Dev Log Excerpt December 2022 - January 28th 2022

 The following is a 1:1 copy of my personal notes during the last 30 days of game development:

BACKUP 27th of December 2022

X Implementation of Music Box & Queen Bossfight

X Massive Overhaul and Expansion of the world map to 1024 Segments

X Massive Overhaul of Map loading Sequencing and Loading Zones

X What to do now?

X - Keep Section 04,08,12,13,14,15,16 and isolate them from the rest of the map.

X - Replan the core

X - Manta Sound For Rain skips and is too loud maybe?

X - Generator Text is fucked up because of rotation maybe? Experiment

X - Items inside the generic hideout need to be set to "can not step up on", remove chair from the middle, place candles at the top of X the napsack not at the foot end

X - remove night stand table from generic hideout

X - Fix Weather FX for both intact huts

X - Add large ferns along the path

X - Add additional pines across the 1st segment, to maximize the effect of the shadow/light play

what's great? It's no longer boring, pathways are manageable, hideouts are plentiful, player has lots of options to make decisions

X - green, green bushes are oversaturated (i think it's bush04 ?!)

X - Siren needs much lower random patrol location radius

X - Tree monks need to be set up in front of hideouts to prevent player from cheesing them by standing outside

X - Tree monks need to update player location at night time as well and give that information to the siren

X - weather fx need to be removed for broken huts (hideout and non-hideout versions)

X - non-hideout forest houses (the old ones) need to be included together with randomized loot chests

X - all weather fx need lower probability

X - rocks and cliffs inside the lake to create a more interesting landscape, it's boring right now

X - There's still an overall shortness of firewood ... no idea how to remedy that .... maybe a firewood loot pile as random loot? Woodcutter huts or woodstacks? 

X - Trapezoid foundations need footstep sounds

X - Pines need darker texture

X - Firewood Birch Texture is waaaay too bright, oak firewood is way too dark

X - Vinegar needs emissive texture

X - crates in small huts need depenetration velocity set

X - Stock Up on Firewood Needs To Appear Either On Top Or In Front of the woodstack

X - Distinction between day and night time underwater is necessary

X - All hideout doors should be locked by default

X - Nightevent code for locked doors needs to be adjusted

X - Wardrobe is tooo emissive

X - Monks & Tree Spirits need slightly brighter emissive

X IMPORTANT - more crate groups with loot, more places for the player to collect loot (disable automatic spawning of these things, also disable hut spawns, add it all manually)

X IMPORTANT - Add large decidious trees along the pathways for light/shadow break, desperately needed

X - Deal with soulspawner FPS drop

X - Remove trapezoids from hideouts that dont need it so no footstep confusion happens

X - Add and update map to Yamas House

X - Skylight during "Fog" weather is waaaayyy too bright, fog should be even thicker

X - Height scattering of exponential height fog during rain needs to be massively reduced, dont change z level of fog during weather fx, it causes problems left and right

X - conduct additional siren testing, a lot of testing was just done in a regular gameplay environment, but siren wasn't sufficiently tested during attack and in various situations

DEMO 0.5.0 Feedback

X ????? - FPS drops still happen

X - Be 100% certain that the reward chest opens at sunrise

X - Siren appears to be unreliable, make sure she spawns

X - Set version number to 0.5.1

X - Trapezoids determined collision!!!! Add them again and set them to default material!!!!!

X - Add Control scheme to the pause screen

X - Add more spirits and monks to the forest or increase detection range

X - optimize tree spirits and monks

X - Plants and trees fade in and out unreliably, extend their fade range so it's more gradual

X - Crate emissive is too high

X - Reduce Fog, Add Void Dragon Howl To Fog

DEMO 0.5.1 Feedback

X - Rename it to V 0.5.2

X - There is an indoor volume at the generic hideout campground

???- Ravens need a separate scene anchor tied to the siren so they don't move into the ground when the siren attacks

X - Sirens don't reliably de-spawn at daybreak. Add a second safety check in the overworld global variable collector with a timer to check for time of day, kill them at 6:00 am, and at 7:00 am as well. Sirens should only respawn after 8:00 am. Set a preventive branch check with time of day at the monks and tree spirit watchers.

