Yay! I am starting to put the list together for our update to 1.7.10, ScumPack 4.0.
This process includes:
1) Obtaining and reviewing suggestions from active players. This doesn't mean I accept or decline things based on what I like or want. I will look into current bugs, integration, documentation, planned updates, and then test it all with what we have. Another factor is if it creates a redundancy with another mod - for instance, Redstone Arsenal offers RF "chargeable" tools; well, so does Tinker's and Mekanism. At the time of this posting, we are currently between this step and step 2. This can take up to a month or more as I watch videos about the mods and research them. We're almost through this step.
2) First draft list of mods.
I'll put together an initial list of "wants", refining the list and fleshing it out with links, videos if available/necessary, version info, etc. Once I decide to sit down and do this, it will usually take me a couple of weeks to complete this.
3) Testing in SSP. This means I'm going to put the first list all together and see if it even runs and what kind of issues I run into. Fix and repeat. ID conflicts get resolved somewhere in here. As time allows, this will take a week or two.
5) Review/update to second draft. I'll review the list again for redundancies and trim (since new mods often get adding in the last couple steps as people come up with more suggestions). The idea here is to have a pack that isn't totally obese, and still has some of our favorites as well as new things to play with. A fat pack is difficult to run - not everyone has a gaming beast. :P This is more of an overall thing that happens throughout the creation of the pack.
6) Beta pack on test server. Ideally, I'd like to spend a week where we have some good traffic just messing around with things and trying to break it. Then I'll fix whatever goes wrong. At this point, no more new mods will be added to the list. Should take a week to two weeks for us to complete this.
7) CONFIG REVIEW! I'll go through every single config file and make sure the ores are generating properly (so we dont have 20 different coppers in the world, or a million stacks of coal and no iron, etc), interactions are set, version checking is turned off, known problems are fixed (like RC hidden block), server preferences (no XP for elevators, no power for anchors, etc), and so on. This step takes at least a full weekend for me to get through, or up to a week to two weeks, as my schedule allows.
8) Final testing stage. Maybe get it back on the test server to check any issues that were discovered. This should only take a day or so.
So, all in all, from this point, we're looking at the very soonest, one month, and at the latest, two months to get our 1.7 pack finished and launched.
I hope you're all as excited as I am to play with all the new 1.7 features these guys have added to their mods. Don't forget to bookmark the
SP4 Google Docs spreadsheet - this is where you can add your ideas and you'll see the progress on the pack first hand!
