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Posted Thu 06 Mar 2014 08:43
I’ve added the debris to the ship explosions: check out this gif:
Those fire trails are actual pieces of debris flying off: you can collect them and sell them later…
Posted Tue 04 Mar 2014 11:13
Explosions now have firey trails which end up being pieces of debris drifting around the map for a few minutes. Soon you are going to be able to scoop those pieces up and sell them in the market for extra cash: that’s next…
Posted Fri 28 Feb 2014 03:27
It’s about time (after a couple of years of development), but your ship is now able to take enough damage to be destroyed and for that to kick you out of the game.
It’s easy to try out this new feature :) Just try firing on two or three ships as they fly past. You’ll last about a minute. The AI is a pretty good combat pilot now. If you want to win, you’re better of picking off one ship at a time.
This is nice and realistic as your ship currently has the same firepower as the AI ships. Next on the list is allowing the leaving of ship debris to scoop up, and the ability to upgrade the equipment on your ship. Exciting times!
It’s the first time I’ve played the game with any sort of trepidation, which means it just got twice as fun. Hmm, perhaps next time round I might add this earlier.
Posted Wed 19 Feb 2014 07:09
Being as the planner is built on a pathfinding system, I’ve now managed to remove the need for any pathfinding at all outside of the planner code, by building the pathfinding into the planning system.
For example: an agent will decide to try and sell one of their goods. They’ll search for a planet to go to where that good is wanted above market price. The lowest cost will always be their current planet, if they’re on one. If not, they’ll try to get near to the planet. To get near, they need to fly to it, which requires them to be in the same system. If they’re not in the same system, they’ll search for a jumpgate to connect them to that system. The jumpgates in the same system as themselves will have the lowest cost, etc.
This pathfinding continues until the closest planet for the actor to make a profit at is found, which might take several jumps. I’ve seen an agent travel halfway across the known solar system to sell a good at profit.
Next thing: to add new planning states for emergencies: when the AI ship is being shot at, it should react as before by attacking back, or trying to run away…
Posted Wed 19 Feb 2014 07:03
The long grind of implementing the new planner is complete. I now have all the agents in the game planning based on their respective goals and then carrying out their plans via the old behaviour tree system. This works extremely well: planning is expensive, and relying on Behaviour Trees the low levels of ‘getting something done’ is a great tradeoff.
One nice side effect of this is a incidental tweak to the AI’s flight algorithm has had dramatic effects: the AI’s flying is now much more realistic and quicker to reach destinations. There’s a video here - what do you think?
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