I have finished the improvements to the NPC system.
I have added quite a few more art assets, and made some improvements to the random character creator, and integrated this with the existing NPC spawn system.
The next step is to continue making improvements to the city generator system, and fix as many bugs with this systems as I can.
The next goal that I have been working on is the randomised city system.
I have been making improvements to the random building creator system. There were some minor bugs with the algorithm, which have been fixed, and I have also made other improvements, including a new algorithm to add special interactible buildings to the system.
I have also started working on significant improvements to the random NPC system. I want to replace all of the existing NPC’s with randomised ones.
I have made several additions, improvements, and bug fixes, to the transport system.
I am also working on improving the random generator for the NPC’s. At the moment, there are a small number of preset NPC types that are chosen at random.
This system is limited, so my goal is to extend this to generate a large number of randomised characters.
I have some art assets that I can use, and I have a system already that can randomly assemble a character. I will need to spend some time improving this though, to make sure that clothing types are compatible, etc.
This is the next major goal.
The transport networks are close to being done now.
The players companions can use them, and so can NPC’s. NPC’s are spawned at random when the user gets close to the transport.
This system will need to be improved in the future, but it is an excellent first test of the terrain scanning system, which will be used much more in the future.
The next goal is to make some changes and improvements to the cities.
I have added the ability for NPC’s to also use the transport system, and travel within the world, even when the player is not present.
This system works client side only for now, IE, the transport vehicles that spawn do not sync with other players, although this is a feature that I intend to add later.
The next goal is to add random passengers on board the transports, and add the ability for the players companions to also enter transports when the player does.
I believe I have fixed almost all of the bugs with the transport system.
I have also added a gui so that the user can scan and select a destination to fly to.
The next step is to continue testing, and improve this system to handle cities that are further away.
I then want to add the ability for NPCs to use the transport system, even when the player isn’t on board.
The players companions, if any, should also be able to use the transport system.
I am making good progress with the transport links between cities.
The transport vehicle has working animations, and the player can enter and leave the vehicle.
It can also be elevated and lowered on a platform, in preparation for launch and landing.
I have also added the ability for it to fly in the direction of a city, even though that city has not spawned in yet.
There are some issues with the floating origin system and various other minor problems that I need to solve, but I am making good progress.
This system does add a lot of realism to the game, and make the world feel more complete.
I have added a “starport” object to every city in the game.
The next step is to connect all of these starports together using transport vehicles, so that the player will be able to travel from city to city (with a certain range) without having to have access to their own vehicle.
I also want to add the ability for these transport vehicles to fly between cities on their own, or with NPC’s on board, to improve realism.
The next step is to integrate the scanning feature that will allow each cities starport to find other cities to travel to.
The artwork for the transport vehicle and the landing pad are now done.
I still need to add the animations and setup the model in unity, but this shouldn’t take too long.
The artwork is very basic, but it is really intended to just enable the transport link feature to be added and tested.
This is the next thing that I will work on.
I have spend more time debugging the project, and I have fixed some long-standing bugs.
I haven’t discovered any bugs in the core mechanics for some time, which is good.
The next step is to begin adding in the transport links, and related support code.
First, I need to create some models for a vehicle and a landing pad.
This will be extremely simple for now, I can add more detail later.
The focus right now is on adding the functionality and world building elements, as well as story and immersion.
The art can be mainly placeholder art for now.