Hello everybody!
I'm going to be using a more category-based approach to these updates from now on.
Walking back the "Rebuilding AI Systems" thing
I gave up trying to completely rebuild the AI systems in favor of just cleaning up the old code instead. In hindsight, it would've been way too much work for too little gain, and I figured I could put my time to better use elsewhere. That's not to say all that time was wasted - I did figure out a couple of more optimized ways of implementing certain AI systems that I was able to backport, so at least some optimization came out of it.
"Time Of Day" system & Neighborhood updates
Yep, I finally got around to implementing a time-of-day system!
Immediately when I got this working, a ton of scenarios and little bits of interactions flooded my mind, so I'm going to be treating Neighborhood as a giant time-based scenario from now on to accommodate the vision. For example, if it's night time, the Giantess will be sleeping, and if it's lunch time she'll be at the table, etc. etc. I won't spoil too much about it :)
You'll still be able to select specific scenarios via the main menu, but I'll probably just have it set the time of day accordingly so it will trigger it properly -- Not entirely sure yet. Depends on how I implement it, of course.
The time of day progresses as you play the game, and I plan to add options so you can control how fast a day goes by, what time you want to start the map at by default (when no scenario is selected), etc.
I've also added a few new furniture items to the bedroom; I wanted it to feel more like a lived-in space, and though it's still not there yet, it will improve with time. It doesn't make much sense that this house belongs to the Giantess - Perhaps something happened that resulted in you getting trapped in your own home with her or something.
Some Stomach Stuff
As I said in the previous update post, the stomach received a VERY cool (albeit very slight) visual update where the stomach walls will become semi-white to suggest liquids dripping down.
Well, here comes another feature - The stomach's acid now sways as the Giantess moves, and even audibly sloshes around as it does. Basically, the old acid logic forced it to be upright at all times, but now it has some physics to it! A very small change, but I think it'll add to the whole experience very nicely.
Wrap it up
Anyways, I'm really satisfied about how the project is coming along. There are still quite a few issues, I realize that - But I feel like it's actually getting somewhere now.
And I couldn't have done any of this so quickly without the continued support of all of you!! So, as always, I thank you all for your dedication to the project, and I'll see you all next week!
❤