State of the Game #158: Garage Discussion

Welcome to another State of the Game!

This week, I have been deep into code on player profiles, stats, medals, and ect. The primary problem I have been working through is how to store the player profile in a way that everything is still accessible in offline mode. The easy approach would be to just rely on the online data can if it’s not there say ‘Oh well’ and give up, but I don’t agree with that as a player and thus don’t think it’s an acceptable stance as a player.

So, now that there needs to be an offline version of the profile, there is a whole new set of hurdles. While allowing the profile to be modded is great, I also don’t want the offline data that has been modded to affect the online player experience. Medals mean nothing if people can just mod them to their accounts. So, this means I need a tamper check for the profile. While that sounds scary, that doesn’t mean I have to shut it down, just that I need to do SOMETHING different if the file has changed.

This check will also allow me to trust the file if it’s not tampered, which means offline progress can be uploaded to online progress once you go back online.

Enough about my problems though! Let’s talk about some of the issues the players are having.

The current hot topic is the garage and it’s usability. The garage is a large part of the game, so having it be as ‘fun’ as the core aspect of the game is very important. If you are not aware, the current garage is [I believe] the 5th iteration of the garage to be released. One of the first changes was to switch from a part by part selection for adding part to a drag and drop system. There have been more and more refinements to this, but the basic path has always been focused on either making it easier to add parts to the MAV or find parts in the UI.

On the message board there is a growing thread of many great ideas on how to improve the garage, all focused on making it easier to build MAV’s. While these ALL sound like great ideas, the can’t all be implemented [some are mutually exclusive]. I need everyone’s feedback so I can make the best choices on which direction to take the garage!

While there are a few different threads I am trying to direct everyone to this one: http://mav.bombdogstudios.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2097

Go there and add your ideas, comment on the others, and lets get this figured out!

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