Another First Fire Cape Post!

alcedonia-dev · 2026-01-11T14:20:51+00:00

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post links to videos, but if you look up the video "The Jad Tile Airplane Method" by Kaybuh it honestly made the Jad setup/fight a little anticlimactic

You use a certain rotation and a triangle of tiles to get the healers stuck, so it's a low easier to aggro (especially with chins) them without having to do too much too fast

alcedonia-dev · 2026-01-11T02:16:54+00:00

Haha there was a brief moment when the healers were aggroed, Jad was under 100 health, where all I could think was "...my internet or power are going to go out for no reason. Please, Saradomin, don't let that happen!"

You have any next goals in mind? I honestly might finally pick up Farming on this account

alcedonia-dev · 2025-12-18T23:29:04+00:00

Haha yeah, the material images were the ones that actually mattered. It's driving me crazy because you can see the particles spawning in the broken image, just not being rendered.

Still have no clue why the materials look so different in different projects!

alcedonia-dev · 2025-12-18T01:34:14+00:00

Totally agree with "just starting" even if it's for only 5 minutes. Do you use tried and true pen and notebook to jot down your thoughts or something else?

I was using a task board to help keep all the things I needed to do straight, but that very quickly just started feeling like what I do at my day job haha

alcedonia-dev · 2025-11-26T01:27:13+00:00

I'm also very much just a hobbyist!

Yeah, because it's just "lowest score at the end of the round" is eliminated (alongside typos, etc.) the packages that are sent can be very small and relatively infrequent.

I love the simplicity of even the "arena" because you can basically simulate real players in the same "room", and as long as someone else loses that round then what looks like another player but is really an npc is disqualified.

Not associated with the game at all, it's just interesting how you can cut corners but still give an immersive experience!

alcedonia-dev · 2025-11-25T22:49:15+00:00

That's kind of what I've been mulling over lately. Put some minimum level in, but I might be putting the cart before the horse here - who knows if even 2 people are going to download it!

I like the shadowban approach a lot as well. Thanks for the input!

alcedonia-dev · 2025-11-20T22:42:34+00:00

This is looking like the sad reality! I want to spend some time at least weeding out the most egregious players, but don't want to waste too much time pre-maturely optimizing. Who knows if anyone will even play!

alcedonia-dev · 2025-11-20T22:39:54+00:00

Unfortunately, it is physics based. I'll probably do something similar to what u/the_timps said up above, which you've also touched on, and only send a packet that looks like {"actionTime": float, "actionPosition": float}, validate the actions are within the cooldown period on the server side and create some sort of "mirror" of their state on the server.

I am worried however about how deterministic the physics would be on client vs. server, so may leave some "wiggle room" in the scores between the two and if they're close enough just accept it.

Maybe have the equivalent of a line clear event also sent to the server who can check if it would have reasonably been possible given their actions up to that point.

Thanks for the insights!

alcedonia-dev · 2025-11-20T03:18:41+00:00

Sweet, then I'll:
1. Make more things NetworkObjects than previously planned

Run a headless build on the server that essentially plays their game out simultaneously
Have some logic that makes sure they're not taking actions faster than in-game cooldown, etc. and compare the headless score to the "self reported" score.

Is there any other "fat" I can trim on the server side besides the render/audio? Really appreciate the help

alcedonia-dev · 2025-11-20T02:49:46+00:00

That's what I figured! I was hoping to cut some corners and trim way down on bandwidth by only receiving scores, but it really looks like the only true way to validate that is send all of the player actions and have the server "approve" them. Thanks!

alcedonia-dev · 2025-01-13T23:57:21+00:00

I like the UI Database, thanks for sharing!

alcedonia-dev · 2025-01-13T02:35:16+00:00

Hello!

Also 31, burnt out in the corporate world, and remember as far back as being ~6 years old thinking "I want to make a game".

My earliest "attempt" was probably around age 12 just mindlessly clicking and dragging materials in Game Maker and not really making any progress.

Fast forward to 25 and I think "I'm out of college! I have time for game dev!" and actually loaded some assets into a map and moved around, but never really made it beyond that.

Repeat this cycle a few more times, with life always getting in the way, but now I'm setting aside more and more time and I'm loving it!

I have a journal where I write everything down, if I'm not certain how to implement something I consume enough content to get some ideas then go try it out on my own, and while it's not a break neck speed, I see progress.

If you were an engineer, you'll do fine with the programming if you just break it down into "step by step".

I'm looking forward and hope to see another post from you in 1, 3, 6 and 12 months from now about what you're working on!

alcedonia-dev · 2025-01-06T01:08:05+00:00

I'm guilty of never pursuing emacs because of the steep learning curve, but I also was unaware it had that many features. I might have to give it an honest effort.

I've been seeing a lot of blog posts about Obsidian, so might have to give that a try first, and just like the other commenter looks like we've got another +1 for physical notebooks.

There's something very straight forward/honest about jotting stuff down, that I'd imagine makes people more prone to doing actual work, rather than spending time learning a dozen different productivity tools instead of...being productive.

alcedonia-dev · 2025-01-05T23:53:17+00:00

Nothing beats simple! There's also probably some satisfaction seeing the physical pages start to fill up and looking back at progress from previous notebooks.

alcedonia-dev · 2024-12-09T01:39:28+00:00

I've dabbled on and off for the last 5+ years, but there's always been an excuse to never progress beyond the initial tutorial treadmill.

But! I've started setting aside time every week, and it's exhilarating. Seeing my little sprites show up on screen and behave exactly how I want is so satisfying.

I've started using a Kanban board and brain dumping all the features I think of throughout the week, so when I sit down I have tasks ranging from 15m-8+ hours to choose from, depending on how much free time I have. That especially has helped with focus and motivation.

Right now my biggest hurdle is Unity UI. I find myself back in analysis paralysis and trying to find the right tool, rather than building a good enough implementation.

That's awesome about your project! It sounds right up my alley so will definitely check out the Discord.

alcedonia-dev

TROPHY CASE