Period: October 12, 2025 Total Commits: 3
Hey, here’s what we’ve been working on. Today was all about getting replays to tell the exact truth of a match, keeping games alive through momentary disconnects, and cutting log noise so real issues stand out. Nothing flashy, just solid reliability work.
What’s New
Replays that match live gameplay
Replays now run through the full history of a match with accurate timing. That means gold ticks, wave timers, and unit movement line up with what actually happened.
- Starts at tick 0, paused so you can step through from the very beginning
- Real server timestamps for timing-sensitive systems (no more “tick x 100” estimates)
- Timeline scrubbing that resimulates from the start to your target point for deterministic results
- All player actions are represented in replays: upgrades, sells, spawn changes, unit selections (including bonus choices)
- Replay resumes on your terms: after scrubbing, it stays paused so playback doesn’t surprise you
[screenshot: replay timeline starting at 0 with paused state at 64007fd] [screenshot: scrubbing the replay timeline and resimulating at 64007fd] [screenshot: tower upgrade action reflected in replay at 64007fd]
What Got Fixed
Replays no longer “drift”
We tracked down a few core issues that led to desyncs and missing events.
- Gold income, wave timers, and movement now line up with the original match
- No missing early-game events: unit selections and economy ramp show up because we process every tick
- Scrubbing no longer corrupts state: jumping around the timeline won’t break the sim
[screenshot: wave timer correctly synced in replay at 64007fd]
Games don’t end early on disconnects
- Respects the 5-minute grace period: if everyone drops briefly, the match keeps running and you can reconnect
- Removed “instant stop when empty” behavior so temporary network blips don’t kill active games
Under the Hood
Replay pipeline cleanup
We separated rendering from simulation so the UI just shows state and the sim does the work. When you scrub, we fast-forward deterministically and give you a correct snapshot at that moment. We also added progress logging for long replays to help diagnose performance and see where time goes.
- Process every tick, no skipping
- Deterministic resimulation on every timeline move
- Accurate timestamps passed throughout the pipeline
Why this matters for PvP
- Fair reviews: When you go back to analyze a match, what you see now mirrors what happened. No phantom gold, no missing wave starts.
- Stable sessions: Quick disconnects won’t end your game, which helps competitive sets and practice lobbies stay intact.
- Operational clarity: Cleaner logs make it easier for us to keep servers stable during heavy play.
That’s it for today. If you spot a replay that still looks off, send us the match ID and where it diverged. Thanks for all the reports—several of these fixes came straight from your notes.