It's been over a month since the last progress update and a lot has been going on behind the scenes, so I wanted to give you all some insight on what's happening with and what to expect for Update 13.
There was an issue with the new AI that caused the game to crash and I was stuck on it for almost two weeks without making any progress on finding a fix. A problem like this wasn't necessarily a surprise when you take into account that this was my first iteration of making the new AI, which means that a lot of things were scattered, very messy, and extremely buggy. To get out of this rut, I made the decision to put aside that version of the AI and create them again with everything I learned.
Luckily, it only took about a week or so to do this revision and the resulting AI are so much cleaner and nicer to play against and for me to work with (and later expand, too). I made sure to retain the same aspects that made the last AI great such as cover, teamwork, and performance, but I also changed a few things. Unfortunately, I needed to temporarily scrap grenades because I have better plans for an AI grenade system that would take more time than I have to work on it right now.
The other major change is that the revised AI are now more aggressive. I enhanced their flanking and team coordination to make them more likely to move up to the player's position, suppress, corner, surround, and/or flush you out of your hiding position. I made this choice because I want to make each faction feel different to fight against, so considering that most of the current missions have you face off against the Viet Cong, I want to emphasize their real life guerilla tactics that set them apart from regular armies. In the future, I'll design US, PAVN, ANZAC... AI as more defensive and have them focus on working as a larger group rather than independently or small teams.
While this is all very exciting and I am working hard to make the AI as awesome as they can be, please keep in mind that PunjiVR is still in early access and active development. There will very likely be many bugs and issues that I couldn't catch or wasn't aware of before launch and a lot of planned features can't make it in right away, so I really appreciate all of your feedback, bug reports, and patience. There is still a lot to do before Update 13 is ready for release, but I feel confident that this update will be the first big step in taking PunjiVR to the next level and I can't wait to see how it all plays out.
If you want to follow the game closer and be a part of the community, feel free to join any of PunjiVR's official social media places below. Thanks for reading and don't forget to check for leeches!
As you were