Year End DevLog - New AI Navigation Model, Minions, Cave Tileset,

Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year!

I am now officially done my Cyber Security course which means more time to work on the game. One of the great things about taking the CS course was that I learned some good ways to write programs that are designed to work over network so hopefully that could potentially translate to some potential new features for the game at a later date.

Anyways, I've decided to incorporate A* Pathing and dynamically generated navigation grids into my AI model. What this does is that it allows me to procedurally generate navigation allowing for more dynamic level interaction.

The solution is done by Aron Granberg, you can buy his stuff on the Unity Asset Store. It's a fantastic model and I highly recommend it especially if you plan on having a lot of modular moving components in a level area, very easy to modify.

Using this method solved another issue with navigation meshes and more or less removes many headaches in regards to linking navigational meshes together(many of you will notice that mobs in a room are more or less restricted to that room and cannot chase you past it due to how the rooms are generated).

This made minion following procedures another rudimentary task.

Classically speaking, skeleton minions are just a summon skill that you equip to your bar in many hack and slash RPGs. As the restless undead of the depths is actually it's own faction that you'll be able to build reputation with, I will be going into a more original direction with how you interact with that feature. You'll be able to see them dynamically pop in and ambush opposing slime monsters while also having your own reliable skeleton companions that you can rely on. Faction battles will help add some life into the tileset and it's always neat to see things fight amongst each other.

Last but not least, a common requested feature was some sort of dodge/roll to get out of an enemy attack so I finally spent the 20 seconds it took to get a working model going.

The dash is given it's own designated button which used to be the dual strike button (you no longer have a designed dual strike button, instead you need to press both the left and right attack buttons together to dual strike). This will further fill out the control scheme and should be a welcomed tool. It will be offered with the ability to dodge in the direction that you are moving, if you would like another option, please let me know.

It also still works while whirlwind is active. Technically you still need to commit the stamina needed to use the maneuver combination and it was kinda fun to play around with so I'll leave it in for now, let me know if it's too powerful once the patch is deployed.

Thank you everyone for your patience and I hope to get this to you guys ASAP. In the mean time enjoy your new years!