Week 28 Update

TL;DR Finished trade network (nodes, routes, etc) update & display. Now renders in 3d! Integrated Frame Buffer to enable post-processing effects and integrate libGDX Scene Graph.

Build & Deployment:

Development:

• Trade Network display updated! Looks great in 3d and runs smoothly!
• Integrated Frame Buffer to enable post-processing effects & make use of libGDX built-in Scene Graph & User Interface.

Design:

• Revised design docs for relationship-building.
  • There are 6 "primary" relationships each character can have: Parent, Child, Mentor, Student, Sibling, and Partner.
  • A character may have one of each of these relationships (all optional), however they can have any number of "secondary" relationships from Friend and Cousin.
  • It's possible to build families by "chaining" relationships, e.g. character A has child B and partner C. Child B has sibling D, and partner C has child E with a sibling F. This way you can have two adults cohabitating with anywhere between zero and four children between them. You can likewise build multi-generational families and designate secondary relationships as "cousins."
  • All relationships have additional modifiers: Ally, Rival, Enemy, and Contact, which can be used to designate a social role in addition to their kinship or affiliation.
• Updated design docs for combat & actions, with updates to follow once I've had more time with Deep Rock Galactic.

Influence:

• Played some more Civilization 6.
  • Finally finished that session as Gilgamesh. I got frustrated waiting for the Science victory and casually pursued a Domination victory. I actually captured the 7th capital a few turns before I finished the Mars colonization. So irritated.
  • Started a session with Scythia as Tomyris, used my horse archers to conquer Greece & Australia within the first 120 turns. I'm starting to get the feeling this game has Culture, Religion, & Science victories just for show. Sigh. 
• Tried some more ENDLESS Legend. Got bored. I'll revisit some other time.
• Started up a session of Master of Magic and barely got 50 turns in before I got bored and went back to Civ6.
• Downloaded and started Deep Rock Galactic on XBox Games Pass. THIS GAME IS SO MUCH FUN.
  • I love the mission structure. Objectives are easy to understand even if they aren't always easy to complete. Mine some rock, collect some eggs, build some pipes. I can do this. The secondary objectives are likewise easy to understand & complete alongside the main objective. Sometimes a tertiary objective will show up, and it's an iteration on the same kinds of objectives you're used to, so it changes things up ever so slightly. Navigate the map, complete the objectives. Easy-peasy lemon-squeezy.
  • I love the Dwarf chatter. I've only played solo bc I don't have Gold or whatever I need for online play, but I can only imagine how silly it is with all the dwarves barking at each other throughout a mission.
  • I love the mission hub. I love the minigames and the decorations, the layout, the mission selection... it's all great. I wish I could play online so that I could buy the other players a round LMAO.
  • I have so many thoughts! I'll talk some more about the design next week after I've had a chance to play some more, and I can review the "first impression" notes I took yesterday.

Marketing: 

• I've figured out how to continue building followers post-Rate Limit on Twitter. It isn't as fast as before, but I did pick up another 50 followers this last week.
• My co-conspirator Don is flying out to visit next week! We're going to jam and prepare for the Kickstarter campaign for later this year.