Hi everyone!
I am creating a game that is (in my opinion) the next generation of MMORPG.
An “ASOERPG” (Active Simulation Online Erotic Roleplay Game).
I have worked for many years in other projects on other game engines, but in a community management position. Now I want to create my own game with my own brand and I am about to release my first pre-alpha gameplay.
The game contains two worlds.
The planet Protares (plays in our and modern technology, also high-tech)
The planet Antares (plays in the Middle Ages with gunpowder weapons, also low tech). Here I have written a novel as game story, where the player can create a roleplay character based on the novel for the game. All in German language, if I have more money I would like to translate it into other languages.
This is the reason why I need a huge amount of items in the game, because they are different in technology.
On both planets and technologies, players create there own content for the game.
This is the main gameplay!
Currently I am reworking my item structure system for a better workflow in the future, but here I have some problems in the logic. Some games have about 500.000 items in the game, this is a huge database of items to manage and change things inside etc. The database will have massive performance issues… but i need more!
My idea is to make 6 structures for items to split the database, it will be more than half a million of items over time. So I created a base structure (Master Parent Actor) for each type.
Example of Master Parent Actor “ItemDataBaseBuildings” for all buildings in the game.
“ItemDataBaseCrafting” for all crafting items in the game.
Each structure contains additional information. A building dont need weapons gameplay information, for example… maybe a watchtower with weapons… hmhm I dont know! You see my logic issue?
I hope you can help me to find the best way to get the best performance and workflow (doing everything 6x times is… not so good ;( ).
My big question:.
Is it better to have ONE big huge structure (master parent actor) that contains ALL types of items. Make child actors and add additional information there separately (like armor variables for building defense etc.)? Also, can the Unreal engine handle this huge amount of items?
Or split it into 6x Master Parent Actors to increase performance, because when I am looking for a specific item in the game, I do not need to talk to the other 5 databases. And the replication is not needed. Many players, many performance problems, maybe!
Is it important to include many variables in the structure of the master parent actor, or reduce it and add it as a regular variable in the blueprint?
For example:
My buildings should have a defense variable, so that a sword cannot destroy a stone wall (for example). But if I add this defense variable in the master parent actor structure, this is a value for the whole actor, but I need this specific to actors inside the blueprint.
For example:
The stone wall is resistant to a sword attack.
The wooden gate can be damaged by sword attacks.
Just a simple example. Also I dont need a main structure variable for the whole building (player dont build there own buildings, its the part of the development team to create buildings and player can buy these fixed buildings to place).
Its not so easy to describe what I mean.
PM: My items have a mass in grams. Do I need an Int64 for that? Because a battleship or later a starship can have many grams… you know what I mean. I do not like floats with the 0.000000 problems.
Thanks for you help!