X ???- The door at the lake hideout with the boardwalk was unlocked for some reason. That should not be ... 

X Then when you're satisfied with Section01, create blueprint maps that are loaded in with each section. Add all non-connected BPs like hideouts, treespirits a.s.o to this map

X IMPORTANT: The "Unlock All Doors" Code is executed at sunrise, that's why all the huts are unlocked!!!! It needs player presence as a condition for execution!!!

X Afterwards create indoor functionality, chest spawns and interior randomization incl. weather fx for the village houses

X - Start with island buildings, that can be dealt with a SINGLE indoor volume

X - create weather fx and indoor volume

X - create intelligent shadow spawn night event (no lightsources, they count as non-hideouts)

X - add collision for stairs a.s.o.

X Once this line of buildings is done, copy paste the code and move over to hideouts with multiple indoor volume overlaps (create bools for these overlaps)

Tutorial feedback

X - one nightstand is rotated towards the wall

X - 4th textprompt in compass room doesnt spawn (and doesnt spawn in others as well?)

X - since daylight shadows are set to "enable actor collision" on safety, the compass, which reacts to haunting doesn't show danger accurately

X - Implement Rise Demon

X - prevent player from falling into the water when being consumed by the king

X - The king needs to be higher at start for spawn

X - The king needs post process FX

X - WidgetTutorialDecider needs to decide on a spawn point when player selects tutorial beforehand, including a segment to spawn in and then transfer that info to player character

X -> Then king needs to access it to determine player respawn in the forest

X - During the first shadow tutorial tell him that they rip his light away when he comes too close and tell him again to use alt to check his own lightforce

X - Chameleon Communication Is Flawed

X - King Suck Is Broken If Player Is Safe (Remove Distinction between safety)

X - Shorten Text Prompts Or Move Them To The Top And Switch Them With "This hideout is dark"

X - Move Vinegar bowl away from lamp in 6th room

X - First Shadow Needs To Be DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF A LIGHTSOURCE

X - Remove "Can Step Up" from Tables

X - Crouch Textprompt

X - Add a longer textprompt before the king encounter, explaining indirectly why the king himself is not affected by the light

X - Player will ask why does it say "Black Won?" Chess reference needs to be in the tutorial as well. Maybe chess tiled floor? Large life sized pieces?

X - (doesnt work due to overlap with door locked prompt) Inventory prompt needs to NOT be located near the key, but in the entire room, replace the shift and the item text prompt with a room global one that gives the player all of that info

X - "Press C again to get back up"

X - Increase Tutorial prompt range of King Message And Of Other Messages

X - The intelligent shadow in room02 does not trigger, because player is initially safe when he enters his range of vision ....

X - Check haunt volume of swimming man, is it centered? Is it set to 100% light extinction?

X - player death must not affect death count and light fade

X - When Yama takes his keys away, make sure the UI adjusts his key number as well!!!

X - Maps are loading in now WHILE the player is game over, maps are also NOT loading correctly

X - Player collision update on lamp leads to indoor/visibility checks as well ..... causing the entire building to glitch out (remove it all put it back as it was)

X - Swimming Man's haunt volume needs to be smaller

X - Create custom collision for round tables or set them to simple collision as complex, player still steps up on them

X - Lamps stay haunted after being touched by a shadow, upon end overlap the haunting and the flicker needs to stop!

X - dont put keys on the same table as lamps

X - Music Serenade CAN NOT BE GLOBAL, it needs to be controlled through radios or external sound sources

X - Yama should only destroy itself once all maps are unloaded

X - King And Tutorial Need Music Cues Implemented, consider writing a piano piece for yama, that moves into multiple layers when he's present or when shadows are present

X - Consider the serenade that merges with Rise Demon Attack V1 when Yama appears

X- The light is fading is somehow being triggered AFTER tutorial is set to false. WHY?????

X - get up from crawl, second prompt required!