Hello everyone!
Today I come bearing news that everyone has been waiting for, and has been asking for on a consistent basis.
Since Combat was introduced in Alpha v0.05, all subsequent Major Updates simply added on to an already faulty system. Combat became messy, unreliable, unstable and lacked performance and functionality everyone was hoping for.
Although the fundamentals of Combat are great, it was not at all scalable, and it also raised massive issues when it was eventually time to work on Offline Combat.
With the above information to digest, and looking at the plans moving forward with Melvor Idle, I knew what had to be done.
Combat Rewrite
In order to implement Offline Combat, it was very clear that the entire Combat System needed to be rewritten to achieve such a task. The existing Combat System was just not built to handle Offline calculations, and if I were to attempt to use the existing functionality, then... you could probably guess how that would turn out.
It was time to completely rewrite Combat.
Don't worry about this too much though. The goal of the rewrite is to keep everything the same as it is now (or as close as possible), but it will use completely different methods of handling this behind the scenes. This is not some Runescape "Evolution of Combat" update, it's just rewriting an existing system.
How will the new Combat System work?
Here's a small technical write-up of how the new Combat system will work.
Combat Rewrite Technical Details:
- Rewritten using typescript and object oriented programming, now with 90% less `isGolbinRaid`
- Transitioned to a tick-based system - running a combat tick every 50ms
- Uses a single `setInterval` instead of multiple `setTimeouts` to prevent race condition bugs.
- Timestamps are taken each time the interval runs to avoid browser throttling issues, multiple ticks will be run if the difference in timestamps is large enough
- Rendering is decoupled from the combat logic to allow multiple ticks to run, followed by a render, to prevent inefficiency from redrawing too many times
- Several refactors to underlying game data objects to improve consistency and type safety
Some New Features:
- Buffs and debuffs applied to the player/enemy display icons, with tooltips detailing their effects
- Improved Damage Splashes allow for better visualization of when players/enemies are damaged and healed, and what source the damage is from
- Offline combat, which has full parity with online combat as it uses the same codebase
Offline Combat
Yes, it's finally arriving. Along with the above rewrite, Offline Combat will also be included. It will work the same as if you were fighting Enemies online, and will be capped at 12 hours per offline session like all the other Skills.
There isn't really much to say about this. It's just Combat without needing to be online.
How will Deaths work Offline?
This is something that is still being decided on. And will be tested and changed many times before Public release.
The current discussions around this is that yes, you will be able to die Offline. However, there will be ways for you to either save yourself, or know if this is a possibility of occurring. This is a delicate task to undertake, especially with Hardcore characters. But you will know in advance how this is going to work, and what has changed alongside it to accommodate.
When will this be released?
The above is confirmed to be included in the next Major Update, Alpha v0.21. Release ETA unconfirmed.
This Major Update will arrive a lot faster than you expect, as the Combat Rewrite and Offline Combat is actually almost ready for testing.
How were you able to rewrite Combat so fast?
Two reasons:
- This development has been taking place behind the scenes for the last 2 or so months, during the development of Alpha v0.20.
- I'm not actually the one developing it.
It was clear to me that the time it would take to perform such a task would be drastic, and it would push a lot of the scheduled releases back by months.
Knowing this, I approached a long term member of the community to see if they would be willing to assist with this task, and they happily agreed.
For those who may or may not know them - Coolrox95 is taking care of the Combat Rewrite and Offline Combat. Apart from being an actual rock with cool sunglasses IRL, he is also the developer of the original Combat Simulator (Not the reloaded version), one of the original members who took care of the Wiki and populated it will the original data and building its foundation, and also helped out in many other areas of bug fixes (And helped with reducing file size of Cloud Saves).
It's the first time I've ever approached someone else to take care of an area of development for me, but it was the right thing to do seeing how much the game has grown over the last year and a half.
What else is coming in Alpha v0.21?
Apart from the above, there is definitely more coming to the next Major Update.
There's a Skill rework on the way, and depending on time-frames I may be able to knock off another Major addition. I'm also working on a new Steam Client that I would love to get released soon, and am currently looking at performance improvements and QoL for the game.
I'll keep you all updated with what else is coming to the game once development progresses. I'm definitely looking forward to this update, and I'm sure you all are as well.
Speak soon!
- Malcs