The problems with interactable physics objects
Currently the game has been built around movable physics objects. Cooking, crafting, shopping etc. are done by manipulating items. That separates this game from its kind but has also introduced a lot of issues from the start of development and many issues still persist in early access builds. This mechanic allows all kinds of creative fun stuff in the game like trashing the store or neighbors’ houses, but it’s been mainly shadowed by player frustration, bugs and poor performance especially in multiplayer. It’s most likely that these negative aspects won’t ever fully go away.
For these reasons I’m thinking of doing a major change to the item system. That also means changing how most things are done in the game. In the new system items wouldn’t have physics anymore. Small to medium sized objects could be picked up to inventory and larger could be carried one at a time. Items could also be placed on world but otherwise they would remain static. Crafting would be handled with more traditional UI based systems and shopping would be done by equipped basket system like in some other games for example. This change would make everything simpler, more robust and performant. Currently there are around 16k interactable objects in the game and there are many tricks done to make it run even the way it does now. Most games are done in simpler ways and now I know why. I learnt it the hard way. I want to hear your thoughts on this, should I make the change or keep the current system? Keep in mind that the current system will always have some unpredictability due to physics calculations that may cause issues.
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