current projects

sculpt patch is at the top of tons list for todo
ton has been refactoring shadows, expect some nice speed gains in hair and other areas
jahka has made nice progress for his particle refactor -http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/BlenderDev/Particles_Rewrite#Current_progress
cloth - genscher will be delayed longer than initially expected
image browser - elubie hopes to have a patch soon
clouds and sky - sionix will be making a patch soon

Release Schedule

release targets - sculpt, nodes improvements, + other stuff in patch tracker, + render layers improvements, depsgraph work
other items are desireable just depends on whether they are ready by bcon2 or not (cloth, verse)
Tons major projects are pushed to next release
bcon2 November 1st is the deadline for major projects to be ready for inclusion
bcon3 around November 20th
bcon4 Dec 10th

wait and see currently - revisit once it is actually released