Pre-alpha testing underway

Pre-alpha testing is basically me testing the core functionality by actually trying to play the game. I've discovered bugs galore!!! It's to be expected with code this raw. My most confusing bug was a random number generator that always produced the same result! I realised after 20 minutes the random number generator wasn't being seeded correctly but I got that fixed eventually.

I'm testing multiplayer by having multiple clients/instances on my desk top and this uncovered more problems. There is some database corruption happening somewhere so that horses bought by one player are being assigned to a different player and a horse winning prize money earns money for the wrong client.  :(   These are relatively easy problems to trace and debug. It just takes time and will be tomorrow's problem.

I added a new function that allows a player to train a horse during any given month. It costs money and you can't race that month but your horse gets a guaranteed improvement. I need to think of things for players to do between races and I thought this might be interesting. I also hope to introduce breeding as well. That should bring some interesting decision making because making your horse pregnant might net you some nice cash but your horse is out of action during gestation. If you can breed to winners and make a new winner then that might be a pathway some players will do without even racing!

I share the screenshot above to give you a sense of how much meta-data there is. As before, some graphics but it's minimalistic on purpose. This game is about the numbers and the strategic decision making around those numbers. Race details on the left, horse details on the right and your own stable details in the middle. The race track across the screen with actions and messages from the host down the bottom. Any GUI/UX experts care to comment!?!?!  I notice the background image is a bit faint so I'll photoshop that one too.  :)

Be the first to join my Discord server to learn more and be an alpha tester.