Office Building Interiors — First Pass Complete

The first full pass of office building interiors is done. Every office building in Anchorpoint now has proper internal floors that the player will be able to view when a crime happens inside.

Next on the interior list is high-density residential interiors — apartment blocks and the like — followed by kitting out those interiors with crime scenes. Crime scenes will be built per crime type and per relevant interior, so a burglary in an apartment looks and lays out differently from a domestic incident, and both look different again from a body found in an alley. Officers will interact with each scene based on their role and abilities, the player will be able to view them going about their investigation.

Crime Scene Framework — In the Ground

The framework the crime scenes will sit on top of is now built.

Each scene is data-driven. Room components inside a building interior hold what kinds of crime are allowed to happen there, and evidence markers hold the physical anchors where evidence sits — floor, counter, behind the bar, kitchen sink. The actual evidence data itself lives in the crime record, not in the prefab. That separation means the same building can host different crimes, with the evidence appropriate to whatever happened rather than always the same set of clues.

Officer navigation inside interiors handoffs cleanly from the outdoor pathfinding to interior pathfinding at doorway thresholds. Suspects use the same nav system as civilians so a runner fleeing an interior can bolt straight out the door and into the crowd.

Address System — Rebuilt from the Ground Up

Devlog #02 flagged the address system as in-progress. It's now fully rebuilt.

Every location in Anchorpoint has a unique persistent identity, a properly configured street with a name and suffix, and an address that formats correctly for US convention. Multi-unit apartments are supported — Apt 4B, Apt 12, whatever the building layout calls for — with each unit having its own persistent identity so a call to Apt 4B stays Apt 4B across save loads and days of in-game time.

I’ve created an editor tool that lets me click to place location markers in the city and configure them as I go, rather than dragging every one in by hand. That's already speeding up city authoring.

Every incident now flows through this system: a crime is committed at a specific real location, the CAD prints the address correctly, the dispatched unit navigates to that spot. Repeat-location tracking is in — the game will know that Apt 4B has had three domestics in the last two weeks and can weight future crime accordingly when the player reviews crime stats.

At some point I may create Kickstarter one of the rewards being backer street-naming. Named streets and locations are real streets and locations the game routes officers to.

CAD — Polish and Fixes

The CAD terminal got a decent chunk of polish and a partian re-write this month:

• Roster sorting — dispatched units now drop to the bottom of the roster and grey out so you can see at a glance who's available and who's out on a call

• Card modal system — every list (Incoming, Pending, Dispatch Queue, Active) opens the same floating card modal over the map rather than expanding inline. Cleaner and much easier to read

• Pending modal fully built — five pre-filled dropdowns and four action buttons: dispatch, cancel, return to incoming, or close as non-attendance

• Bug fix — incidents were briefly showing in both the Incoming and Pending lists at once. Fixed

• Refresh events — several state transitions weren't firing UI refreshes when they should. Also fixed

• Map theme — the CAD map now uses a light theme with warm cream background and white roads. Reads much better than the old dark version.

Crime Types Expanded

The crime type list has grown. Twelve new incident types were added to cover the sort of calls a real precinct actually deals with day-to-day: body found, vandalism, trespass, ADW (assault with a deadly weapon), indecent exposure, person with a weapon, noise complaint, prowler, shots fired, shooting in progress, stabbing in progress, and fight in progress.

Pace

The last few weeks have been slower than I'd like. I've been unwell, nothing major but knocked me off my feet for a bit, and there was a week of family holiday in there too. The build hasn't stopped — the office interior pass and a chunk of the crime scene work landed in that window — but it hasn't moved as fast as I’d have liked.

Next Up

• High-density residential interiors — first pass

• Crime scenes built out per crime type per interior

• Officer crime-scene behaviour — walking the scene, examining evidence, taking statements

• Street lights and headlights (still outstanding from Devlog #02)

More soon.

— Mike, Ironkeel Studios