PC Alpha 20 Dev Diary
- Thread starter madmole
- Start date
- Status
Roland
Moderator
faatal
Fun Pimps Staff
I was never impressed by decision trees. Technically we use decision lists, but some AI like the vulture is just a state machine. They all get the job done and are not hard to do, until you get to the gory details of what all of those decisions have to do to actually work.
Health < 50% run away. Cool, but to where? Taking cover is going to be one of the hardest parts of bandits, since what is cover in an arbitrary voxel world?
People love to gloss over the details, but the details are what take all the time and kill you in the end if you don't do them right.
Priorities get in the way of lots of fun. Last Friday I was thinking I could mess with the raft, but nope someone needed me to look at a light block bug. Today I was thinking maybe some raft time....nope new short grass needs to be tested, so artist can get feedback, which sounds simple except for the new mesh generation short grass will use and adding to the biomes, splitting from the tall grass code, shader changes so it blows in the wind since it is too short and lots of testing. All of that eats up time, so maybe it will be done Monday.
We have our A20 must fix list going now. 111 currently, 8 of which are mine, but in the beginning it tends to grow as fast as you can fix them, so fun keeps having to wait.
Someday I look forward to a water world. Lots of islands.
They will be functional. They will not be doing brain surgery on each other. Back in the spring I did a full play through of The Outer Worlds. Their enemy AI was not amazing, but competent. If we got to the same level I'd be happy. Their AI does not even find cover, so maybe we can be a bit better.
Last edited by a moderator:
faatal
Fun Pimps Staff
1 Don't know.
2 No. People don't know what those mean. I can hardly remember half the time.
3 Yes. SMAA or whatever, see I already forgot, is still in there at the lower settings. Easy way to tell is the sharpening option gets grayed out if not TAA.
4 No because they each use global values that are not easily separated.
5A Maybe. It already clamps the angle. The more you clamp the more it looks wrong...
5B No. I'd prefer to keep them in sync for what we feels looks best.
5C Maybe. Turning it on may not be as simple as just turning it on.
6 Not planning on it. IF we have time before gold we may do more fluff, but that is a big IF.
Rabbitslovecactus
New member
Not sure I'm a fan of bandits...If they do release, please make a variety of personalities. Aggressive, Neutral, Friendly. Most of all, an option to disable them. Thanks
Blake_
Captain Obvious
I'm curious, when you get on it, how exactly are you going to approach that subject?
I can think of a few ways, but many of them require quite a bit of work.
Like tag trees, boulders, some fences and bushes as valid cover and then have behaviour that tells the bandits to hide in an area comprising any bunch of 6, 9 or whatever number of completely opaque blocks that would prevent the player from seing them from his/her direction. With "raycasts"? , and lots of edge-case shapes to tag. Fun work. Lol.
That plus surrounding behaviour and some fluff sitting, talking, eating and sleeping would be like AAA stuff in a voxel world.
That plus surrounding behaviour and some fluff sitting, talking, eating and sleeping would be like AAA stuff in a voxel world.
Jost Amman
Well-known member
The best way IMO is to cast a "ray tracing" (was that the name?) from spaces (air blocks) near the bandit, up to the player, and if there's a "free" block nearby that has a collision in the direction of the player that is cover. (did I say this right??) :confused2:
Example:
(player) :laser:
eep: (cover 1) (bandit) :lever: eep: (cover 2)In this case, both free blocks are cover, but you can have the bandit choose the nearest one by checking that there's a wall between cover 2 and player.
The HUGE problem I see is that you'd have to tell the TYPE of block cover 2 is made of and keep only the ones that won't allow projectiles through.
hwell:
Last edited by a moderator:
Gamida
Hood Ornament
This is just a curiosity question about what I noticed in the Sept 15 dev stream.
Who in charge is obsessed with the number 8?
I am pretty sure every building I saw that was numbered started or included the number 8. Example there was 800, 888, and 8000.
Is this random or were you guys ordered to use this number?
Who in charge is obsessed with the number 8?
I am pretty sure every building I saw that was numbered started or included the number 8. Example there was 800, 888, and 8000.
