This is a tough question, but allow me to attempt to answer (with citation).
First, a disclaimer. I write based on my understanding. I may be the Chaos Fanatic!, but I'm not Kornel's spokesperson. He will write his own reply if he finds anything I've written to be wrong/misleading.
With that out of the way, shall we begin? =)
The short answer is, 0.9.9.8 is not actively being worked on; but that is a nuanced statement. The Doom IP from which DoomRL is based on is
owned by ZeniMax Media, and we've been lucky so far in that no cease and desist (C&D) have occurred despite us not having any formal agreement/license on its use. Word has it that we have the blessings of the creators of Doom at some point, but their blessings are not recognised as legal permission as far as I can tell. Each new release we put out there exposes us to an ever-increasing likelihood of being slapped with a C&D, even though each new release brings us further and further away from the source material. This is a minefield that can one day tear the DoomRL community asunder when there's no DoomRL to play.
That said, a small handful of us with source access are tweaking the DoomRL sources, mostly to fix bugs and test out some new ideas (
Repo sneak 1, supporters only). There is no concrete plan towards a full 0.9.9.8 release at this point -- despite us being the tweakers, a full release needs Kornel's blessing since it is his project after all. And to be had, due to life happening and all, even such tweaking activity has been on the decline.
Does this mean the end of DoomRL as we know it?
Obviously not. Don't forget about
Jupiter Hell. That's what has been sapping up Kornel's time these days, and that's the other big reason why DoomRL 0.9.9.8 development has been lackadaisical. It is a spiritual successor to the game we all love, it tries to fix some of the odd bugs that we had grown to hate, and most important of all, it eschews any game-killing IP-related issues. Even more importantly, it's the creation of a new foundation engine from which newer Chaosforge games can be written -- that's the reason why it is given so much dev-time and prominence.
Valkyrie was put together for the previous era of rogue-likes of Chaosforge; many things were done right, but a few fundamental pieces were done not-so-right, making the transition from old school rogue-like to something a little more newbie friendly (
graphics, anyone?) a pain in the behind, code-wise. After 6+ years of the venerable engine, there's a need to do a better one, and that's what I think Kornel is doing.
So what should we expect down the road?
I'll give my own predictions. I don't think we'll release a DoomRL 0.9.9.8 version any time soon, if ever. Jupiter Hell is definitely the next big thing Chaosforge will release, though we may see some updates to DiabloRL (courtesy of work by You) and AliensRL (if and when Kornel needs a break and want to beta-test some game idea in Jupiter Hell). A new DoomRL version may see release under two possible conditions: release of Jupiter Hell therefore leading to a release of the definitive version of DoomRL; enough annoyance of those with source access to rebel and release a bug-fixed version of 0.9.9.7 regardless of Kornel's blessings.
I'm not sure if what I'm saying is obvious at this point, but Jupiter Hell is very important for the survival for Chaosforge. It is for that reason that Kornel hasn't showed his face here that much, and it is also for that reason that development on DoomRL and the other rogue-likes under the Chaosforge banner aren't seeing active development from him. It's frustrating, for sure, but sometimes we need to sacrifice a little short term annoyance for long term benefit and fun. Believe me, I have gotten into near shouting matches (albeit over the 'net) with Kornel over this many many times, but even I must admit that the long term view for Chaosforge is more important at this point.
To round my post off, I will stress what I said in the beginning: I write based on my own understanding. I may be the Chaos Fanatic!, but I'm not Kornel's spokesperson. So take my opinions and explanation for what they are worth. =)
