This month brings on some new changes to tackle excessive pickle farming, improved client and server performance, as well as a couple new features. Let's get into the bad news first.
Pickle Farming
Whether you love it or hate it, a lot of players depend on this method of farming to supplement scrap farming. Because of how easy it is to set up and maintain, this has also attracted players who farm well beyond their means that not only cause client performance issues for other players, but it absolutely cripples the player economy.
We've been experimenting with nerfs over the past few months with no success. This month we're trying a different approach, and undoing our stack size buff that enabled pickles to stack up to 500. Their max stack size is now back to 100, in line with other food items. We will monitor the effects of this change and adjust as needed.
Previously, we discussed setting this back to default, which would be 10. I've done some thinking and I decided to simply revert it back to how we had it pre-vending machine nerf. Though we'll also be nerfing the process rate by half, so production will take twice as long. This change will take effect post-wipe, and is not currently implemented.
Server Performance
This month we've been hard at work rewriting the entire backend using greatly improved methods to reduce call latency and move all of our custom GUI work to a single dedicated GUI handler. This will not only improve server performance but will greatly improve client performance.
This basically means GUI creation will be handled and cleaned up locally instead of having each instance inside of its own plugin. This will also help with garbage collection, a cause for recent server crashes.
Notification System
On our modded servers, you'll notice our hud has yet again been updated. The old wipe progress bar has been replaced with a brand-new notification tray. The old request pop-ups for trades and teleport requests will now show in the notification tray, as well as various other server messages such as NPC bases, server events, and the occasional PSA and server announcements.
You can open the tray by clicking the drop-down arrow underneath the bar. This is a WIP and will likely be improved to be a bit more responsive. Notifications are still being worked on, so expect to see the old pop-ups for the time being. We're still working on updating all of the plugins to support this new system.
NPC Bases
To help combat camping, NPC bases will no longer be marked on the map. Instead, you'll receive a vague message indicating its possible position by "near the coastline" and so on. Additionally, we'll be removing the resource drops from the cupboard. This was initially introduced by mistake and was the result of forgetting to clear the TC before saving the building.
We also plan to release a separate update later this wipe that'll allow several bases to spawn at once to ensure more players are able to participate. The resources will continue to drop until a new update is released post wipe.
More to Come...
This month will be dedicated to resolving outstanding issues and rework some of the game mechanics to accommodate a bigger player base. More information to come. Additionally, our new black market should be releasing near the end of this month that will feature revolving sell and buy orders, as well as an option to sell unwanted blueprints for credits.
Lastly, we hope to also release our new garage system that will let players store vehicles and replace the old vehicle flare system with a more natural-feeling system. This will work for all vehicles, including the new modular vehicles and the upcoming submarines.
Be sure to check this thread for updates as I'm almost positive I've left things out. I will keep this thread up to date throughout the month, and provide a few snek peks of the new features coming!