Spiral Knights - Tech questions for the devs

Tech questions for the devs

3 replies [Last post]

Wed, 04/11/2012 - 13:19

Shadow-Nerd

Dear Three Rings,

For a while I have been thinking of a few technical- and gameplay-related questions that I have been itching to get the answers to. I am a programmer, and am curious as to how software works. If you (the devs) can't answer a question for legal, ethical (giving away vital secrets), or time-based issues, I understand. But, please, if you have some time, try to answer at least one question.
Note to players: Preferably, I would like the developers to answer these questions, but if anyone else is confident that they know an answer, please speak up.

1. What hardware has the most impact on performance? If you have a lousy computer, which part/parts should you upgrade to get the best performance in SK? Which components does SK have the least reliance on?
2. Aside from pure monster strength, will varying the size of the party or equips have any impact on gameplay? Does the number of members in the party affect the number or type of crown, heat, or material drops? Does the equipment that the player(s) has/have affect drops or mobs?
3. What is Getdown pro? Is it the game engine? If so, did you (OOO) develop it yourselves or did you license it from another company?
4. Why can't you change the perspective of the game? Why can you not zoom, pan, or rotate the game view? Is this a limitation inherent to the game engine or did you put this in there for a reason?
5. Why are the levels "2-D" in the sense that you can not have any section over any other section? Again, is this part of the engine or did you put it in there on purpose?
6. Are you planning to put mod or skinning support in SK?
7. Why is the maximum party limit four players? Is this a design or technical issue, and are you going to change it? Note: MMOs generally are good at both single- and multi-player gaming (WoW is a great example of this). It is my opinion that SK is a bit weaker in the single-player side, but that it has huge multiplayer potential, so in that light it is my opinion that four players is a rather small party size.
8. Which kind of internet connection is better for SK: high bandwidth or low latency?
9. Finally, what data is stored/generated locally and what is stored/generated on your servers? For example, I guess that the tilesets are stored locally but the actual layout of the levels is kept on the servers and loaded on demand. Also, I guess that while the animations for the enemies and players are generated locally, the acual positions and actions are calculated on the server and then sent to the player's computer. Are either of these assumptions correct? What else is kept on your servers?

Please keep in mind that, while some of these may appear to be criticisms (like 5 and 6), they are not (except for 7). Most of these things I am merely curious about, and would like to know more. If you can't answer all of these questions, I understand, but please take a shot at one (quantity, not position) or two of them. You guys have done a great job of design so far, and I can't wait to see what the future of Spiral Knights and Three Rings will be like!

Note to players: If you have a definite answer to a question, please feel free to post it.

Wed, 04/11/2012 - 14:02

Kraanx

question 2-

question 2- http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Party

Wed, 04/11/2012 - 14:06

Guyinshinyarmour

I may not be a dev, but I like to think I know a fair bit. :v

1. Dunno. Since this game runs in Java, it tends to run terribly compared to games programmed in something that's more widespread throughout the industry. It's better to score average across the board in CPU/GPU/RAM than high in one and subpar in two anyway.
2. Nope. Doesn't effect anything else, unless you count the ability to take other peoples heat through the revive mechanic. You also get all the mat drops if you're solo, but lose out on free rezing.
3. Judging by the similarly named text file, it checks for updates, preps the Java environment to suit SK, then launches the SK client. I don't think it's the engine at any rate. That's probably all contained in the "code" folder.
4. Can't answer, though I suspect they could. However, a freeform camera would just be another thing that could go wrong, and changing something as basic to the game as that now would probably be a massive pain. It'd be like changing how shields work.
5. Can't answer, though I suspect it's just not something they figured the game needed.
6. No, they aren't. While I can't summon up the specific post, they've said that altering the client like that gives the wrong impression of the game to people if the modders post pictures. Modders could post people using Vana's mace, then confuse anyone that joins about whether or not they could get it. It would also mess up the design aesthetic a fair bit if people put in their own models.
7. I'd have to guess design. More people running around just makes things more and more chaotic. Expanding the party at this point would warrant a bit of a redesign of areas since it'll be pretty cramped otherwise. I'd love for there to be special dives where you could take 10 people though and fight through a massive maze or plain though.
8. When it comes to any online gaming in general, it's always latency. Bandwidth only helps for downloading massive amount of data quickly, such as a movie. Latency helps when you need to transfer small amounts in realtime. Sending commands such as moving or attacking to the server and back requires just about no bandwidth, but if the latency is high it'll take a critical second for your command to get there which is the difference between life and death in a twitch based game.
9. Only thing stored locally is game settings and the client itself. As in all online competitive games (or microtransaction games), if you have a character it's stored with the provider. Else you could alter your character and cheat away. Current depths and character locations are run on some server somewhere as you correctly suspect.

Wed, 04/11/2012 - 14:28

Dogrock

Yay Answers

Here's some more clarity to be taken with the answers already given.

1. That really depends on the computer. The minimum specs are listed on the Wiki, so whatever component that is closest to minimum you'd probably see the greatest boost from upgrading. Also, this game runs entirely in Java, so it's relatively safe to assume that anything that boosts Java performance will be helpful here too.

3. Getdown pro is a system for downloading and applying game updates. More info on the code repository.

6. It's doubtful that mods/skinning will ever come into play since it's been confirmed multiple times that modifying the game files is against the ToS. Feel free to debate how bad it really is all you want, but in the end of the day the answer has always been "No."

8. Low latency is definitely better. You can get away with about 80kbps downstream and 50kbps up for playing on this game. You could move all the data you want but it won't matter if it doesn't arrive on time.

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Tech questions for the devs