Update beginning of November [v0.1.9]

Hello together,

It’s finally time. The update 0.1.9 is here, after a long wait. We needed a long time for the bigger feature of this update. There were some setbacks because we couldn’t do some things because of our architecture. So we had to change some things and start again. But in the end we managed it.


In detail it is about the feature of levelling larger terrain areas. This makes it much easier to create a surface without many clicks. The preview option to display and calculate the possible costs was the difficult part. Unfortunately we ran into a few dead ends due to our architecture.
We go through a recursive method in which we look which heights do not yet have the desired height. Thus the map is adapted to the new height. If you want to do this several times for a larger area, you have to be careful that the recursion does not cause large FPS breaks. Also you have to pay special attention to the demolition conditions. In the end we have integrated a second map which is preferably displayed when a surface is levelled. Also the recursion is limited to certain areas only. Each part is only responsible for one direction. This does not result in overlaps.
With this we have implemented a feature which is still important for the editor.

A few more features are also available in this update.

We have integrated an de/encryption for the savegames with an additional verification number. So you can exclude in the multiplayer that someone has spent more money after loading and is shown wrong in the statistics. That doesn’t bring any big changes now. But in the future we can still expand this.

The SoundFX build effects have also been improved. Next we want to adjust them so that they are only heard when they are really visible on the screen. This has unfortunately turned out to be more difficult than expected. Because our engine doesn’t have something like this by default and therefore we have to develop an algorithm first that confirms with little effort whether the object is displayed or not.

Finally we have changed the main menu of the design a bit. That wasn’t much effort. The goal was to create a more lively main menu.
And of course we have some bugs fixed!

For the next weeks until the XMAS holidays we want to concentrate on stability and atmosphere.
Have fun with the new update!
https://trello.com/b/FbC1a19w/devboard-summer-islands

Update log:
-CLIENT/SERVER: Terraforming Field integrated
-CLIENT: Planes Layer BUG FIX
-CLIENT: Javascript efficiency improved
-SERVER/CLIENT: SoundFX Buildings improved
-SERVER: Savegames De/Encoding
-CLIENT: Mainmenu improved

In: