Optimisation suggestions
Chezzy
Member
in Suggestions
First I must say I love Castle Story and I've been playing it more and more since the 0.9 update. Thanks for all the work the devs are doing on this game! I backed it during the kickstarter and it's been great watching it grow into something quite enjoyable. Rock on 
I know optimisation isn't the most exciting topic, but I feel like right now optimising Castle Story should really be the highest priority before release. If Castle Story were to release with the kind of slow-down that exists at the moment in Invasion mode, I think it will to impact the reviews quite negatively. Extra content is nice, but above all else I'd like the defeat condition of Invasion to be my crystal being destroyed, not my frames! I'm saying all this because I love this game and I want to see it get the attention it deserves and grow
I think there's a few areas of the game that are hogging a lot of the resources, these are mainly AI and physics. The AI is obviously very intense for the pathfinding, with a lot of tiles to check that can all be changed. With more bricktrons being added as time goes on, and the number of enemies increasing per wave, this can get out of hand. One suggestion I would add is to have a cap on how many corruptrons can exist simultaneously. This would not affect the total number of corruptrons in a wave, it would just mean that when the cap is reached no more will spawn until one dies (The new one can be spawned a bit closer so there isn't a big gap between corruptrons). I believe this is the way that World at War Zombies mode handled its waves, and it allows for much better performance due to less pathfinding calls happening in the same frame.
In terms of the physics load, I think enemy corruptrons shouldn't drop rocks when they die. With lots of enemies this can get to be a lot of stones, and could be causing lag as they are all physics objects. If the mechanic of ground piling up where enemies die needs to be kept, they could just cause the ground to rise where their bodies land, though personally I haven't really found this mechanic to be particularly meaningful in any case.
Anyway, those are my suggestions for optimisation. Let me know your thoughts!
I know optimisation isn't the most exciting topic, but I feel like right now optimising Castle Story should really be the highest priority before release. If Castle Story were to release with the kind of slow-down that exists at the moment in Invasion mode, I think it will to impact the reviews quite negatively. Extra content is nice, but above all else I'd like the defeat condition of Invasion to be my crystal being destroyed, not my frames! I'm saying all this because I love this game and I want to see it get the attention it deserves and grow
I think there's a few areas of the game that are hogging a lot of the resources, these are mainly AI and physics. The AI is obviously very intense for the pathfinding, with a lot of tiles to check that can all be changed. With more bricktrons being added as time goes on, and the number of enemies increasing per wave, this can get out of hand. One suggestion I would add is to have a cap on how many corruptrons can exist simultaneously. This would not affect the total number of corruptrons in a wave, it would just mean that when the cap is reached no more will spawn until one dies (The new one can be spawned a bit closer so there isn't a big gap between corruptrons). I believe this is the way that World at War Zombies mode handled its waves, and it allows for much better performance due to less pathfinding calls happening in the same frame.
In terms of the physics load, I think enemy corruptrons shouldn't drop rocks when they die. With lots of enemies this can get to be a lot of stones, and could be causing lag as they are all physics objects. If the mechanic of ground piling up where enemies die needs to be kept, they could just cause the ground to rise where their bodies land, though personally I haven't really found this mechanic to be particularly meaningful in any case.
Anyway, those are my suggestions for optimisation. Let me know your thoughts!
Comments
But indeed there are problem with big amount of corruptrons. They really causing harsh game lags
However I don't want the amount of units to be reduced. I remember how epic and dynamic was defence in very early build of 2014 (with old shaders and textures, before refactoring) can't remember it's version. It was amazing how huge hordes breaking against the walls and fight and dies, so epic! The point is I cant remember big lags or freezes, well there were lags but mostly because of small rocks that drops after corruptron dies
But I'm not sure does it possible now to make most of corruptrons pathfinding simpler. And most of all does it actualy worth it? I mean who knows how much it could delay release date.
Yet I hope devs will handle with this problem