We're now two weeks into our daily build routine and I'm still loving the drive and focus it's giving me, so we'll definitely continue with that approach for the foreseeable future.
I started off this week by further optimising the lights on the ship. They account for over 50% of the GPU load so it's a constant balancing act. Performance is now slightly better, and I've also included the ability to add multiple lighting profiles such as Disco Mode!
We're going to have two PCs running Starsim at the Format Gaming Convention on the 20th of August, so to prevent convention players from getting lost in the unfinished areas of the ship I've added some barricade tape in key locations. The NPC crew are also barred from these areas.
The NPC crew needed some love, so I spent many hours downloading all 18 MetaHuman body shapes. There's still some work to do (like the hair), but they're now far more visually diverse. I also threw together a quick random name generator and some temporary 'uniforms' :P
Another issue with the NPC crew was their penchant to bunch up in certain areas when freely roaming. They have now been given specific points of interest relevant to their role, resulting in far more natural pathing. This will be expanded upon to include actual job activities.
Speaking of job activities, the Engineering crew will now autonomously repair damage on the ship, so if you shoot a light out an NPC will come to fix it! This is the start of the Engineering gameplay, where players will assign tasks and join the NPC crew in maintaining the ship.
