AI Archives - Page 4 of 9 - Fractured Veil

Wooden Bases and AI Fixes

We kicked off the week by working on everyone’s favorite thing, loot! The team implemented the spawning of containers with items in them and new loot tables sure to make all that harvesting, running, fighting and surviving worth it. We also added animation retargeting support to the male and female character meshes, retargeting support to first-person weapons, and updated some broken attachment locations. Nothing is worse in the apocalypse than a crooked scope on your rifle.

There were lots of other fixes this week too. We addressed an issue where melee AI was sometimes unable to attack a base’s totem depending on its positioning or deal damage to constructed walls. A problem where sieges would fail to start if there were no active AI in the world was fixed and we discovered a great bug involving our Trophy Collector mutants.

We found that if you killed one of our favorite head tossing Lahaina residents mid-throw they would leave some of their ammunition on the ground. While you might feel that a few decapitated heads lying around isn’t a big deal, we had to consider what happens after a few years when Maui is a meter deep in faces. We worked too hard on our foliage just to have it covered up so we fixed the bug.

Lastly, we imported and setup all wooden construction pieces this week and will be moving on to stone and metal materials. Here is a peek at a few of the last pieces we worked on and a great looking multi-level wooden base.

February 20, 2020

Stone Walls and Clothing Improvements

Sprint 44 started this week and for the next month we will be updating the map, finishing up a few art issues, and fixing bugs in preparation for our first set of players. The major goals of this sprint are completing our player construction and AI sieging systems, updating player animations and the diorama system, steam friends, player surveys, and buttoning up the crash logging system.

We started by giving our female character model some attention. We finished work on an opacity masking subsystem and updated her gear to keep her from busting out of her pants and boots like she has been. Surviving the apocalypse is hard enough without splitting your pants every time you move. We added render targets for blood to her skin material so she will bleed when damaged now instead of looking like some sort of undead thing. We also completed a party permissions screen for the player construction system.

Our ranged AI got a lot of love this week too. The team improved how AI trace enemies allowing them to more consistently hit players using partial cover. We fixed a really fun bug where AI projectiles would multiply the amount of damage they dealt by the number of players that were hit. Ranged AI will no longer stutter-step when behind other AI (and neither will their projectiles), and we allowed them to deal damage to constructed walls and totems.

Lastly, we continued work on materials for the player construction system. Below you can see the latest iteration on wooden materials and some designs for players who’ve learned from The Three Little Pigs and want to build their base using stone.

February 13, 2020

The Right Tool For The Job

Sprint 43 comes to an end this week and we’re busy adding some polish to a few items, finishing up some design work on our player construction system, and nabbing bugs as they arise. The team made some party improvements to start things off. We added player kicking support to parties so you aren’t stuck dragging around dead weight and the annoying, and we added party leader switching so your group doesn’t have to disband if the leader has to go do homework or take care of the kids.

Work continues on our siege system and this week we fixed several bugs that have popped up with the mutants. We worked out a problem where sieging AI would despawn when reinforcements showed up after the first wave of an attack. The team fixed a bug where mutants were not able to deal damage to constructed walls and found a bug where opened doors were blocking AI navigation. We also fixed an issue with totem permissions not respecting party members properly.

In addition to all the bug fixes this week, the team also added a few features and items to the game. We reworked the harvesting system. Better quality tools now harvest more resources per swing and hitting weak points doubles the amount a player gets as well as the damage to the item being harvested. We looked at many new sign concepts and designs, polished some of the door options we created last week, and imported a new construction tool. It may not come with a lifetime warranty but it’s just what the Kahuna ordered when it comes to putting together a shelter. Below you can see what the new construction tool looks like and the latest wooden door design for your base.

February 6, 2020

Wood, Walls, and Weapons

We added lots of new player animations this week covering all the busy work you might find yourself doing after the collapse of civilization. Crafting, starting a fire, setting a broken arm, and even wrapping a sucking chest wound all have a unique look and action now. While we were making things look more realistic we spent some time smoothing out a few issues with the female character model. Right now one of her feet keeps busting out of her boot and she has the eyes of a tiger shark, which is fine for instilling fear in your enemies, but not the look we’re going for overall.

