A ton of work has been done this month, preparing for the upcoming pre-alpha test, our second this past year.
A huge refactor
Refactoring involves changing and updating the codebase to support new and growing requirements, or to simply clean up the codebase so that it's easier to work with. This month has included both, and half of the code we've written over the past 18 months has been changed, updated, or thrown out wholesale. The reason for this is that although we could have had Research & Technology done for the pre-alpha test this week, the issue is that had we left the refactor to be done later, it would mean even more work in the future. So, I bit the bullet and got into it.
The changes made make the code easier to work with and test, and our Timewarp engine is still working great - we didn't have to touch this part of the codebase, which is a relief, as that was quite difficult to get right. Our test suite also kept us informed of when we broke things, and we broke a lot - but they were easy to fix due to our own due diligence in "doing things right".
The impact of this refactor is that the test phase is now quite behind schedule, but we're getting very close. So let's look at what was done beside the refactor...
Research & technology
This is the next big set of features to hit the game and be tested (hopefully) in the next few weeks. We're super close now, and I've nearly wrapped up all the backend code requirements. What this means is that the next few weeks will be focused on polishing, testing and bug fixing before we invite a few more keen players to test out the game in its current state.
Infrastructure and research & technology, represents the entirety of the first era of the game for players, a foundation for the rest of the game's development. Fot those who may be unaware, the first era of the game is where players develop their homeworld, research their first few technologies, and prepare to identify and colonise their second world. Everything else after this point is then spaceship production, missions, and celestial body colonisation, meaning: we're now getting to the fun stuff in the next few months :D
Game design exploration
The game currently allows X number of structures per celestial body, and X number of districts, with each being variable and dynamic based on the structure and its associated districts. All structures are currently limited to 1 per celestial body, and 3 districts. However, I've been toying with the idea of allowing certain structures to be built numerous times, such as the resource structures. To me, this starts to make sense particularly as players find celestial bodies with more than 1 of a particular resource node that they may be after, but more on this to come: changing the limit on resource-based structures profoundly impacts resource production and everything that depends on those resources.
Additionaly, I'm playing with the idea of players being able to go into negative resource production, which would impact their colony's efficiency. Why would a player want to do this, you might ask? Well, maybe they can't be around for a few days and having multiple things running at once may be beneficial, or perhaps they know that they might not have enough of the right resources for a while, but it's worth the additional time to execute on those projects... There may be other reasons, as well, but I think the best part of this idea is that it leaves these decisions up to the players, rather than the game holding them back.
To be fair, this does not mean infinite negative resource production, nor would it allow you to build or produce things that you do not have the resources for (ie. such as spacecraft requiring rare resource nodes). What this means is that as a player, you are provided with another decision you can make: do you ensure that you are always in resource surplus, or are there opportunities when demanding more of your colony is beneficial? The choice is yours.
Further UI/UX improvements
Playing within the game and getting used to the new UI shown off a few months ago, it's become clear to me that we can do so much more in providing players with all the information they require to efficiently manage their growing empire. With that in mind, there will be a number of additional information panels that players will be able to experience in the next test phase, and something I'll talk about in my next devlog, which will be just after our 2nd test phase launch.
All in all, progress is moving at a fantastic rate considering my life's interruptions over the past year, and we are getting tantalisingly close to the next test phase of the game. And in all honesty, I can't wait for that to be behind us, because in the 3rd test phase, Halcyon Online will begin to feel like a complete game, or at least demonstrate what the game will be like, as players build fleets, colonise planets and engage in combat with other players.
Until next time, Travellers!
Kirk