Hey everyone!
With Easter holidays and lots of backend work, there unfortunately isn’t much to show this week - but we have been working on some considerations for the new mapping system which I will go into.
The new map system is going to require us to implement a system similar to what you will know from many RTS games as the difference between an unrevealed/revealed map, as well as fog of war. However, since you will be missing the ability to look at your units in real time in our game, we will need to adjust this system to operate more on a scale: Information about enemy soldiers will come in with an initial delay, after which they become increasingly outdated unless another scout brings in more information.
Ultimately, we have decided to create a tile based system for this: We will divide the map into grids (on the backend, you won’t be able to see this in game), which means we can keep track of when your scouts were last able to see a given part of this grid. Let’s say, for example, that your scout last had eyes on grid “B” about 5 minutes ago, and that he was able to see 1 pirate in this grid. Since 5 minutes in the game are not a lot of time, the pirate’s icon on the map will probably be shown in a strong colour. Once another 10 minutes pass, the information will be more outdated, and the icon will fade. Once another scout gets eyes on the same grid “B”, the map will either show the icon in a strong colour again, or update to show that the pirate is no longer there.
Likewise, the map will update if the scout ends up finding the same pirate in grid “C” a little later - for this, we decided that pirates and enemy soldiers should be recognised uniquely, i.e. you won’t have 5 icons on your map which represent the same pirate who was seen in 5 different places. Instead, your scouts will automatically know that the pirate was the same they had seen before, and the icon will move accordingly.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on the map concepts and will explain a little more next time!
Until next week!