Game Development: We think you'll notice.

[Fcn]

Really great update. Pathfinding has made mordor a little bit more dangerous, as it should be!

[loftar]

There was a horrible bug in an edge case in the function which made animals actually follow a path which has made the server crash nought less than thrice today. Sorry 'bout that. I'm working on it right now, and it should soon be fixed.

[Jackard]

A fox just chased me in between a fence and a ridge, a gap which I cannot pass myself.

Out of curiousity, what's next on the menu? I've been hearing about pathfinding being implemented for a while now, but not much past that. What did you guys want to work on before map changes?

[loftar]

Pathfinding was, indeed, the major blocker. We'll probably start work on the mapgen during our next session.

[Potjeh]

Great news
Question: now that pathfinding is implemented, will summoned characters defend themselves?

[loftar]

Nope. To begin with, pathfinding is only actually used by animals so far, though that is, of course, subject to change. However, making an actual AI to fight for a player, however simple the AI itself maybe, would be extremely non-trivial, and is not likely to happen anytime soon. I do agree, though, that the defenselessness of summoned characters is a (large) problem, but its solution is not entirely obvious.

[loftar]

So there, finally the crasher bug got fixed. It turned out quite a bit trickier than I first anticipated, but I hope it works now.

To be more exact, the situation which caused the crashes was when an animal followed a path towards a target, and the target was removed before it could enter "homing mode", such as when two foxes chased the same chicken and one killed the chicken while the other was following a non-direct path towards it.

[Peter]

Pathfinding was, indeed, the major blocker. We'll probably start work on the mapgen during our next session.

Sweeeeeeeee-
(half an hour later)
eeeet.

As my old thread demonstrated, I'm big on mapgen. I don't suppose we should bother packing up at all yet, though.

I bet that steel will be the one thing we have an awful lot of initially, because everybody will be bringing several bars over to sell. I guess I'll have to start making vinegar, beer, and rennet. But I'm getting ahead of things.

Oh, someone mentioned that there should be at least one or two more house-shape-options available for construction before the crossover, as otherwise there'll be big mono archetectual downtowns that have to be torn down and replaced later on.

[jorb]

Oh, someone mentioned that there should be at least one or two more house-shape-options available for construction before the crossover, as otherwise there'll be big mono archetectual downtowns that have to be torn down and replaced later on.

I'm on it.

[Lightning4]

So there, finally the crasher bug got fixed. It turned out quite a bit trickier than I first anticipated, but I hope it works now.

To be more exact, the situation which caused the crashes was when an animal followed a path towards a target, and the target was removed before it could enter "homing mode", such as when two foxes chased the same chicken and one killed the chicken while the other was following a non-direct path towards it.

Damn those foxes!