MMORPG Tycoon 2 News

Hi folks! So, it's time for another big tech update!

New in this build:

• [h3]Vastly reduced memory usage during loads/saves[/h3]
  
  Skippable technical details: Previously, saving was a two-step process, where first we converted the current game state into an intermediate format and then saved that intermediate format to disk. Loading worked the same way, in reverse; load into the intermediate format, then convert the intermediate format into a real game state.
  
  So it turned out that the intermediate format could be extremely large for large games; for our largest player-submitted saves I've seen it consume more than ten extra gigabytes of RAM; we have one user-submitted save file which I couldn't even load on my main development PC because I simply don't have enough virtual memory to hold the intermediate format!
  
  This change entirely eliminates the intermediate format, and we instead load and save directly, saving
• all* of that extraneous RAM usage during saves and loads!
  
  
• [h3]Integrated the new game architecture which will support the Dungeons feature[/h3]
  
  The Dungeons feature itself isn't in this build, but all the underlying technology changes which were required for Dungeons is here for early testing. This game architecture change should be invisible to everyone, but it's helpful for us to have more people running on the new architecture, so we can be sure it's really solid and have people testing that the savefile upgrade process from the old architecture to the new one is absolutely seamless!
  
  
• [h3]Multi-line text editing[/h3]
  
  This commit adds new, multi-line text editing, which we'll eventually be rolling out to a bunch of different places in the UI, but the one in this build is in the updated building information window, where there is now a small freeform text box where you can take notes, write flavor text, etc.
  
  This update also improves cursor handling over unicode text, and adds word-select on a double-click. (select-all has been moved to triple-click)
  

...plus miscellaneous small improvements and bug fixes!

Thanks so much for your patience and enthusiasm, everybody! The upcoming Dungeons feature has been kicking my butt for months, but I've finally got the underlying tech in place now (active in this build!) and progress is being made again! Am hoping to have announcements to make about it soon. :D

Best,
-T

Here's a further hotfix for a couple issues reported in the recent performance update.

This fixes a couple of AI issues which could result in two problems:

1. Monsters sometimes clustering around players and getting stuck while not in-view (this typically occurred only when players and monsters had only melee-ranged attacks).
2. When the above didn't happen, monsters could become overpowered and players become underpowered when not being watched, which meant that monsters won most of the off-screen combats. (again, this only happened while not being watched).

Both these issues should now be resolved in this update! Thanks so much for the reports of the issue!

-T

Hi folks! This is a small hotfox update for the recent "Go-Faster Stripes" update with the following fixes:

1. Fixes crash when opening the icon selection window during ability editing.
   
2. Fixes idle monsters often not rendering during the first eight or so seconds after loading a save.
   

Big thanks to everyone for the reports of those issues!

-T

Hi everyone! It's been a little while since our last update as I've mostly been soldiering away on the big upcoming Dungeons feature, but I wanted to roll out the various bug fixes and improvements which have been accumulating over in our public 'test' build, because there have been some pretty good 'quality of life' ones!

[h3]New in this build:[/h3]

• [h3]SPEED![/h3] I've found some huge CPU-side performance boosts to the simulation calculations! Since the last 'default' build, my most demanding save file has dropped from taking 22ms to calculate each frame down to just 5ms. (I'm super proud of these optimisations; they're quite possibly the cleverest thing I've ever coded)
  
• [h3]Video Memory Savings![/h3]Implemented render target sharing within model list GUIs, which reduces quite a lot of video RAM usage.
  
• [h3]Costume Editor Improvements[/h3]Made usability improvements all across the costume model editor, including fixing the long-broken "Stance" and "Preview Animation" options.
  
• [h3]Combat? Combat![/h3]Fixed an old bug which would cause a combat ability to become stuck and never recharge if a player/NPC/monster was killed while in the middle of triggering it. (this fixed itself after a save/load cycle, but now it doesn't happen at all)
  
• [h3]Good Clear Roads[/h3]Fixed the grass suppression zone around paths, which had been offset by about 7m to the northeast of the path.
  

Please enjoy the game's much-improved performance while I get back to toiling away in the dungeons! ;D

-T

Hi everyone!

This is a content drop of new character art, plus various bugfixes and other minor enhancements.

New in this build:

• Twenty new prefab character costumes -- this expands our built-in costume library by over 50%!
  
• Exposed the previously-hidden "model scale" costume editing parameter, which gives you even more control over your edited costumes! Similarly, exposed a "down" slider for the 'torso' piece so that you can correct issues with character legs poking through the ground.
  
• Fixed issues with player migrations. Previously, when players out-leveled their current region they would only consider migrating to immediately adjoining regions; now players will consider migrating through intermediate regions to try to find a correct-level region for themselves. (So if a newly level 3 player needs to travel from their current level 2 region through a level 1 region in order to reach a level 3 region, they'll now do that which they wouldn't have done before)
  
• Fixed a number of single-frame visual glitches when switching between tabs in various UI windows.
  
• Fixed a number of bugs involving vehicles which traveled through inactive regions.
  
• Fixed the "level two tutorial" failing to set the "completed the level two tutorial" flag, and therefore the tutorial being re-shown during every new game. Big apologies for missing this annoyance for so long, everyone!
  
• Several big optimizations around UI elements showing 3D scenes, saving CPU time, GPU time, as well as lowering VRAM usage.
  
• ...oh, and one more thing -- after many requests, you can now (finally!) unlock extra NPC slots as your game grows!
  

Plus of course, fixes for a whole swathe of more minor bugs and glitches.

An update on the dev team: we're now safely ensconced in our new office (which I wrote about a little in the last update). The dungeon update is coming along nicely and I'm *super* excited to show it off (but also it's been *so* much more work than I ever expected going into it! But also it's coming together to be *so* much more exciting than I had expected and I'm really looking forward to being able to show off what we've been doing!)

Once again, thanks so much to everyone for your enthusiasm and support and we'll talk again really soon!

-T