In a recent update from the official New World website, developers have announced an upcoming overhaul to the game’s combat and animation systems, coinciding with the release of the “Season of the Guardian.” This new development, named “Slayer Script,” is a C++ based scripting language designed to enhance game performance in densely populated player areas and streamline future combat improvements.
Introducing Slayer Script
Slayer Script aims to provide significant performance enhancements and live updates to scripts, enabling dynamic in-game changes. The system is designed to handle a variety of game functions, from event management and animation playbacks to controlling character movements. By utilizing a natively compiled language, the developers intend to pack extensive work into minimal code, optimizing both performance and memory usage.
The transition to Slayer Script was motivated by challenges encountered with the game’s growth, where traditional scripting languages fell short in efficiency due to their interpretive nature and the resultant hardware optimization limitations. The original system faced difficulties with performance, memory, and runtime allocation, leading to the development of Slayer Script as a more efficient alternative. This new system significantly reduces runtime memory and improves code compactness, addressing the scalability and performance issues previously experienced.
With over 400 actions meticulously converted to the new system, the developers’ goals were clear: to achieve maximum efficiency with minimal memory cost, enhance scalability, enable hot-loading for runtime development, and simplify debugging processes. The design of Slayer Script, which centralizes state storage and creates shareable behavior scripts, directly addresses these objectives, facilitating easier maintenance and future expansions.
One of the primary challenges in implementing Slayer Script was maintaining the rapid iteration necessary for game development. The solution allows for the dynamic reloading of modules, enabling developers to see the results of their changes without restarting the game. This feature, however, requires careful management of object references to prevent crashes. Additionally, the team focused on making the complexities of C++ accessible for scripting purposes, aiming to balance power and usability for developers.