[raizer88]

At the theoretical level I agree with you about creating an MVP first and then solve these kinds of problems the moment you hit the jackpot at the ROI level. The problem is that in 20 years I have never seen a single game do that. Because revisiting the whole network/data stack in a game that has come of age is a nightmare and the PM probably doesn't see value in it. By now you are a hit. The problem is that instead of milking the cow for 10 years because you have a cheat proof product, you make money for 3-4 and then you close. (possibily damaging your brand as a cheater infested game)

[whizzter]

Right, and that's why I like this approach (that I'm doing and it seems the Ambient lib is built for from the examples I looked at) because there is an actual architecture that is designed for networking from day one and visiting netcode isn't as bad an issue because it's mostly just regular game-code as long as the core principles are followed.

We've had generations of games that was built as webs-of-objects (and popular engines that still default to it), and yes, adding and maintaining netcode with that is like pulling tooth because you need to manually keep track of so much.

This puts netcode mostly as an automatable task with clear default rules, stuff like hiding players/entities out of sight becomes filters (in the same way as not updating far-away stuff).