Saves, bugs, and dialogue
Added 2025-10-16 02:11:37 +0000 UTCThis week I had to track down a game breaking save bug. This would essentially corrupt the entire save file and immediately crash to desktop whenever that save file tried to load -unless the player remembered roughly where they were on the world map or which interior level, started a new game on that same save slot, then loaded the old save from nearly the same location as the one where the save was created. So yeah, it corrupted your save file.
It also took me a while to figure out how to recreate it. Saving and loading on a clean level would work every time. Dropping a bunch of items in the area and then loading the game in that same area works totally fine and most of my smaller test levels are only on level and would load. Some interiors would save and load regardless. But then others would load until I tried to load from a different interior. I have a couple pages of notes of "did this - still crashes" trying to narrow things down.
What was happening was when the game loads it checks for what data layer the player was on or which part of the world partition to load. Then it loads that and loads the item manager actor that keeps track of all of the interactive items on that layer. If the layer wasn't loaded when the game was loaded it would try to grab a reference to the interactive items in the area but wouldn't be able to find them in the package and set things to none. Then when the layer was loaded it would have a broken reference and crash with a really generic world partition error. But the wrinkle was it isn't all items. Any item the player would drop or place would save and load just fine. This is the part that took me forever to figure out why some buildings would crash but others wouldn't. Because any building with the save volume and interactive items I hand place in the editor would cause the crash. It turns out those hand placed items get assigned to the local data layer (or the data manager grid) but anything the player places get assigned to the persistent layer.
So yeah. I pulled out the local actor reference and I'm just saving and loading data to any already existing editor placed items and so far it seems to all be working. I did break growable plants but I just need to reroute a few things and have it look them up when loading instead of having a direct reference. Oh and there's a duplicating bug too on some interiors which I think is caused by me missing a check to see what is already spawned in the local scene and deleting it or not spawning a duplicate. But those are both minor bugs compared to a crash to desktop and a corrupt save file.
Lol, ok hopefully that's the last major save bug for a bit.
And then I also had to head out of town to do some family stuff for a few days so I've got my laptop with me and I'm working on dialogue trees and trying to get the scenes for the monastery together. I should be back home in the next few days and back to testing and scripting.
Thanks for bearing with me for this one! I'll get the new build out as soon as it's relatively stable which hopefully won't take too too much longer!
Comments
Hah, I wouldn't be surprised if I end up making a 2 hander like that. I also have been eyeing those curvy bladed zweihanders. But it's going to be a bit before I do new swords. I need to upgrade the weapon system to be cheaper and easier overall and then once that's done I'll set up some base universal animations for each weapon bucket which will dictate like size and proportions that those weapons need to stick to in order to work with the animations. Also the request stuff is kind of a slippery slope on my end. I've had a number of people request specific stuff and then it falls into a sort of gray area where it's almost like taking a commission for work. Then it's a whole thing of figuring out hourly rates / time frames / feedback stuff... all the usual things involved if I had landed an external contract or something. And I usually quote really competitive rates. But so it's also not something I want to get into doing a lot of. But on the other hand feedback, thoughts, ideas area always welcome but there's the understanding that I'm going to take those and run with them in my own way until they get whatever the vibe is that I'm looking for and then sometimes things don't fit in the game until I've tried them and then I realize they need to be cut. Which I can imagine would be a huge bummer if someone requested something and then it got cut after being near completion. But yeah, holy items, magic items, and cursed items will totally be in there. So far most of my designs are for cursed stuff though, just because that ends up being more fun. But I've got to refine how I handle this stuff - the biggest issue is the UI revamp I need to do to the player status screen. And totally I'll be doing engravings and purity seals and all the fun warhammer type stuff. I've got a ton of this person's work saved into my reference folders https://www.artstation.com/itchynick but then I'll do my own personal spin on things too. Also I need to figure out holy weapons + armor better but this ties into lore that only have brainstormed and not written yet. So it'll get there eventually.
slaen
2025-10-24 22:02:25 +0000 UTCOh man, I've gone through so many different design ideas for the capital city at this point. And I'm sure it'll keep changing and evolving right up until the point I start modeling assets! But totally there's a decent chance for baroque or gothic designs to pop up at least someplace in the game. I have a whole vampire chunk of content that it would be perfect for! Really the downside is I need a lot more practice at being economical with environment assets. My background is all in modeling and texturing characters so I always want to have unique UVs and models for every single asset. But for things like gothic architecture there's a lot of little repeating bits everywhere and to get that to look good and perform well on screen is going to take me a bit of time to figure out.
slaen
2025-10-24 21:39:24 +0000 UTCSo, I've got a request. Will you please make the crusaders sword from Darkest Dungeon 2 into your game, please? His sword is almost a direct copy of the Wiliam Walace sword from Braveheart. I just think that it looks fucking cool, is all. William Wallace sword(https://www.darksword-armory.com/medieval-weapon/medieval-swords/william-wallace-scottish-claymore-sword-braveheart-sword-1362/) Darkest Dungeon 2(https://darkestdungeon.wiki.gg/wiki/Crusader_(Darkest_Dungeon_II)/Gallery) Something else I was thinking of, in terms of weapons, was Holy Weapons. I got the idea from Darkest Dungeon 2's Crusader. One of his weapon skins is his sword wrapped in scripture with a golden cross guard (https://darkestdungeon.wiki.gg/wiki/Crusader_(Darkest_Dungeon_II)/Gallery#/media/File:CRU-Banneret-SkillH.png). Maybe the inquisition could use weapons blessed by priests, too? Maybe these blessings don't actually do anything, but the inquisition is doing it anyway, just to be sure? Maybe if the player joins the inquisition, the player could receive inscribed armor and a holy weapon? If not wrapped in scripture, perhaps their weapons could have holy runes inscribed onto them? Another thing that I am proposing is holy armor. That is, armor with religious writings inscribed onto portions as a show of faith and perhaps thinking that it'll provide spiritual fortitude. This idea was inspired by this image of a fanfic of Warhammer 40K image (https://dornianheresy.fandom.com/wiki/Word_Bearers?file=WB_Post-Heresy_Tact_Legionary.png). Incidentally, I have more armor images to share, but many of them are Roman themed. I don't know if those would be valuable, since I don't know if you have decided on any main armor style for the game. You do you, boss! What do you think? Does this have a place in your game?
Oscar Wilde
2025-10-23 19:43:41 +0000 UTCSo, I was thinking about cities and such, and I thought about Elder scrolls: oblivion. In that game, each major city has a unique architectural style, from French to ramshackle. I was thinking that you may perhaps consider implementing the Gothic style or Baroque style of architecture into your game. I imagine that it'd be pretty difficult, and while I'd love to see a city populated purely of Gothic architecture, I propose that you make the seat of power in the city in Gothic style or Baroque style. Here's a link to a Wikipedia article(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroque_architecture) and (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_Revival_architecture) Imagine, even form looking outside at the city, the tallest building casts its shadow. As if blocking out the sun with its sheer arrogance, the center of power in the city imposes its authority upon all. The people choke under it's wretched shadow and feel like they're always being watched. There can be no mistaking it, this building imparts that the occupants alone have the strength to rule. Moreover, imagine that if the demons or goblins take this city, this tower of authority comes crashing down! Perhaps this is the city that the demons need demon giants to crack? That with this tower no more, the destruction of this last bastion of those who're in charge signals final defeat?
Oscar Wilde
2025-10-23 19:11:36 +0000 UTC
