Dev blog: 11th of August 2017

I've been spending time bug hunting, doing a short run through the first missions and implementing my fast travel code.
Also some random thoughts and planning.
It's funny how old bugs seem to rear their ugly head again and again. I've been struggling with loot crates in the game. To be specific, the saving and loading part of it. The crates often refused to accept that they had already been looted, but thankfully this was just a simple array bug. 
In Ceres, which has long save and load times, the save game feature was added late in the development. So many things to save and I needed to do it quickly. I decided to write a script that read the classes and an algorithm decided what variables should be saved.
It's a sloppy way to do it, but it did have two thing going for it. It didn't forget to save anything and It could be used to save any class.

Another rotten thing about the Ceres save game feature, was that it needed to load and entire scene again to get a fresh scene to load data on.
Planet Nine's save game feature is quick. It keeps tabs on all items in the game, so no new scenes reloads are needed. Nothing is destroyed. It's allows quicker, more precise reloads.

The game also has a random loot drop which is level based and loot comes in multiple varieties. 
The item level is simple, 8 stages, from feeble to exceptional. From worst to best. 
Current weapon types in the game is : missiles, grenades, machine gun, Sniper, Laser and flamethrower.
I will be adding Gauss, Minigun, lightning gun and other weird stuff. 
I am planning on having unique items and set items for your mech.  Find the legendary Bunny mech, kinda thing.  Combining the set item will give bonuses.
I've been thinking about having crystals or some nano items that will give boost to items. 
A bit more customization for the player. Always fun.

Currently when refitting your mech, you can add up to 3 weapons to it, each weapon is fired with mouse0, mouse1, mouse2 buttons. 
I'm planning on allowing more weapons added to the mech. The asset I bought supports it, and coding it should be no hassle. 
Currently I'm thinking of linking the weapons to each mouse button. Mouse0 would for example fire all lasers or a laser and a machinegun, while mouse2 would fire gauss cannon and machinegun.

I remember playing the Mechwarrior games (1989 to 2001 releases), the mechs there had a similar control. You hotlinked your weapons to list to control what weapons were selected to fire. Fun times. I used to create mechs that got in close with flamethrowers and have lots and lots of machineguns. Get in close, overheat the enemy and then unleash a storm of bullets on him. Worked like a charm for close quarter combat.

The fast travel system was quick to make. 
In the game there are these Control towers which the player can activate. 
When activated the player can fast travel between them. Simple and nice.


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