We cleaned up some of the weapon reloading predictions and removed the hack that temporarily fixed weapons getting stuck in an empty state when the auto-reload failed. We made some good progress on a crash reporter and should have it up and running after some testing over the next couple of days. The team also made some AI improvements to help mutants keep track of their targets during a siege, reduced the wolf and mutant population across the map, and fixed a bug where respawning players would hear coughing as they were brought back into the realm of the living

Most of the week, however, was focused on player construction and building material designs. We went over some possible wood designs, how the pieces might fit together, and some possible engraving/decoration options to make any apocalypse house look like a home. Below you can see that work as it progressed.

January 30, 2020

Phantom Totems and Ocean Fires

We continued our progress on our siege system this week with some major improvements. We smoothed out some problems with spawn points and AI pathing to ensure that the mutant hordes don’t get bunched up and nobody feels left out of the carnage just because they appeared on top of a nearby tree. We added a “Max Siege Time” to the Siege Manager that will automatically stop an attack if it has been active for too long and fixed an issue with the siege cooldown not properly being applied after an attack had finished.

While we were in bug hunting mode we took some time to address a few lingering issues on our list. We fixed problems with drone connectivity, Increased shotgun damage, and decreased bullet spread to make the boomstick feel stronger. Torches won’t stay lit when you swim with them anymore and you can no longer place a campfire in the ocean no matter how pretty you think the embers look floating on the waves. The team also fixed a bug where containers in buildings were lootable through walls. While it did make things pretty easy, imagine how boring your favorite bank heist movie would be if the robbers never had to physically go inside the bank to get the money.

The team is focusing on the player construction system to wrap up the week. We’ve updated the persistence system to better clean up totems and construction pieces when they are destroyed or decay. Previously some pieces would occasionally reappear and float in the air like the ghost of bases past. We updated the UI for the construction tool and looked at some concept art of materials besides the thatch we have now for base construction. Below you can see what the new UI looks like and several possible stone design options you might see in the near future.

January 23, 2020

Base Boxes and Siege Improvements

This is the first full week of sprint 43 and we have a lot planned. The big items on our list are improvements to our player construction system, diorama updates and completing the AI sieging system. We will also be working on fixing up older features, performance improvements, building crash logging systems, and fixing up any temporary art and bugs.

We finished optimizing the player section, player stats, compass, alert lists, and the map widget. Players need only press M to see where they are on the map now. We imported the latest female mesh and refactored water checks for better ocean vs river vs land detection. We also discovered that players who went for a dip in the ocean would sometimes get “stuck” in a swimming state. As much as we’d all like to swim through our day, the apocalypse is no place to walk around swinging your arms like you don’t have a care in the world, plus it’s really hard to aim a rifle when you’re doing the Australian Crawl. We fixed the bug.

The siege system got a lot of attention in the past week. We defined the sizes of bases that the Siege Manager should consider relevant for sieging. Bases can now only be sieged if the owner is online. We added debug chat messages that will indicate when a siege has started and stopped and the system now stops the active wave when the base’s totem is destroyed. We nabbed a few bugs that popped up with the system as well. We fixed a crash that could occur if a base’s calculated size changed during a siege, a bug where all siege functionality would stop updating if there were too many active sieges at once, and an issue where the wave spawner would sometimes get stuck before spawning the next wave. After all, a siege with only one wave of attackers isn’t really much of a siege.

With all the work we’re putting into launching mutants at player bases we thought we’d put a little time into making something special inside to protect. We started modeling unique containers to stash your stuff inside your base. Below you can see a design for a custom container perfect for holding all your extra equipment and loot.

January 16, 2020

Setting Up A Siege

This week the team made numerous AI improvements, worked on the siege system, and added many performance bot updates. We made some adjustments to the AI’s FOV and aggro distance to make sure the horrors of the jungle are properly stirred to action by player activities. We added sound types that will allow AI to only react to certain kinds of noises like gunshots, footsteps, or nearby alerts so our mutants aren’t running through the jungle every time a bird calls or the waves crash. We also fixed a bug involving ranged AI running amok when they couldn’t project an enemy’s location.

With all those improvements in the bag, we continued updating the siege system so our mutants will work better together while trying to overrun a base. We created a Siege Manager that supports defining the waves of AI that will attack the base during a siege. It generates 4 spawn points in a random rotation around the base, broadcasts an event each time an AI is spawned and defines a random chance for a siege to occur every X minutes. We tweaked how the manager determines the size of a base to include things like the number of walls, floors, and other construction pieces rather than just the base’s square footage, making sure that we generate the bloodthirsty horde that’s right for you!

