The 0.3 point release is coming together and should be available sometime late in July. Here’s a quick summary of upcoming features.

Modding Support

Lypyl’s mod framework is undoubtedly the star of 0.3. You can read his post about it and check out a few work-in-progress tutorials on the forums. While still early days, I couldn’t be happier with this feature and the potential it brings to Daggerfall Unity.

Mods can be created using Unity Personal (free version) and Daggerfall Tools for Unity.

Completed mods are packaged to a standalone .dfmod file (asset bundle) for distribution.

Integrated mod loader at startup with ability to change load order.

Fully integrated run-time C# compiler.

Total access to inner workings of Daggerfall Unity.

Catch events, display UI windows, spawn world objects, drive game logic.

The mod system is already powerful enough to handle the current round of mods, which will eventually be migrated into .dfmod format. As mod creators grow in experience and the underlying code is expanded to provide more options almost anything will be possible down the road.

Treasure & Loot

Random treasure piles and corpse markers will now be lootable, providing gold and new items to you during testing.

Player will now find gold and items in random treasure piles and on the bodies of slain foes.

Generated items will not have magical powers until the spells & effects features are live.

It will be possible to drop items to the ground, but like Daggerfall dropped items will disappear when you leave the area. Non-volatile player storage will be implemented much later as part of housing.

As shops are not implemented yet, I’m going to ignore weight limits on the player and the wagon so you can carry as much as you want. Proper encumbrance tracking will be added in the future after shops come online.

New UI Windows

A few UI windows are in the works for 0.3, although not all of them will be ready for initial release. They will come online over the 0.3 cycle.

Control mapping UI.

Rest UI.

Save/Load UI.

As part of updating save/load UI, the way games are saved will be expanded during 0.3 to accommodate the growing amount of data needed to support saving game state.

Standalone Builds

From 0.3, I’m going to provide a standalone build of Daggerfall Unity with game files bundled. This will be in addition to the smaller builds where you must provide your own game files. This change is to help users who just wish to quickly try out Daggerfall Unity or have trouble installing a compatible version for any reason.

Standalone builds will be substantially larger and updated less often than the trimmed-down test builds.

Test builds will be smaller and require you to provide your own set of compatible game files. This is still the best download for dedicated testers.

Bug Fixes & Small Improvements

Last but by no means least will be the usual round of small fixes and improvements to features already added. There’s also a bit going on behind the scenes to support future systems like spells & effects, NPCs, factions, shops, and questing. These additions will be slowly rolled out as more features come online post 0.3.

For more frequent micro updates and news, follow me on Twitter @gav_clayton.