I am still working on the AI improvements and testing.
There is an issue with pathfinding when the AI is inside a very complex structure (Such as a structure with a complex set of staircases,etc). I am currently working on fixing this.
I have also made various improvements to the performance of the AI system, as well as many minor bug fixes.
I have been focusing on the games AI for a few days now.
In addition to improvements to the random Creatures, I have also made improvements to the Companion AI.
These were minor, and just fixed an issue with the AI sliding slightly when they stopped on uneven ground.
I have also added some more user-feedback messages to tell them when an item cannot be used or combined, etc. The game currently does not have enough tutorials and help messages, I am working on adding more of these.
The next goal is to continue working on the AI, including the AI within cities and buildings, which is a lot more complex.
I am continuing to work on debugging and playtesting the game.
I have fixed an issue with the grass rendering system which causes the grass to render more than once on the same area of ground, significantly decreasing performance.
This was caused by higher level terrain chunks still having their grass rendering when the chunk itself was paged out, in some cases.
This is now fixed.
I have fixed some issues with the scale of ground cover objects. Some objects, like trees, should have a semi-random scale, so that they don’t all look the same. However, other objects, such as man-made objects like cabins, escape pods, etc, should have a fixed scale otherwise they don’t look right.
I also made some minor improvements to the life simulation variables.
I have been working on improving the AI in the game, starting with the AI for random Creatures.
They were sometimes floating above the terrain, and sometimes appearing below it, these issues have now been fixed.
I also made some improvements to the guis that allow the user to scan for different types of items.
In addition, I fixed a major bug with the day/night cycle, which was in the project for some time. I am not 100% if the fix works in all cases, but it seems to.