Firstly, performance is very bad when there are more than about 70 characters in the area. Which is almost always. For a start I have temporarily taken out all civilian NPCs from the game, and NPC numbers in general will be kept small.
This however is a temporary measure, my solution to this is to split the game code in half and run most of the code on a background thread, while the main thread will be used for rendering and physics, nothing else. What this means in laymans terms, is the frame rate will be blazing fast even if there are 100's of NPCs around, but its a major job for me and I estimate will take me a month or two. So I'll leave it for later, until then bear with the lousy frame rate.
Secondly is that loading times as you move about the map are ridiculously long, especially when a town is loaded. For now I've fixed it up a little so Its not so bad when you go back to a place you've been before, because some data is kept in memory. Its still bad though, and the main cause of it all is the pathfinding system analysing the map.
So the solution for this I have decided is to switch to a new pathfinder library (called recast). This will not only fix the loading times, but will fix the buggy pathfinding system currently in place (which is another problem). Again this is a big job that will take a month or two, and I really don't want to do it, not when I have so much else to work on at the same time, so my plan is to wait until I can hire another programmer. I need an extra hand anyway, and if I had someone in charge of keeping the movement/pathing system running smoothly I could get things done a lot faster.
So I'm leaving these problems in for now; low framerate, long loading times, buggy pathfinding. Apologies for this, but it would delay the game at least another 4-6 months and if I can release the game sooner, the sooner I can make enough money to pump back into the game and speed up development.
Now I can keep moving on, I'm going to implement game saving/loading, then I'm going to actually start playing the game a little so I can start balancing gameplay a bit.
Ehh still getting it.
im still getting it too.
can you make it so it loads the map while you're in the menu to cut down on load time?
Yeah im buying it still
Quality OVER Quantity... Even if it takes months, I think you should take care of these problems. Low framrates and big loading times? that sounds pretty bad to me. This will be better for your game and your reputation and it doesn't benifit me, I'm just suggesting.
Good luck.
yeah, i agree, even if it does take so long, still getting it through :P
I completely agree with this. Why would someone pay money for something that has these major problems? There are plenty of free games available that run perfectly.
I would suggest that you at least take care of the low frame rates, and the loading times before asking for money.
This is true but I need the money to fund development, and its officially being released as nowhere near finished anyway so there are all kinds of problems with it. Think of it more as a pre-order where you get to play with the current alpha version, rather than a release. If you are not happy with that, then don't buy it yet, wait 6 months or more for things to tidy up. I am trying to give people plenty of warning up front about the state of the game.
I respect that you warned people. A lot. Most developers don't say a word when they release things broken. Then when there is a flood of complaints about it they wait several days to weeks to even comment on the situation.
This full disclosure sort of feel is nice. You are telling folks how things are and giving them a chance to choose. Keep it up!
If you need cash why not set it up for Pre-order then release the version you feel is at a comfortable point in development?
Im just saying that though, I dont have the first clue how to go about it.
"Soonish"
I declare this the word of the day! Perhaps someday it will even be like "Truthiness" and considered a word. :D
Or wtf. Or lol.
Take your time.