[h3]
Hello again![/h3]
It's been a while since the last progress update, so I just wanted to update everyone again on what was accomplished in the last month, and how Update 3 is shaping up.
As always if you have any questions, feel free to let me know![h2]
Refactor Progress[/h2]
This month has been extremely productive for the refactor. I'd say it's now around 60-70% complete, with some of the major underlying problems being fixed. The new building system is very powerful, and is easily one of the biggest improvements in the refactor. A lot of the calculations that went into the old building system have been either completely removed or optimized with this new system. It no longer depends on Unity's physics engine, and instead uses it's own custom tile-based system. Paired with the new scriptable objects, setting up new buildings takes little to no time at all.
Another improvement that was made this month was the interface system. Before, the interface had a lot of external script dependencies, which was a huge issue for creating new gamemodes as it required each scene to have numerous scripts active inside of it in order to work. This is obviously stupid, but as I've said before this project is all about learning for me, so the interface has now been remade using (most notably) Unity's event system. Instead of the interface requiring external dependencies (and being an external dependency to other scripts as well), it now uses a new UIEvents script to listen for different events that other scripts can broadcast. This has made working on the game 10x easier for me, and will undoubtedly make modding a lot easier for the community.
In addition to this, there has been numerous reworks to other systems throughout the game (such as resources, materials, enemies, world gen, and so on) that not only make the game more stable as a whole, but also make developing new content for the game extremely easy. If you want to hear more about the smaller improvements, make sure to join our Discord! I frequently share progress updates on there that I don't post on Steam, like the new building menu that I shared yesterday (screenshot below)
Discord: https://discord.gg/auDgRJqtT9
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Multiplayer progress[/h2]
Work on multiplayer has progressed quite a bit this month. As I continue to refactor a majority of the core scripts, I am also extending the ones that need to be setup for networking using the Unity asset, Mirror. There isn't too much to say or show right now since actual testing on Multiplayer has not begun, but when it does I will make sure to update everyone on the progress.
Expect to see some experimental versions of multiplayer on Steam soon.
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Creative / Survival progress[/h2]
For those of you that don't know, the biggest hurdle to overcome in the refactor was completely redoing the survival script, which has now been fully completed as of last week! The survival script had external dependencies all over the place, and although it wasn't to the extent that the interface script went to, it was still very challenging to fix, ESPECIALLY since a majority of the core methods ran through survival at one time or another. With this now being completed though, progress on the refactor has sped up exponentially!
Work on creative has also gotten underway. Although there's still quite a bit to do (especially in regards to saving), the work that needs to be done is relatively easy as compared to survival. I expect to have a prototype of creative ready to go by next week. If you'd like to be one of the first people to test the prototype, consider checking out my Patreon page! Patron's will get 1 week early access to creative once it's finished, so if you're wanting to test it out early, it's a great opportunity to do so and support me at the same time.
Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/vectorio
That's about all I have for now! Progress is coming along nicely, and hopefully by next month we'll be into the testing stages for Update 3.
Thanks for reading!~ Ben
Update 3 | Sneak Peek #02