Edit: I had originally posted this in #development-discussion, but I guess this doesn’t fit in that category. I have moved it here assuming it is the next best thing. I apologize if this is incorrect as well.
It's an RTS game
For the past couple years, I have fascinated and toyed with the idea of making a real-time strategy game on Roblox. After much success in creating some of the core concepts to the game, I was heavily discouraged by one single issue: pathfinding.The problem, I suppose, in its simplest explanation, is that Roblox Lua does not run as quickly as other programming languages. I am using a custom A* pathfinding system. As of right now, units in the game behave very similarly to units in the video game Starcraft. (The link leads to a site that talks about the game’s pathfinding specifically; not the game as a whole.)
To put it simply, after manipulating the nodes on my map, and further testing units’ movement around the map, I noticed some scenarios in which units would take a significant amount of time to calculate a path to the target location, creating visible delays in response to commands. I began to worry that this issue would rise up more frequently when I made actual multi-player maps, which would be much larger than the test map I was using. Also, I was still only controlling a handful of units during each test run: for those familiar with rts games, they will know that even a small 1v1 match can have a couple hundred units running on the battlefield. Even with a basic AI, I began to fear that a true real-time strategy game in Roblox might not be possible.
I essentially gave myself the ultimate burnout. Afraid to work on something that might end in complete and total failure, I stopped working on my game for quite some time.
I tried working on other games. I went back to old ideas. But this rts game has stayed in my mind the entire time. Apart from the gameplay concept, it also has a story that I am invested in. One of the biggest drives to making this game is to see this universe of mine come to life.
Recently, I decided that I’m going to keep working on this game until I am absolutely certain that it’s doomed. My current plan is to ditch weighted terrain, and upgrade my A* pathfinding to JPS, in the hopes that there won’t be much lag when working with multiple units on a large map.
And that’s the update! I decided to make this post because I felt like I needed some support in all of this. Do you think this is possible? Would you even play a Roblox rts game in the first place? Let me know!