P0_B12

I have added support for persistent enemies to the game. Now, when an enemy dies (Or surrenders) their body will remain in the world across multiple runs. Their inventory/loadout will also remain.

I have also made improvements to the client/server system for persistent objects.

AI Companions now have the ability to draw weapons and engage in combat with enemies, provided that they have a weapon with ammo in their inventory.

Finally, I have made improvements to the GUI system so that the GUI renders over all objects, including grass, etc. There was an issue here before.

I have recently completed a lengthy process of debugging and improvements. I was focusing more on legacy bugs that had been on my bug list for a long time, and I managed to finally fix a large number of them.

I made some improvements to the AI system, and the dynamic character creation system.

I also fixed some bugs and made some improvements to the weapons. There were some issues with non-raycasted weapons (Such as bows, etc) not correctly scoring a headshot on enemies.

There were also some minor issues with persistence when spawning AI enemies using the new material system, which I fixed.

I also spent some time adding some new audio ambience to the game, as well as correct triggers for enabling/disabling the audio. I need to spend a lot of time on the audio in future though, it is an area of the game that I have not spent a lot of time on.

I tested the build and ran some performance profiles, which were generally ok.

I also fixed an issue which was preventing the position of AI Companions from saving correctly in the world, and I fixed another issue where enemies were spawning in areas that were supposed to be safe.

Finally, I added new options when looting corpses of enemies, and I added an “ultra” graphics preset.

The next step is to add persistent enemy corpses. Currently, when the game quits, all enemy bodies disappear, meaning if the player has not looted them, they will not be able to again. Once this is done, I want to add the ability for the players Companion AI to be able to fight in combat with enemies.

This week, I made very extensive improvements to the character creator and spawner systems.

I added the ability to not only randomise the clothing that NPC’s can wear (Which was already a feature) but to randomise the materials for each clothing object.

This was extremely tedious, since I had to completely redo the data sets that stored the art objects to add a list of materials as well. This had to be done for each object.

However, this has resulted in far more clothing options being available to the NPCs.

There were some significant issues getting this to work, since the system to load characters dynamically in Spiritus Astrum is complex. I am using an older version of the Morph3D character system, and I am using addressable assets and dynamic loading as well.

There are still some minor bugs with the system, and some improvements that I would like to make, bug generally, it works very well. One limitation is that it is difficult to add “matching” content sets (For example, each faction of group has their own distinct clothing style), but this is something that I can add later.

I also added the ability for all “Companion” characters to change their outfit dynamically.

This was complex as well, since the verson of MCS I am using lacks some of the necessary functions (These were added in later versions), but I was able to eventually figure this out.

This will be a vital part of the project going forward.

I am still working on debugging and improvements.

I have made some improvements to the planet generation system, as well as fixed some GUI issues, and improved readability when the background highlight effect is turned on.

I have also added a very simple concept test of a third person camera to the game. It is now possible to view the players character from a third person view.

This actually works quite well, although if I implemented it fully I would need to change a lot of UI elements, aiming, selecting weapons, etc. I doubt that I will add it as a standard feature, but it may be useful for screenshots, or for during conversations, etc.

I have spent this week working on more improvements and bug fixes.

I have modified the sky shader on earthlike and alien worlds to show more subtle and realistic cloud effects, and I have fixed several long-standing issues with the sky and weather systems.

I have also fixed an issue with the sky colour not being correct in some cases.

I have completely retested the second campaign in the game, and discovered quite a number of bugs. All of these have now been fixed, including one very difficult to track down framerate issues which was actually in the game for some time, but it only triggered in rare cases.

I have also added asychronous loading for persistent objects in the game, to address framerate stuttering issues when these objects are loaded.

Finally, I have made improvements to the startup gui to allow the player to more easily choose the campaign that they want to play, as well as choose the free roaming mode.

I am now working on testing the free roaming mode and fixing some additional long-standing bugs, as well as adding some essential new features.

I have made several improvements to the third campaign, as well as fixed several bugs.

In particular, I fixed a bug with the terrain scanning system that was preventing objects from being optimally placed on flat ground.

I have also added new clothing types for the AI, and a way for some NPC types to dynamically change outfits.

There were also other minor issues, some of them longstanding issues, that were fixed.

Finally, I completely retested the first campaign. This has already been extensively tested, and so no new bugs were found, but I did make a note of some improvements that need to be made.

The next step is to make some of these improvements to the first campaign, and then test the second campaign.

I have extensively tested the entire third campaign.

I discovered quite a large number of bugs, almost all of which have now been fixed. I also made some mainly minor improvements to the game.

The testing overall went quite well. The bugs were mostly minor, and almost all are now fixed. Most of the issues were with story triggers not firing, and other minor things, etc.

The next goal is to fix some of the remaining bugs that I discovered, and make some more improvements. There is still a lot of placeholder art and code in the game, this needs to be gradually replaced, and I need to do more extensive testing, including build testing.

I think that I have reached the point that there shouldn’t be any major issues left in the game.

I have been working on the artwork for the third campaign. Most of the necessary artwork has now been added. It is quite basic at the moment, but I intend to make improvements to it later.

I have also made extensive changes to the structure of the missions, adding enemies, more triggers, etc, etc.

Improvements and bug fixes were also made to the AI, and the mission triggers.

The next goal is to do a complete retest of the third campaign, and fix and bugs or issues that I find. I should have this finished next week. I can then move on to the next step of the project.

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I have added a new weapon, the “Mining Laser” to the game. This is actually one of my favourite weapons. It is the only weapon with unlimited ammo (Althoug it does have a overheating mechanic, to stop it from firing continuously), and it does a large amount of damage per second.

This is the first laser based personal weapon that I have added to the game, so it took a little longer than most weapons.

There is a video of the weapon working on youtube here:

I have also been working on more artwork for campaign 3. I am hoping the the majority of the artwork will be done this year, in addition to some more testing, etc.

I am hoping to release Spiritus Astrum into early access at some point next year.

I have also uploaded another video here, showing off the explosion effect that I made a week or so ago:

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It has been over a year since the Spiritus Astrum Demo has been released on steam.

In that time, the project has advanced massively, with two new campaigns being added as well as a whole host of new content, dialog, characters, weapons, ships, and other improvements.

In the initial release of Spiritus Astrum, there will be three campaigns, with an estimated 10 hours of content, with additional free roaming capabilities as well. I am hoping to add basic multiplayer support in the initial release as well.

Although there is a lot more to be done, Spiritus Astrum is moving closer and closer to release every day.