Weekly Update – December 17, 2022

• Map generation refinements. Map sections now connect to each other (most of the time; smarter connecting corridors are still needed). The starting section locations are better spread out across the map. This helps balance the section sizes, but doesn’t eliminate a frequent issue I’m seeing in which a particular section grows disproportionately and blocks other sections from growing. The solution I’m considering is to check the size of each section as the map is being generated and dynamically adjust the growth of sections that are too large or small relative to the other sections.
• Catacombs and Crypt themes. Map sections can now be themed as catacombs or crypts, in addition to the existing bastion and cavern themes. It’s just a tile swap at the moment, but future updates will alter structure and content.
• Refactoring. Some enums have been converted to classes that inherit from ScriptableObject so that they can be referenced in the Unity inspector. MapElements, which are responsible for stocking the dungeon, are also in the process of being converted to ScriptableObjects. This will accelerate creating new MapElements, which will soon be needed because the upcoming section-based stocking requires a wide variety of room types.
• Started using Odin Inspector. On multiple occasions I’ve run into the limitations of the out-of-the-box functionality of the Unity inspector. While it is possible to customize the inspector, a relatively high level of effort is required to do so (coding). I originally heard about Odin from a Jason Weimann video. In the video, Jason said that if you can only get one Unity asset, make it Odin. That set my expectations pretty high, but so far Odin is living up to those expectations. It’s extremely easy to use and is very well documented. In a nutshell, I’m using it to make the Unity inspector more useful, refining the controls and presentation.

I’m on vacation for the rest of December and looking forward to making huge progress with all that time. Map generation refinement will be the main focus. If time allows I will also tackle speeding up game turns by enabling all actors to move at the same time.