Currently working on optimising the character code. I want to populate large towns and have big battles, but the character code is pretty complex so I have to try to spread out the code updates in such a way that it doesn't destabalise anything. For some reason, the biggest CPU hog, and the thing that takes up most of my time trying to get right, is simply the movement system. I would have thought it would be the ambitious AI or something, but no.
Every building I put down is assigned a faction, and then a particular division of that faction. So if a building is owned by the towns general faction "Dead cat", I can then assign it to the civilians, or the police, or the military, and it will populate that building automatically with the right NPCs and squads. Then they set out wandering about doing their thing automatically and I don't have to worry about them anymore.
Looks pretty great!
Good luck with it !
I suppose pathfinding in a world this big needs a lot of polish. With the buildable objects thrown in and lots of varying paths, I can see how this would clog up CPUs. Any word on multi core (anything more than one) performance? I don't want my Quad Core with 12 potential ghz to be reduced to 2.7 all the time because games cannot support it.
Uh... back on topic, you are really aiming for a release date in August?
july 31, unless he changes it.. o.e