Our testing bots got some attention too. We implemented the attacking of mutants, deer, bear, and wolves, harvesting trees, throwing torches, and shooting guns. The team added tracking of the pawn bots logging in/out, items they added to the world (thrown, dropped, and fired arrows), kills and deaths as well as console commands for stat reports. In their frenzy of throwing torches in the air and shooting anything that moves we found a bug where the bots were just throwing their axes at a tree presumably to harvest wood faster. We explained the importance of axe safety in the apocalypse and fixed the issue.

Lastly, polish on the diorama system continues offering players plenty of things to investigate, loot, or take shelter behind as they explore the world. Here’s a few shots of the latest iteration.

January 9, 2020

Map Updates and UI Improvements

Many of us have been traveling over the holidays visiting friends and family but between unwrapping presents and ushering in the New Year we’ve still managed to get some work done. We optimized bear and wolf replication and set up AI fading for virtually all the creatures and beasts you may run across in the wilds of Lahaina, even the seagulls. We worked on damage modifiers for specific subclasses and continued building a new siege system, working out the rules and actions the mutants will abide by while overrunning a player’s house.

We added some UI/UX improvements to the party system so grouping up with others will look and feel smoother. We updated the player map so you can hit M and see where you’re going and worked on some problems we had with players getting stuck trying to turn while near a wall. We cleared up a construction persistence bug involving claim updates as well.

Lastly, work on what we’re calling the diorama system continued this week. The system adds cars, street lights, containers, and other items you’d expect to find while exploring the roads, rivers, and beaches across the island. Besides adding another layer of reality to the world, it gives players cover when investigating new areas and maybe a few useful items for your struggle. Here’s a look at some of the things you can find along the paths most traveled.

January 3, 2020

Homes and Hazards for the Holidays

With the holidays fast approaching the team was focused this week on fixing bugs and finishing up projects before leaving and joining the great travel queue wherever they call home. AI got a little attention first. To fix some of the issues we ran into last week with mutants hurling missile weapons behind their backs like a carnival attraction, we made a change that ranged AI can now only start a projectile attack if they are actively facing their target. We worked through a few movement and overlapping issues as well so groups of AI can spend more time hunting and killing players and less trying to find the perfect place to stand while rending flesh.

While we’re on the subject of large groups of mutants, we started work on AI siege activity. Our goal is to give a large group of AI battle tactics and behaviors that would see them attack outpost or player constructed buildings and hold them for a set time if they were successful in overrunning the players left or caught defending a structure.

While we worked through some lingering persistence issues and testing the construction system we decided it was time to come up with an appropriate construction tool. While harvesting has the shark-toothed pan we call the Killit, our construction system currently doesn’t have any physical tool. We went over several design options and looked at a few different concepts before settling on a theme and a few favorites. The final tool should be ready for unveiling soon.

Lastly, we’ve finished the first iteration of what we are calling our diorama system. Basically, the system adds items, attractions, and cover along our procedural road, river and beach systems. Things like mailboxes, street lights, cars, containers, and all the things you might expect to be left behind after the fall of humanity can be found along the game’s natural travel corridors. Below you can see one such area and what it looks like morning, noon, and night.

December 19, 2019

Posters, Rivers, and Trick Shots

A new sprint started this week and for the next 30 days we’ll be focusing on updating the map, creating bots for testing, AI sieging, and fixing persistence. We also plan on adding some polish to the player construction system, updating older features, and of course plugging away at the bug list.

We tackled a few bugs already. We fixed an issue where players couldn’t hit weak points if they were standing too close and some issues with our procedural river system flagging shoreline as a river. We added audio for crafting/recycling failures so players will know if their shop projects are getting a failing grade and a flashing alert when stats get to 10% or less. The team added posters and pictures to houses as well to give them a more authentic lived-in feel. All the images so far come from individuals on the team. To be honest, some of them could stand toe-to-toe with anything you’d find on Awkward Family Photos but they do make the ruins more realistic.

Speaking of embarrassing moments we discovered a few more issues with the way the mutants were acting in combat. We found a bug where any AI who started to throw a projectile would throw it backwards if their target quickly ran behind them and we found that Big Bob would sometimes run in place. We’re all fans of trick shots and getting healthier but Bob has to stay big, it’s in his name, so we fixed the issues.

Lastly, we added navigating controls to the drone a while ago to help film trailers and video. Let’s just say flying the eyes in the sky around Lahaina isn’t as easy as you think. Below you can see what the drone can capture with a rookie at the controls.

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December 13, 2019

Tag: AI