Getting things orca-nized

Due to my computer being in the shop for repair, my productivity definitely took a hit this week.  Testing the game and making sure my code worked was a huge bottleneck, and Unity would often freeze altogether.  The temporary computer I am using is not very good, but having these experiences is always a good reminder to try keep the game as nimble and optimized as possible.  Unfortunately, this issue will probably persist for another week or so until my computer gets back.

A big issue with the work done last week was that even though lots of functionality was added, a lot of bugs were introduced due to the work being done on Thursday night and not getting tested until the Friday playtest.  Luckily there was a lot less pressure for "new features" this week, so there weren't nearly as many bugs (although we still have plenty).

Dylan added Google Analytics which lets us store playtester's data and let's me remotely view the logs of crashes.  This has been great for issues that might only appear during networked games that I can't replicate myself.  There were loooooots of bugfixes this week.

The big features this week are the detection of invalid path segments and the ability to modify invalid paths.  This way if you draw a segment that isn't valid, it simply greys that path out and let's you modify it until it is valid.  This system also lets us easily tack in a "confirm" step to the line drawing system if need be.

Accomplishments

• Bugfixes invalid updating paths for "unactivated towers" and interfering with the paths of a tower you don't own (2 hours)
• Bugfixes for an issue that would occasionally transmit path information to the incorrect tower (1 hour)
• Basic invalid path detection and marking (3 hours)
• Added the "proposed path", which an invalid path being drawn will be copied over to when the player releases the mouse (2 hours)
• Ability to make detours on proposed paths, and proposed paths automatically becoming the new official path once there are no more invalid segments. (2 hours)
• Bug fixes and optimizations (3 hours)

Next Steps

• The next important things of units navigating paths well and rerouting paths around towers are being blocked by a big gameplay discussion, so they're on hold.
• Lots of polish, optimizations, and bug fixes.  Since programming has a bit more time to breathe then art, taking a week to just fix and improve things instead of adding new features will hopefully make the overall product feel more professional.  Plus, the slow laptop means I don't exactly want to be adding new big features I won't be able to easily test.

Ryan Daugherty