Cosmic Construct News

[p]Welcome to the 59th devlog for Cosmic Construct. I've been playing Hytale and the Aniimo CBT2, as I had mentioned last week. In addition to that, we had an more or less unexpected visit from an out of town friend. So we've been hanging out with him. Regardless, I've made some progress on some of the structure art, and new AI state machine which is almost finished.[/p][p]To follow the game's progress you can join me at:[/p]

• [p]My bluesky account which gives more frequent updates.[/p]
• [p]The Cosmic Construct community discord server.[/p]
• [p]Also Wishlist Cosmic Construct on Steam and follow it's steam page.[/p]

[p]---[/p][p]Structure Art[/p][p]I am still working on some of the larger multipart structures, and variations of existing structures. Many of these I'm not going to share, as if I post everything in the game to social media, there won't be anything for players to discover. Currently, I'm working on some housing variations, so that when houses are placed into neighborhoods, they aren't making up contiguous rows of identical buildings. Considering the adding of procedural elements to these.[/p][p]Pawn AI[/p][p]I've finished a majority of the code that does the functions already written, and am building the framework for interactions with future structure integrations. When the new structures are added, the pawn AI should be able to interact with them. I'll just need to check for bugs. There are of course corner case, and small things pawns are doing that I don't want them to. So I've been tweaking and correcting the new AI behavior. I'll likely be doing that for the next few weeks.[/p][p]Side Projects[/p][p][/p][p]Over the last few days, a reddit-like social media website was built for Clawdbot AI agents. I wanted to post on[/p][p][/p][p]So a built an application with AIStudio to do just that. It has all of the features of a reddit app, I can view posts, upvote, etc...[/p][p][/p][p]I have many side projects and thus maintenance on them I need to occasionally do. I have a universe of fiction that is sky pirates fantasy called Keygemin, which has its own wiki. Occasionally, I need to sync data to it from my obsidian vault and update outdated pages. So I've been crawling through it and updating articles.[/p][p][/p][p]I got nerd snipped by some math problems, the first of which was Golomb Rulers, which are a bit difficult to explain. Basically it splits a number line into segments of different sizes. The goal is trying to find the ruler with the highest number of segments, that reduces into the fewest number of unique[/p][p][/p][p]I hinted about this one on bluesky, but this is a poor attempt at trying to solve the 3x3x3 tensor problem in the fewest number of multiplications. 27 being a baseline, 23 being the record, with better solutions improving a vast majority of computational systems. Should anyone find a solution. I turned it into software that can be run, to "mine". Imagine if someone built a cryptocurrency like this. All that energy would actually go into something useful.[/p][p]---[/p][p]As before, the structure art phase will continue for the next 5 weeks, before I move back to working on the more functional parts of the game. At that point all unfinished art will become placeholders.[/p][p]- Structure Art[/p]

[p]Welcome to the 58th devlog for Cosmic Construct. As I mentioned last week, I was going to take some time to play all of the new games that came out recently. In this case Hytale, Arknights: Endfield, and the Aniimo CBT2 (which will be running for 2 weeks).[/p][p]This devlog is going to be light on images, as I don't have anything visual to show off. Sorry for the wall of text.[/p][p]To follow the game's progress you can join me at:[/p]

• [p]My bluesky account which gives more frequent updates.[/p]
• [p]The Cosmic Construct community discord server.[/p]
• [p]Also Wishlist Cosmic Construct on Steam and follow it's steam page.[/p]

