There comes a few times in a game's development cycle where you pause from adding any major code-changing features and focus on the existing code, and adding content to the game. This update is one of those times!
For you guys, this will mean a bunch of extra general content, like more buildings, maps, terrain, monsters, and loads of optimizing and bug fixes. I'm also going to experiment with a new map size, as explained below in the notes.
InDev 13 Road Map
Content
- One of the major goals of this update is to flesh out some of the existing systems already in the game. I'll be adding more monsters, buildings, better AI, maps, new terrains, foods and possibly even new resources!
Optimize
- I'll be spending a lot of time this update cleaning and speeding up the code. Mainly I'll be looking for ways to lower the memory footprint and decrease load times.
New Map Format
- This ones kind of a big deal, and will require a lot of play testing and input from you guys. I am going to experiment with removing the 512x512 maps and replacing them with a smaller map size. It's been something I've been tossing around for about a month now, and considering if it's worth it. I am now leaning to it being better for the game overall if we lower the map size from 512x512 to 256x256.
The problem is this will completely break all the existing maps and saved games. I will write a map converter to cut up or crop old maps into smaller pieces so you can salvage your maps. Nearly all medium sized or smaller map can be salvaged in their entirety, large maps will have to be cut into 4 equal parts. The reality is we all only play on a very small fraction of the map, even a fully realized game you might only utilize about 5% of the map space, the rest is really only used by the monsters. So after a lot of careful consideration I'm going to experiment with 256x256 maps, where you would still only actually use about 15-20% of the map. These new maps will drastically lower the game's memory footprint and increase the frame rate at (hopefully) no actual cost to the overall game experience. If the experiment is successful, that means RPC will get 4 times as many maps planned, but they'll be 1/4th the original size.
While it may seem scary for all of us to "downgrade" to 256x256, the side effects may result in a much better game experience overall. RPC wastes a massive amount of resources keeping the entire map loaded. If we chop down the map size it'll open the door for much more complicated mechanics down the road. Many of the game's systems have to work with the map as a whole, and a smaller map means those systems can work much, much faster and their resources can be utilized elsewhere.
Understand that this new map size is not set in stone, this is an experiment. If it all goes south and we're unhappy with the results, we'll return to the old 512x512 maps. :)