What's left on their roadmap criteria?

As far as I know, there aren't any missing levels, all of the MIDI musical slots are filled in, and all of the copyrighted assets have been completely replaced.

I've heard talks of overhauling the Deathmatch WAD (FreeDM) because at least half of the maps kind of suck, but other than that, it seems like there's nothing left but maybe a few asset improvements.

This looks good for example:

https://github.com/freedoom/freedoom/pull/1113

Yup, it seems freedoom is ready for release. There are a few things that could be improved, but right now it is a matter of "don't let perfect be the enemy of good"

For example, they recently replaced the double barreled shotgun again, despite the one they had being pretty much perfect. I feel the project is running on "new for the sake of new" right now.

Edit: Oh, and also, it looks like they need new demo's recorded for the menu screen.

On 9/20/2023 at 2:57 PM, GrnKnght said:

For example, they recently replaced the double barreled shotgun again, despite the one they had being pretty much perfect. I feel the project is running on "new for the sake of new" right now.

The super shotgun is not a good example though. The previous version was from Eriance's weapon pack, edited slightly, which is a variation on the original Doom's SSG. The current version is based on the far more original design by @Fredrik which was used in previous versions of Freed∞m up until possibly 0.10 or 0.11.

This is certainly not the first time the project revisits some of the older designs, sometimes reimagined by other artists, and there is definitely nothing wrong with that. I'm noticing that certain other current sprites, like the large medikit, also seem to be based on designs that date back to version 0.7-0.9, if not before.

In retrospect I definitely judged the project a bit to harshly. Since my original comment, I have gotten more involved in the discord. People are definitely making good progress over there. There are still several factors that are hampering the development, and there are like half a dozen PR's that need to be merged, but we are making progress.

Honestly I would have understood replacing the SSG a lot more if there was more done to distance the project from doom in other categories, particularly the portrayal of hell/horizon.