Small dev update and ramblings. Ideals finalized, gameplay imminent!

A small update considering the state of things, rudimentary AI has been implemented, simple debug spawn and they will run to location of newly placed building and perform the "build" task.

I'm still deciding on the initial ideal of the game, Main premises are:

• Large world 
• Random Encounters (Feral Animals/Weather/Other Civilizations)
• Resource Depletion
• Sense of wonder!

To get these implemented might prove challenging, though with some better assets the sense of wonder can easily be achieved with "the money shot"*

Designer Note: The "money shot" for lack of a better idiom is generally used for that awe-struck moment a player sees something cool, this is generally easier to do in First Person or Third Person games due to lighting/player vision and forced direction for the player (mostly linear, but non-linear works too). Now, I've never seen this in RTS style games, as generally the environments are static and there's other things to focus on. But I'll attempt to recreate some unique elements to the world (Groves/Bays/Plateuas will be visually appealing no doubt)

Something akin to this I mocked up in earlier could be used on a grander scale later on in the cycle:

A small water feature that a bustling village could be built around

Housing around the water - Fishing would be ideal - The bush is for gathering

The mushrooms and berry plants will be utilised for gathering. Fertile soil increases yield/

 Initial goals are to have you (The player) start with a small clan/tribe/group and bring your rag tag group into the world and develop their ideologies/beliefs/technology and so on.

Fun Factor & Sense of Accomplishment? 

A problem here is the fun factor vs the sense of accomplishment, starting out as a small group and gathering resources might seem tedious to a player when not much is happening; I could probably speed this process up by cheaper initial buildings and generous resource acquisition rates.

I've often thought that RTS/Builder style games lack the ambition for a grand scope, and instead focus on the small town the player is building and having the AI/Other Players use each others bases as a staging ground for domination. While I understand the technical limitations, I don't think they genre needs to be pigeon holed so heavily towards one small settlement. Macro is key for these games anyway, they set apart the good from the bad.

Designer Note: Macro is generally used in RTS games as the ability to keep all of the players production flowing constantly, from units building to resources harvesting and scouts scouting. To enable this in my prototype will mean several things; Large armies/bases, a strong economy to be utilized and an easy way to manage the macro element, this will require decent UI work and preset bindings to target certain game elements quickly.

Naming conventions and version control have something I've been toying with, pretty standard practice but always good to keep me consistent:

Naming conventions for folders/scripts etc - Need to condense the folders after prototypes. 

An element i'm keen to implement or investigate is mysterious events, this could be a forgotten alien race (cliché i know) or something more...well more...perhaps a pantheon of gods  leaving behind relics...

Anyway, these objects need some work, but I mocked up a short animation of the "ruins/relics" i want to showcase, as well as the basic functionality of the camera/building placement/assets and such.

The video highlights some initial thoughts, the buildings are placed in a "ghost form" and will construct over time, popping into the fully textured asset (This needs some refining). The buildings will be red and thus unplaceable if they overlap with another building - some tweaks to this - currently implemented uneven ground - lots of math involved! The small square boxes around the entrance to the buildings are visual for now - they showcase the AI pathing to the the building, for spawning/despawning AI. (Sorry about the music!)

The game speed has been setup, to increase/decrease speed (Also affects how long/fast buildings take to complete/AI walk etc etc - Will effect day/night and seasons....eventually) Buildings can be rotated, the "sphere" in the middle of the screen is just for camera purposes, so I can test raycasting and the generally derpyness of collision and the camera...