Devlog 24.42

My last post was about 3 weeks ago. 

Truth be told, I began writing this devlog nearly 3 weeks ago because I had a very productive weekend, then I neglected to post it first thing Monday morning, then Tuesday... and so it went. Then I forgot again to post it at the beginning of last week.

Code Maintenance: Mercifully little code maintenance these last few weeks. Mostly just dusted off some UI components that have been on the shelf for the better part of a... year?

Also, I found a serious issue in how I connected the gamepad for input processing. Uh, I fixed it so it shouldn't be an issue in the alpha release. I also streamlined the loading process so I can add additional parts as needed.

I added empire generation back in as the latest loading stage so I can get crew generation rolling. There's basically no hit to performance. Woo~

Feature updates: I added the bones of timekeeping and started work on crew generation. Added back in some simple audio features and remembered that I have very little in the way of audio... anything. I spent hours searching up and listening to free music and sound effects, not to mention tracking down some new UI skins that I'll begin integrating soon.

Interface updates: I added a splash screen, main menu, and a crew generation screen. There are no transitions between screens at the moment but I can add those in later. Crew generation takes you through the initial steps of character creation: selecting a homeworld, heritage, career, and assigning a couple aptitudes for each of the initial characters.

At least one homeworld, heritage, and career will be available in the alpha, however I may limit the alpha build to one choice of each and add the other options through updates.

Once the bones of a crew are in place, the player will be guided through CYOA-style screens to determine their service history, access to skills, and the initial bonds between characters. Finally when the player has completed their crew they'll have the option to save them to the gallery or embark on their maiden voyage. 

I want the experience of moving through character creation & service history, and finally setting off on the first venture to feel like completing a prologue & tutorial in one. The player should have a rough idea of how the early game works by the time they launch.

Crew Generation: Now I'm sure you may have been thinking I forgot about character creation and such, given that I mentioned it almost 4 months ago? But you would be wrong! In fact, many of the changes and updates I have been doing in the meantime (mostly around UI and such) not to mention refactoring & decoupling of screens from data classes, has been specifically to facilitate adding the above crew generation.

I mentioned a roadblock in my '24.26' update that was causing issues when changing between sector & planetary screens, so much of the overhaul of the data & display code has been to isolate, diagnose, & address display & rendering issues such as these.

Next Steps: Once the first stages of crew generation are finished, I need to setup the service history process. I think the easiest way to describe it is like one process in three phases: step one is an outline of each character, step two is their background, and step three brings them up to speed in the present. Sorta like the introduction in Mass Effect, but more interactive with the player having more authorial control.

Something else I've been thinking about for a while now is separating individual data 'parts' into actual components for an entity-component system. I've implemented one in the past before I had a clear sense of where I would be using the components and I created a bunch of redundant parts. I ultimately set aside ECS for a future when I had a use case--which I think is coming into a clearer view now.

I want to be able to load as much (and no more) of the game's data as possible as 'lazily' as possible. Once I implement and re-enable persistence, I won't necessarily have to generate all the data used to display a sector, and lots of the data will be of secondary or tertiary importance i.e. why load up 600+ star systems when you need fewer than a dozen per play session?

And yet, the procedural generation system handles it so quickly that it hasn't been an issue. It will become an issue however, once the sector has hundreds or thousands of years of history. (Asimov, eat your heart out.)