Saturday, October 31, 2009

New naming scheme for SSM updates

The Ground Crew team decided to change the naming scheme for the monthly updates that it has been releasing ever since Space Shuttle Mission simulator has been launched.

The generic name "Service Pack" has not been true to the content of the updates which practically added real game play value, cool new features and new content to the simulator. While the naming "add-on" crossed our mind, it has been found to be too generic to be descriptive enough. Therefore we went for a different but much more clear scheme:

  • The updates containing new features, will be referred to as "Features Pack" (FP).
  • The updates containing a new mission will be referred to as "Mission Pack" (MP).
  • Mixed updates (which include a new mission and new features) will be named "Mission Pack" since it is very likely that the new mission addition is the more significant part of the update.
  • Version numbers will be kept as before: Mission Pack 4.10 may be followed by Features Pack 4.20 and so on, with the short version of the naming scheme being MP4.10 and FP4.20 respectively. This will maintain version consistency across the different packs.
Both the Features and Mission packs may or may not also include changes to existing features and missions, and of course miscellaneous fixes.