportunity to finish it. If not, we can leave out skylands. If yes, there is a concept which not necessarily needs graphics but mostly coding. Still, as categorised under 'concepts' we shouldn't count on it.

Secondly, because this always was your domain, I'm asking about the render code. When performance issues were reported, the answer always was that the render code is not optimised. Is this something you could do? Or could somebody else?

PeterW
You are the only one who recently committed new stuff and not just some fixes. I understand that you are working on the lights / shader experiment and more or less always picked such a project on your own. Because you are still working on it, I guess you plan on finishing. The question I have is if you - just in case - would take over other engine tasks such as render code optimisation or the rope branch.

Guenther
You are also someone who chooses his own projects and eventually publishes it. I don't have anything more to ask from you than I had for Peter. Maybe in addition you would like to say something about stuff you have floating around and want to finish.

JCaesar
As far as I understand you work on the floating point branch. I do see the appeal for this feature as it always was one frequently asked for. But in case we really have to cut our losses and downsize the project, I fail to see the possible benefits. I just don't see the modding community getting as big as it was with CR. Anyway, are you planning on finishing this? By running over various discussions about this in #openclonk-dev I understand that there are major difficulties, is this right?

boni
You put great effort into overhauling the controls and then even redesigned everything again. Do you want to look further into this or call it a day?

Zapper, Maikel
I put you two together because both of you have been very active coders but I know of no project from neither of you. Without artists I don't see great chances for scripters of ever getting much work again. What is left is only playtesting and refining, making everything and making it perfect. You always were very busy doing this, so I just ask you still intend to do so or are too busy elsewhere.

Ringwaul
I do hope that you are still reading this forum. For long you have been not just our lead but only artist. The big question is if you ever intend on working on the project again or if you tired up in which case I think, no one will judge you. It is just this question to make sure that we do not have any active 3D artist left and thus must downsize our expectations.

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I am sorry if anyone feels left out by this listing. Please feel free to state out your own status.

Finally, I don't think it will help getting into too much detail about concepts and other ideas we had along the way. Really, this is about available manpower in the near future.