Sunday, April 27, 2014
I don't know. It was a confusing day of emotions. It really was.
I sat there, watching a large frigate loom over me as it rained down four transfer beams onto one of the thousands of notable nearby asteroids. The blue that washed over the field was even more intense than usual - bigger ship, bigger beam, after all. But seeing it from 3rd-person this time...watching someone else do it...it was really something special. I felt excited. I felt happy.
As eight pirates closed in on me and started showering pulses in my general direction, I became less happy. Scared, excited, and proud of my AI. All at once. Like I said, confusing. Damivitech Mining Frigate #12 didn't budge. He clearly wasn't going to be scared off by a few small fighters. Smart choice, too, considering they appeared uninterested in him and only interested in me.
Pretty much all day I was bordering on euphoria. Seeing so many things come together...it was amazing. I wanted to cry. Or laugh. Or...sleep? No. Not that Anyway...this game is ridiculous, and it's getting more ridiculous by the minute
100% Real AI Mining (Finally)!
Yeah, the AI is finally using transfer beams like everyone else. It's fantastic. I was planning on doing 50% hack, 50% real for the monthly update - make them use transfer beams but secretly invoke the mining event directly. Within a few minutes of switching to transfer beams, though, I quickly realized that the AI did not need any help. It was doing just fine with the 'real' gameplay. Fighters buzzed from roid to roid, constantly tickling new spots of the surface in search of rich pockets. So much for 50/50...we're going 100% real. They neither want nor need my help
Most of my time today was spent getting all of the 'real' AI working
HUD Stuff
Worked a lot on the target markers for the HUD. Boring, don't want to talk about it
Priority-Sorted Lighting
For performance reasons, I had to put a limit on the number of lights that can be rendered. With 100+ ships in a system, 4 or 6 thrusters on each, muzzle flashes, individual pulse lights, as well as transfer unit hits...it was adding up fast. I didn't check the numbers but I'm sure we were well over 1000 lights. So I set a limit and made the renderer sort them based on visibility.
Great results. When I fly over to an asteroid and watch one guy mining the rock, I can see the blue of the transfer unit bathing the rock, just as expected. I can even see his thrusters light up. And yet, there are more than a hundred other locations where that's happening. If I travel to any one of them, I would, once again, see correct lighting. I can also see the light from the larger mining barges a long way off. Sweet
7-Minute Station Algorithm
I was tired of the shish kebab stations. But I didn't want to spend more time on graphics today. So I said, "OK Graphics Josh, I have a challenge for you. You have until the end of this song to write a new station algorithm." The song had just started and was a little over 7 minutes. I unlocked his cage. GJ lept out and got to work immediately. It was a tense offer. He knew he would get only one shot.
7 minutes later, I basked in the glory of something that...well, it wasn't great, but it sure looked a lot better than what I had previously. A new song started and, as I locked the cage once more, all I could see on his face was a cheeky little smile. The monkey knew he had done well. He hadn't gotten much play time, but it was enough for him. He had used it well
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The tally is up to three insane days in a row. But we're going to need to go for 5 if this update is to be as good as I believe it could be
Post
Sun Apr 27, 2014 11:15 pm
#1
Week of April 27, 2014
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.” ~ Henry Ford