Development blog

2014 August 30th

Fixed bug where weapon vs NPC collision was incorrect when the NPC was dead. Added new food: Fried mushrooms.

Started converting the announce server over to RakNet.

2014 August 29th

Made some high level ores much rarer, especially at the surface. More work tweaking and testing the net code. RakNet is proving very nice to work with.

2014 August 28th

Learned more about RakNet and redid the client network stats menu. Fixed some bugs that resulted from the conversion over to RakNet.

2014 August 27th

Client/Server now working over raknet. Fine tuning the usage and making sure I converted everything correctly.

2014 August 26th

Looked into converting the networking library to RakNet, as it is now free for use on PC and open source under a modified BSD license.

2014 August 25th

Took screenshots for release news and released a new version of Brutal Nature!

Released: 0.46

August 25th, 0.46 is now released:

• Fixed all known bugs
• Added new Spider NPC.
• Added new pickaxes: Chrome-moly steel and Tool Steel. Changed pickaxe, knife and sword recipes to use metal bars.
• Added history buffer for player packets so weapons fire could use the position of objects as it was when the weapon was fired with lag taken into account.
• Added interpolation between user updates.
• Added interpolation between NPC updates.
• Added lag compensation to NPC packets.
• Added option in cfg file for mouse cursor to restore to last known position or centered when you enter GUI mode.
• Added underground NPC spawning.
• Changed NPC's to follow the terrain better and will not climb up or walk through walls of 8 height or taller. They will also avoid very deep pits.
• Changed tool recipes start at 1.0 produced per recipe for copper instead of 0.5.
• Increased size of NPCs slightly.
• Improved NPC update code, merging multiple NPC updates in a single frame into one packet and updating NPC's based on the distance to user.
• Improved some material descriptions.
• Reduced amount of tools consumed when making other tools by about 60%
• Reduced silica glass requirement of graphite electrodes from 5 to 2.
• Fixed category setting of several items.
• Fixed bug where pressing F to open an interact menu with another menu open would cause the already open menu not to be unloaded correctly.
• Fixed bug where logging on after the server had been running for exactly 10 seconds might cause the user to not be able to see NPCs.
• Fixed Glove Liners to be under layer. Tracked down an exceptionally hard to reproduce bug.
• Fixed bug where calcium hydroxide recipe was at wrong chemistry table level preventing glass from being made.
• Fixed bug where material preview would show up in main help menu.
• Fixed bug where screen capture software was not recording the mouse cursor.

2014 August 24th

More work on the netcode, mainly testing and bug fixing.

2014 August 23rd

More work on the netcode. Added history buffer for player packets so weapons fire could use the position of objects as it was when the weapon was fired with lag taken into account.

2014 August 22nd

More work on the netcode. Added interpolation between user updates.

2014 August 21st

Still working on NPC lag compensation. Added interpolation between NPC updates and started work on adding NPC history for lag compensation.

2014 August 20th

More work on NPC lag compensation.

2014 August 19th

Added some lag compensation to NPC packets.

2014 August 18th

Added new Spider NPC. NPC's now spawn underground in the tunnels. Added interpolation when receiving a NPC update.

NPC's now follow the terrain better and will not climb up or walk through walls of 8 height or taller. They will also avoid very deep pits.

Did more research into netcode and lag compensation.

2014 August 17th

Optimised NPC update code, merging multiple NPC updates in a single frame into one packet and updating NPC's based on the distance to user.

Tested compression on NPC packets but found it to have little if any effect, so it was removed. Increased size of NPCs

2014 August 16th

More work on the NPC system. Fixed category setting of several items.

2014 August 15th

Made tool recipes start at 1.0 produced per recipe for copper instead of 0.5.

More work on the NPC system.

2014 August 14th

More work on the new NPC system.

2014 August 13th

Started work on adding NPCs to the underground tunnels.

2014 August 12th

Added option in cfg file for mouse cursor to restore to last known position or centered when you enter GUI mode.