P-0

I have added the ability for the AI to be persistent on the server.

This means that even when all players leave a zone or log out, the AI ships remain on the server and their position changes gradually.

When another player enters a zone, these AI are downloaded to that player, with their correct position.

The next goal is to properly test and improve the AI movement when it is chasing the player. Both the AI and the player can move at very high speeds, and this needs to work properly.

I am working on improving the AI so that it can detect and respond to the player over extreme distances.

This is going well, but it is very complex, due to the huge distances and speeds involved.

The core concept works, but it will take a long time to tweak and test this so that it works properly.

The waypoint and movement system now works.

The player can now place waypoints and move to them within the 2D gui.

The next goal is to improve the AI’s detection abilities, and then further test and improve these changes.

The AI is now capable of travelling to the players last known position after detecting them, and then entering into a search pattern once there.

I am now in the process of adding “waypoints” and new commands that will allow the player to navigate entirely from the 2D map screen.

The idea is that they will be able to evade AI enemies and travel to their destination more easily at long range by using this map screen.

The existing helm and radar guis are more useful at close range. Adding the 2D map screen opens up the scene and allows combat and movement over more realistic distances.

I have made more improvements to the new strategic guis.

It is now possible to view a “breadcrumb trail” that allows players to track enemy ships more easily, and I have improved the text display and readout, in addition to fixing some bugs.

I have also started the process of improving the enemy AI. Currently, the AI always spawns near the player, and only works at close range.

I need to improve this so that the AI can spawn anywhere in the star system, and can detect and track the player based on their speed and position, etc.

It may be necessary to spawn AI entities, and possibly stellar objects like stars, planets, etc, witha reduced-height z axis.

So, the X and Y axis would be the entire length of the solar system, but the Z height (Or, Y-height in unity) would be much shorter.

This would mean that the game is still a 3D game, but the guis can be designed to show almost all relevant information using just the XY plane. This will make gui interaction, etc, much easier.

The AI can now be spawned, and moved, correctly at any location within the solar system, the issues with 32-bit precision have been solved.

The AI movement patterns, etc, are also working.

There are, however, quite a few minor issues with the guis and the AI movement. These changes and improvements will take several weeks to implement properly, since they are quite complex, but the space simulation part of the project should work a lot better once they are done.

I have made further improvements to the guis, and I have started working with the next major improvement, which is to the AI navigation and logic.

I discovered a bug here that occurs when AI ships spawn far from the player, their position does not update correctly because they are so far from the origin.

This has been fixed, this wasn’t too serious.

I am now in the process of adding different AI search patterns that the player will need to predict and avoid.

Currently, the AI spawns close to the players ship, but I want to change this so that the AI spawns at random in the system, at a location that could be far from the player.

The player will then need to plot a course using the guis to avoid, or intercept, the AI.

These improvements will take quite a long time.

I have added a lot more features to the 2D nav map, including the ability to zoom the map in and out.

This is a vital ability for this project given the large scale of the solar systems that I am dealing with.

I am also working on additional features such as the ability to center the map on a selected object, on the player, or on the origin, etc.

I am now working on a way to add a visible trail to a moving, selected, object, so that the player can more easily track it’s movements.

I have fixed a few more issues with the navigation system, and made some improvements.

The next step, other than more testing, is to improve the guis and make them more user friendly. I need to add more information to them to inform the user of what is going on in the world, and add more interaction options.

I need to display, for example, the detection radius of enemy ships, etc, so that players can plot paths around them.

I can then test and improve the space combat system more.

After extensive work, the navigation changes have been mostly implemented.

I still have a lot of testing to do, but the core mechanics are mostly working.

The player can now navigate to any position or stellar object in world space, and persistently. IE, the players position in the world and on all of the maps and guis is consistent between runs.

There are still some issues with the radii of stellar objects not being correct on the guis, but this is more minor.

Next, I want to do some more testing, and then add more features and improvements to the guis and space sim.