Hello there! After some minor setbacks, I've gone full throttle on some proper, mandrillian-centric AI work. After dabbling a bit with more simple AI characters like the murderbots and insectoids (which will still have their spotlight in the future), I'm finally focusing on an actual NPC monkey enemy.
My original issues with adding NPC enemies was that the Mandrillian mechanics were fine-tuned for a human-controlled unit, with misdirection and mind games being a big part of it. Making it translate well to an NPC would mean behavior complexity way out of my skill. Making them mindless cannon fodder would go against the Mandrillian's concept as an enemy (and also that's what the insectoids will be for).
Enter the Mandrillian Test Subject.
The Mandrillian Test Subject will be both a way to get the "Escape from Mandrillia experience" in a single-player setting and a way to spice up matches with human players.
While it won't be affected 1:1 by the current match modifiers, many of its features will be controlled in one way or another by them.
I'm aiming for an end-of-year deadline to have this little fella fully implemented. In any case, if you're part of the 9% of players who are on the experimental beta branch, you're in for a ride. Don't be surprised if you get suddenly jumped at by a T-posing monkey at some point during the month.
As always, you can join the Discord community to scream at me
That's all for now. Have a juicy Autumn Sale!