Been a while. Doing a lot of backend cleaning. I'm not the world's most experienced coder, and I've been finding a lot of places where my old code just... isn't good. I've been doing some cleaning up, and while I'm unsure if it actually has any performance impact, it at least makes the project easier to read (and thus new features/changes may come slightly faster). I am slightly worried about my game's performance, as there are one or two major issues that could impact extreme scenarios, but on most gaming setups and player scenarios I'm not sure it'd even be visible. And as much as I hate unoptimized code, there is much more merit in a product to show--even if a little laggy at times--than nothing at all. Unfortunately, this is all really boring stuff no one wants to hear about, because it doesn't actually have any visual impact on the game. However, I have been working on something that very much does have visual impact on the game. Say hello to the starting lineup. From left to right: corn, tomato, wheat, eggplant, rice, onion, potato, carrot, chili pepper, and soybeans.
All that is left now is balancing, as well as a lick of design in the Mutations department. But after that, it's a functioning base that I am happy enough to show. The actual art of the plants needs real work, however, and is a little more daunting than the picked crop sprites you see above. It may take some time. This is the final stretch, though, and beyond that it is straight content (and optimization), which I already have quite a few ideas for. A sturdy base just takes the longest to build. This won't be the world's most exciting update, but there's a bit to cover. I've been touching up some neglected UI/UX. First, there's a lot of bugfixing. Changing most anything creates a lot of bugs, and I've been doing a lot of modifying. But beyond that, there's a list of things that have changed:
Otherwise, I've finally landed on a potential implementation for Genetics Points, which I was previously unhappy with. My placeholder implementation is super boring, so here's the new one: In addition to units, there will be a second rarer currency. You get these from Milestones like normal, but since it's a currency you can now get them from other places as well, expanding your options. Since it's a currency you also may use it on other things (it was originally just for Genetics), giving it more purpose. More acquisition options, more uses--more depth. Balancing Genetics also had me stumped for a while--I want players to be able to freely upgrade what traits they want on what crops they want, but I don't want them to be able to put all their points in one crop and never use anything else again. I considered a preset upgrade tree, but that severely limits freedom. This might seem like an obvious fix, but spending currency on a trait upgrade should simply increase the cost of the next upgrade. This means diminishing returns is my best friend, and while players still have total freedom, there's a rough point I can control where upgrading further just isn't worth it after so many upgrades. A soft-cap. I'll implement that and expand/iterate upon it as I get feedback, which leaves only Mutations left. I mentioned a while ago there were some systems I was unhappy with--Genetics was one, Mutations was another. I like my initial concept, but it seems a little flat and needs another layer. But after that it's nil for the major reworks and polish/cleanup is the only thing left. And the two-minute crop sprites are getting evicted soon.
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