Devblog 36

We've optimized the client a bit this week. There's still work to be done but we have increased the framerate. The average framerate for the last 2 days (since we released the update) has been 42 fps. This is 12fps more than the average of a few weeks ago - that's like a 25% improvement. I hope everyone out there is feeling the benefit of that. There's still things we can do here though, like making the F3 menu more obvious and more useful. So we're going to look at those this week.

I feel like we've been guilty of working for these devblogs instead of working for the game. This is why working on things like optimization fell by the wayside. Sometimes game development isn't sexy. So I think we have to reconsider what the aim of these blogs are. Whether they contribute anything to the game itself. Whether we should even be posting concept art, ideas and model renders, or whether we should only post things when they're in the game. I guess the bottom line is that the development cycle should be about feeding the game, not feeding the devblog audience. Back to business.

Helk is back in the ass kicking business.. and let me tell you something. Business is good. He's been fixing all the gameplay stuff!

• Adjusted melee ranges
• Made campfires hurt less
• Added audio to furnace
• Destroying a crate makes it spew its contents
• Fixed melee not always registering
• Melee traces now properly use spherecasts
• Fixed lantern material
• Fixed terrain footsteps when inside
• Made footsteps louder
• You now receive more than one bullet per craft
• Spear attack nerfed
• Stone spear cost increased
• Bandages cost 3 cloth
• Right click to smash skulls into bone fragments
• Added large storage box (24 slots)
• Small storage box size went from 12 to 8
• Code locks save/restore their whitelist properly
• Codelock automatically locks after first code entered
• Locks automatically lock after key created

We've also started looking at the server optimization. It's important to us that the servers are able to remain online, and wipe free - for at least 6 months. I appreciate more than anyone that this is an ambitious target.. but we're making steps towards it. There was a huge problem with server stability last week - that's been solved, but at the expense that the building stability system is a bit less predictable than it was. So I'll be looking at a fix for that this week. There's a timeout bug right now too. This seems to happen when the server has been up a long time and it has more than 70 players online. At regular intervals all the players will drop from the server. This is a big problem, so I've been analyzing it a lot. I have go what I think will fix this issue already but it's tied into the weapon refactor, so it'll come when that's done. I'm hoping to have it testing on Dev some time next week.