I have completed some minor tess and made some minor improvements. The next major challenge is to stress test the server.
For the beta, I want to have support for at least 20 concurrent players, with this number obviously increasing as the beta progresses.
There is likely to be some fundamental optimisation issues here, since the multiplayer component of the project has not been tested extensively.
I have made improvements to the character creation system.
It is now possible for users to create their own character from the client (Previously an entry in the database needed to be made by an admin first).
Secondly, each new character that is created will be placed at a random location in a random system. Previously, all new players would be created in the same place. This new approach is more realistic.
The Manufacturing system is now basically working.
I am quite pleased with the result. The gui interface is quite simple, but it allows the player to see how many items of a given type are stored on the ship, and create/destroy these items (Using the ships energy reserves as a resource).
Players can also take items from the ships inventory and add them to their personal inventory, and then use them in the world. Once dropped in the world the items behave as any other persistent item, and are stored on the server, and saved/loaded etc.
In addition, these items can be viewed in the cargo bay in real time. As the player creates and destroys objects they appear on the shelves just in front of the player.
Likewise, as the player removes and replaces items from the ships inventory to their personal inventory these changes update in real time, which is a very realistic effect.
One of the last improvements that I need to make before the end of the Alpha phase is with the Manufacturing system in the project.
I want players to be able to manufacture and store items on their ship (using energy as a resource) and then remove and replace these items to/from the ship and use them in the world.
I also want players to be able to “unlock” new manufacturing items by finding them in the world, so that the more the player explores, the more items they can produce.
This will be more complex than it seems, because these items will need to be persistent when located in the world, but static when stored on board the ship.
I have made some improvements to the NPC AI system.
The NPC’s in cities will now travel between work, home, and entertainment buildings.
The home and work buildings are chosen randomly, and assigned to each AI, so each AI has a unique workplace and home.
This system can be improved massively in the future, but this is a good starting point for a more in-depth NPCAI system.
The city generation algorithm improvements are now basically done.
The city generation is much more realistic, and I have tested the AI generation, and made sure that critical buildings only spawn within contact with a road.
There are quite a few things I could do to improve this in the future, but I think these improvements are sufficient for now.
The city generation algorithm is going well.
There are still some issues to solve, but I have a concept working for a more realistic street generation system.
I will need to test this with the AI graph generation, and I will need to make sure that essential buildings that the player can enter all have road access.
I have begun working on the city generator algorithm, and it is going well.
I have fixed some scaling issues with the city buildings, which means that they fill up more of the available space.
This results in the city looking much more realistic.
I am now working on modifying the algorithm to improve realism. Currently, all roads are straight, with no breaks in between, which results in the city looking much more artificial than it should.
I have fixed a few more minor bugs, and added some minor new features.
The only new things that I want to add in the Alpha phase now are some improvements to the city generation system, and some improvements to the NPC AI system.
I may also work on some server improvements and some improvements to the random planet generation algorithm in the Alpha, but the rest is just final testing and debugging.
I have looked into multithreading the scanning algorithm that I was working on, and this will take more time than I thought, so I will postpone it for now.
I am continuing on with testing, etc, in preparation for a transition into the Beta stage for this project.
I have fixed some issues with the AI for the spawnable creatures in the game, and fixed some other AI related issues.