It’s been a few weeks since the last update. Family health issues slowed things down. I did manage to keep the “once piece of new content per day” goal going, barely.
Completed Design Goal Review
I finished reviewing the current design goals. I intended to publish a write-up but lost the motivation halfway through writing it. In short, the goals are still relevant for the most part and the biggest completion gap is in map content. I’m already focusing in this area and will continue to do so.
Enemy Aggression Level
I was troubleshooting an issue where enemy AI behaved in the desired way for some enemies but not others. Specifically, I wanted some enemies to be aggressive and attack from disadvantaged positions and some enemies to be more conservative and only move into melee range of the player if their position had no disadvantage. I added an Aggression Level attribute with High, Medium, and Low values to enable different behavior. Utility AI scoring is now based on both situation and Aggression Level.
Keyboard Support (Continued)
The keyboard can now be used when prompted to select a cell to perform an action.
New Content
- Rooms (7): Random Challenge/Reward Room, Locked Room with Locked Chest, Heavily Trapped Treasure Room, Heavily Trapped Treasure Chain, Goblin Campsite, Skeleton Campsite, Workshop
- Enemies (7): Diseased Giant Rat, Goblin, Goblin Archer, Goblin Warrior, Goblin Mage, Green Slime, Blue Slime
- Objects (7): Crate with Rats, Rooted Trap, Hidden Rooted Trap, Fear Trap, Hidden Fear Trap, Slowness Trap, Hidden Slowness Trap
The Random Challenge/Reward Room randomly selects a few challenges (enemies, hazards), rewards (items, treasure), and dressings (campfire, statue, rubble, etc.). When I fill a level with just this type of room, the level’s pretty fun; each room is surprising, challenging, and rewarding. On the downside, the level has no coherence.
Bug Fixes
Mostly enemy AI.
Next week, I’ll be working through a todo list of miscellaneous items that includes enemy AI bug fixes, more distinct enemies, more object interactions, and keyboard support.