Some examples of the design philosophy:
- bugfixes are OK as long as they don't break existing mechanics (e.g. pathfinding is buggy, but keep it nevertheless)
- new UMS content is OK (e.g. new heroes and special buildings)
- melee additions are OK if they existed in pro games at some point (e.g. Zerg-only geyser, destructible barriers)
- do not change existing balance/metagame (i.e. do not add units to existing races; but a new race is OK)
- new tilesets/doodads are OK
In terms of goals I'm thinking something along the lines of:
2D/3D Art:
- new tilesets
- more animation frames for existing buildings/doodads
- new neutral structures:
- destructible barricades (in non-UMS maps)
- zerg-only geyser (used in ASL to make pro-level island maps viable)
- high-yield resource nodes
- garrisonable neutral buildings (for UMS)
- destructible barricades (in non-UMS maps)
Content/Modding:
- incorporate more unit sprite directions (available in the beta GRPs; as long it doesn't change land unit micro, though)
- melee maps on the new tilesets
- new campaigns that showcase the added features
- wrap existing campaigns as single-file custom campaigns
- bugfixes to the existing official campaigns
- bugfixes to existing tilesets
- restoration of removed campaign missions
- integrate all official campaigns into the game
- new game type presets (e.g. Phantom, Fastest Map, Micro Map, Bunker Command, ...)
Public Relations
- social networks, moddb, ... ?
Testing
- not the cool kind where you get to see new content before everyone else
- the tedious kind where you click the same UI elements hundreds of times and/or get in-game crashes
Programming:
(I mostly have the progamming side covered. But if anyone wants to help -- the code is on github and is open to contributions even now (albeit it's still a mess).
- add a new expansion level
- add it to the expansion selection popup
- separate multiplayer games from vanilla/BroodWar
- new scenario extension
- add it to the expansion selection popup
- extended UMS capabilities
- an embedded Lua interpreter in trigger actions
- load iscript.bin/units.dat/weapons.dat/sfxdata.dat/etc from the scenario
- API for unit/weapon/image manipulation (including iscript writing during the game)
- API for music playlists
- API for unit command cards
- other APIs (?)
- an embedded Lua interpreter in trigger actions
- single-file custom campaigns
- behave as single-player-only mods
- customizable campaign screen with music
- establishing shots before briefings
- cinematics (with added support for modern video formats)
- persistent storage between missions (accessible via a Lua API within mission trigger actions)
- behave as single-player-only mods
- improved replay functionality
- random seek
- fix replay issues (broken replays with game chat during a paused game; broken replays at high replay speeds)
- continue a replay as a game (so that games can be finished after unforeseen problems)
- dump replays upon game crashes
- UMS replays
- random seek
- load additional scenario versions
- remastered
- SC/BW beta
- remastered
- More [long] term ideas: https://github.com/joankaradimov/Magnetar/blob/master/IDEAS
Anyone interested? You can find me on github and in SEN's Discord (as x405).