Is this random or were you guys ordered to use this number?
dcsobral
New member
Ah, but can they path to these spaces? I mean, I could provide some really nice covers close to the entrances of my base with just the slight inconvenient that it will take a long time for someone to go from the entrance to them, all on plain sight.The best way IMO is to cast a "ray tracing" (was that the name?) from spaces (air blocks) near the bandit, up to the player, and if there's a "free" block nearby that has a collision in the direction of the player that is cover. (did I say this right??) :confused2:
Example:
(player) :laser:
In this case, both free blocks are cover, but you can have the bandit choose the nearest one by checking that there's a wall between cover 2 and player.
The HUGE problem I see is that you'd have to tell the TYPE of block cover 2 is made of and keep only the ones that won't allow projectiles through.
Khalagar
Active member
Dearest Faatal,
Please spend between 70, and 450+ developer hours, valued by the company at 60 to 80+ dollars an hour, working on an obscure and very complicated feature for me. This feature has no resale value or marketing value, and will not entice a potential buyer into actually making the final purchase. In fact, my feature will appeal to no one besides customers who already paid $7 for your product 5 years ago and have put 2,000 hours into it.
I think this investment of the most highly contested resource at your company (developer time) will be very well spent on my obscure and barely marketable feature.
Best wishes,
Every gamer who has never worked at a big company before and has never had to answer the "And who will pay for this? What else could that developer time be spent on?" line of questioning
Dear The Fun Pimps,
I appreciate that you have spent over 7 years working on implementing, balancing, and programming the zombies, but I regret to inform you that I do not, in fact, like zombies. Please add an option to remove this unwanted feature from my interactions with the game. Furthermore, I also regret to inform you that I do not appreciate your addition of crafting, eating, or looting, or most of all, shooting. Please add an option for those of us who wish to run in an empty field and complete jump puzzles
Sincerely,
Random obscure internet forum poster #2342394
Rabbitslovecactus
New member
Actually there is an option to remove zombies from the game and make it just a survival game.
Blake_
Captain Obvious
Yeah. Basically raycasts, pathing code and tagging selected blocks+ knowing interior from exterior would solve all of that. It's a work akin to making 300 POIs, but for programmers. Maybe level designers could start to implement "cover areas"(made by a programmer of course). That would solve interiors. Exteriors would only need to tag trees, boulders and a few environment assets.The best way IMO is to cast a "ray tracing" (was that the name?) from spaces (air blocks) near the bandit, up to the player, and if there's a "free" block nearby that has a collision in the direction of the player that is cover. (did I say this right??) :confused2:
Example:
(player) :laser:
In this case, both free blocks are cover, but you can have the bandit choose the nearest one by checking that there's a wall between cover 2 and player.
The HUGE problem I see is that you'd have to tell the TYPE of block cover 2 is made of and keep only the ones that won't allow projectiles through.
Jost Amman
Well-known member
Yeah, it's complicated.
Also, I'm worried if they have the processing power to calculate all that "in time" and not make it a lag fest.
hwell: Ah! So, that's how they're called! :doh:
Laz Man
Fun Pimps Staff
Those are random number block helpers.This is just a curiosity question about what I noticed in the Sept 15 dev stream.
Who in charge is obsessed with the number 8?
I am pretty sure every building I saw that was numbered started or included the number 8. Example there was 800, 888, and 8000.
Is this random or were you guys ordered to use this number?
Jost Amman
Well-known member
MechanicalLens
New member
This is just a curiosity question about what I noticed in the Sept 15 dev stream.
Who in charge is obsessed with the number 8?
I am pretty sure every building I saw that was numbered started or included the number 8. Example there was 800, 888, and 8000.
Is this random or were you guys ordered to use this number?
Surprised we didn't see 8008 anywhere.
Laz Man
Fun Pimps Staff
faatal
Fun Pimps Staff
I'm not having them tag anything. The world is full of cover, you just have to scan and find it similar to how destroy area works with the added problem of you need to be on a side that covers you. Destroy area find is pretty expensive, so this probably more so. Having them duck down would help too, since that is cheap. Lay in the grass. Now I can't see you.
Jost Amman
Well-known member
Gamida
Hood Ornament
I am not lol. I never mentioned it because I didn't know if it was in the last part of this video (that I never watched over as I saw it on the night they made it) or if it was in the first one somewhere, but I was almost positive I did see an 8008 on one building. I may have to watch them again now to see as it will drive me crazy.Surprised we didn't see 8008 anywhere.
ah ok so there is a method to the madness
- Status