Hello,
a little dev update: I just finished the integration of docked structures, and controlled blocks (weapons, etc) into the procedural generation process. This process had some major obstacles, since in the generation process you can't look ahead, so you have to kind of predict on simple rules, how the structures are shaped.
My first creation is pirate bases with turrets that will basically annihilate anything that goes near them. I added a fair amount of random generation into the process so no two stations will look the same. It's expandable and I'll make it even more diverse in the future.
This is not the only thing I've been working on though. A new layer of AI has been added on top of the current ship AI: Simulation AI. This enables the game to coordinate and plan moves across the galaxy without entities having to be loaded at all (it just works on a shadow copy of the entry in the database). Entities will get loaded once a player is near and the new AI layer will give it the mission, but once loaded, the AI system already in the current version can come into play. An example would be 2 NPC factions moving ships across the universe, should they happen to meet near you, they will start to fight each other. I tested it with 200 vs 200 ships which was pretty fun.
The system is not yet completed as I need some kind of combat simulation for if the ships meet in unloaded state. Also I need another layer of AI which basically spawns pirates, trading ships, and other npcs and plans their missions.
This system will also be the entry point to randomly generated quests in the future.
Thanks for playing StarMade,
- schema
a little dev update: I just finished the integration of docked structures, and controlled blocks (weapons, etc) into the procedural generation process. This process had some major obstacles, since in the generation process you can't look ahead, so you have to kind of predict on simple rules, how the structures are shaped.
My first creation is pirate bases with turrets that will basically annihilate anything that goes near them. I added a fair amount of random generation into the process so no two stations will look the same. It's expandable and I'll make it even more diverse in the future.
This is not the only thing I've been working on though. A new layer of AI has been added on top of the current ship AI: Simulation AI. This enables the game to coordinate and plan moves across the galaxy without entities having to be loaded at all (it just works on a shadow copy of the entry in the database). Entities will get loaded once a player is near and the new AI layer will give it the mission, but once loaded, the AI system already in the current version can come into play. An example would be 2 NPC factions moving ships across the universe, should they happen to meet near you, they will start to fight each other. I tested it with 200 vs 200 ships which was pretty fun.
The system is not yet completed as I need some kind of combat simulation for if the ships meet in unloaded state. Also I need another layer of AI which basically spawns pirates, trading ships, and other npcs and plans their missions.
This system will also be the entry point to randomly generated quests in the future.
Thanks for playing StarMade,
- schema