After the previous release I started to fully implement the simulation of other families. So far the bottle-neck has been that the actual simulation runs in the background, but the respective changes don't get posted to the game map when the player gets to see the area run by other family. I got the basics of the map update working, and then decided to upgrade the AI, teaching it how to craft tools and items. And that turned out to be a major task, which took months to get working at least somewhat properly.
So, here we are, with a fresh version release! The updates to AI are most obvious when choosing the Offspring starting scenario. You can see the AI planning tasks to craft various items, eventually smelting iron to forge metal tools.
On the side I updated the hunting story, fixing bugs and adding short notifications to mark the first hunting trip of a family member - in the lore that is considered a major passage ritual to adulthood, being old enough to attend the winter hunt.
Full changelog for version 0.9.16
- ADDED: The AI now knows how to produce most of the resources. Instead of merely bartering for tools it now can plan to cut trees to get timber to make hafts for tools, to dig clay to construct a kiln, making charcoal and forging metal items. It still fumbles with some tasks, and can't quite figure out how to dive for limonite, so future improvements are still needed.
- ADDED: The hunting story now mentions if this is the first time for some of the family members participating in the winter hunt.
- ADDED: Harvesting crops now has a real sound effect to it.
- ADJUSTED: The sound notification at game start was changed to less ear-piercing one. It now is a real life recording of cutting rye with a sickle.
- ADJUSTED: Barter values for all the items got calibrated based on the historical evidence, best guesses and real-life considerations.
- FIXED: When visiting or changing focus to an AI-simulated family, the map now reflects changes since the area was last seen. This is not yet perfect, but at least it exists. To be improved in future version.
- FIXED: The AI was hoarding baby clothes. That was because of them thinking that they need to prepare for the future clothing needs of deceased family members, which the game then interpreted as baby clothes. They had a never-ending demand for them. This is now fixed, as the AI recognizes that dead relatives need no more clothes.
- FIXED: The hunting story had problems recognizing available tools. This is fixed now so that hunting works better.
- FIXED: There was trouble with TAN task randomly not being available. This is now fixed, and tanning should be possible whenever the player has any pelts.