"Blind"

Can't we see the danger?

Yet we still march on.

Can't we see the storm clouds gather -

Hear the warning gong?

But when the time for choice is past,

Will we then look back at last

And see where we went wrong?

—

Progress on "UR" continues apace. Mostly, I've been making graphical effects and finalizing the engine. There's now a key-config screen ingame, as well as some new enemies. Next up: The remaining 7 Special Weapons - and the twixt-level shop.

As I released a control-test demo to the shmup-dev board, there's nothing wrong with releasing it here to give you the merest taste of what's to come.

Note that nothing in this demo is final; it's short; unoptimized; and there mainly to test the controls. Furthermore, the inertia of the demo has been removed.

Try the little demo

—

Now for the main topic of the day: The city AI in DoC.

I've gotten it so that it can build a working first-Era city, with all resource incomes taken care of and a 'rax finished, in about the time it would take the player to do so. (Possibly a bit faster) It can research technologies, build units, and it takes prerequisites for constructions into account.

It's a pretty common image, of a pretty common city, except for one thing: the city was created entirely by the AI. That's right - autonomous. Plus, it can adjust to the map itself - if there's a big rock where the storage pit should be, the town will be built around said storage pit. (Trees currently don't collide; hence the trees in the middle of town) It's a versatile AI, and represents the next step towards a real singleplayer challenge.