Dev Update (19/11/2023)

Hi!

Here's a quick dev update.

The Godot Test Build #7 with the AI system + KP-31 is ready for tomorrow and in generally I'm really happy with the progress this week.

The AI system is not perfect but it's pretty stable. I eliminated nearly all AI spawning stutters that I had in Unity and in terms of performance the game can handle pretty easily 3-6 active AI's per map.

I have set up this AI spawner also in a way that it's much more unpredictable where the AI will spawn and even though there are some static spawn points, the randomization between those and player position is pretty hard to predict (even for me).

There's only one pathfinding stutter that happens maybe < 5% of the times when AI calculates a new path but I already know how to fix that in the near future and what causes it. 95% of the time you should not notice any lag or stutters related to AI pathfinding or spawning.

Tomorrow when I have that test build ready and port update, then I will start porting the attachment system which will be one of last major system remaining, since other missing features are just sub-features for already ported features (like trading is a sub-feature for inventory etc.)

When it comes to that attachment system, I'm planning to implement it through two methods. The first method will be pretty identical like it was in Unity but with an option to choose the specific attachment with your mouse or some other input (compared to previous random swapping). The second method will be introduced later on (after Public Demo 2) but that will be some kind of UI / Inventory based method with dedicated "modding" grid layout.

This upcoming attachment / inspect system will be using custom made inspect animations, since I'm ramping up this animation side of things and in-general there's more control when those are keyframe based. I'm still testing how complex I want those inspect poses / animations for weapons but expect something similar like in Unity but a bit more precise (like including "safe" finger control etc).

ps. Here's an initial list of features I implemented this week.

- AI Spawner
- AI Sensor (View, LOS)
- AI Hearing (Movement, Fire)
- AI Visibility states (Day, Night, Flashlight)
- AI Navigation
- AI Animation blending
- AI Hitbox system (Head, Torso, Limbs)
- AI Interaction (Doors)
- AI Wander (Behavior)
- AI Combat (Behavior)
- AI Evade (Behavior)
- AI Directional audio
- AI Surface detection
- AI Bullet SFX
- AI Footsteps
- Player Damage Impact (Camera)
- Player Damage HUD effect
- Player Damage SFX
- KP-31 + Animations
- Jump + Land footsteps
- New Building
- Improved Tree shader LOD transition

- Antti (Developer)