[p]---[/p][p]Structure Art[/p][p]I didn't get any of this done this week as I've been pretty burnt out on it working on other things instead.[/p][p]New Pawn AI[/p][p]Planning a big update to the way Pawn AI is handled. I have the skeleton of it all done, and am starting to record and port in actions from the old AI and testing their movement to ensure they are performing the same tasks. This upgrade will introduce pawn personalities which will tweak pawn priorities. Pawns with either be social or anti-social, addiction motivated or adverse, among many small traits which will be unique. This will be true even for pawns with the same personality type, changing who and what they interact with. Altogether, it sort of recreates a "16 types" personality distribution, but not exactly.[/p][p]Additionally, I have decided to move away from a "stress" and "comfort" system to a "self actualization score" system. This change will mean that pawns will not leave the settlement simply due to unhappiness. They can still leave, but will not do so because of stress. They will remain "unhappy" within the settlement, unless acted upon an outside source. A pawn's self actualization will simply be displayed as an icon next to the pawn in the pawn manager. There will be 8 of these levels, and as the level increases pawn actions will become more "automatic" and more complex. Going from fulfilling their own needs, to fulfilling the needs of others. For example, a pawn in the leisure state might bring food to a hungry working pawn while socializing.[/p][p]The goal of this new AI system it to have the pawns feel more "life-like" and "interactive". Setting the game up for more "watchability". Part of this is to be able to sit and watch the screen, and pawns work, live, and interact. They are meant to have their own "lives" and "possessions". Though it will be a long time before I get to working on that. I have to finish making the gameplay first.[/p][p]Side Projects[/p][p][/p][p]Set up an application that export laser cutting ready SVGs for wooden components. With this I designed some interlocking dungeon tile pieces.[/p][p][/p][p]The application of course displays these parts in 3 dimensions so I can test them out to see if they fit. Of course in real world 3mm particle stock has moisture, and poor tolerances you have to deal with, but the kerf is adjustable to get everything to fiction fit.[/p][p][/p][p]I joked on Bluesky about making a modern rendition / recreation of the notorious TTRPG game HYBRID. As HYBRID: Coherent Edition. I actually went through the process of laying that out trying to make sense of it with help from an army of LLMs. It is still unintelligible, but as least I can read it without random rants about hypothetically Iraqi WMDs and how they fit into the power scaling of the Marvel universe or whatever.[/p][p]---[/p][p]I know for the last couple weeks I've said structure art, without actually working on it. I'll try to actually get some structure art finished this week.[/p][p]- Structure Art[/p]

[p]This will be the first devlog of 2026, week 57! Thank you for being here, although there isn't much in the way of tangible progress this week, I did a lot of planning out that will save me time in the long term. Improving the quality of the gameplay experience overall. I'll talk about exactly what that is this week.[/p][p]To follow the game's progress you can join me at:[/p]

• [p]My bluesky account which gives more frequent updates.[/p]
• [p]The Cosmic Construct community discord server.[/p]
• [p]Also Wishlist Cosmic Construct on Steam and follow it's steam page.[/p]

[p]---[/p][p]Structure Art[/p][p]I finally made some progress on the Bazaar procedural generation, and I think that will be done soon so I can show off what that looks like. I didn't start any new art for structures, but biome parts for Dansland were added instead. With Dansland, also thinking about adding the biome labels in at the[/p][p]AI State Machine[/p][p][/p][p]This is a screenshot of the clunky old stat machine. Each of the pawn_state_x() scripts are large swaths of checks which have redundancy which needs to be cleaned up. Really, this is a poor way to do this checking amounting to a list of if then statements. I knew that this would need to be replaced with a priority queueing system at some point. The added complexity of the pawn moods and personalities requires this, and was always a part of the development outline.[/p][p]I just didn't know what I would be doing to set this apart from other games in the same genre, like Rimworld. The current plan is to have a priority queueing system based on the 8 levels of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, instead of letting them be individually assigned by the player. The player will still control professions and tasks, but the individual actions performed to carry out those tasks will be chosen by the pawns. The way this is carried out will be based on pawn personality. For example, a glutenous pawn will prioritize food over work, stopping work for even small amounts of energy loss; or occupy their inventory with food items instead of work items. (All pawns have their own inventory by the way, I've just never made it viewable.)[/p][p]Side Projects[/p][p][/p][p]I work on a litany of things that aren't video games, including tabletop roleplaying games, wargames, board games, trading card games, and in this case CYOA image sets (which are basically games). Every couple of years I put out a new one, and had a great idea for a refreshed CYOA set for my world of Keygemin. This won't be done for a while, but when it is I'll make sure it goes up on my socials so you can play it.[/p][p]Hytale[/p][p][/p][p]A couple of weeks ago, I let you all know I would be taking some time this week for the Hytale early access launch. I have to say I like the game. I'm still enjoying it, and will probably be playing a bit longer until I get inevitably burnt out on it. Consider this a form of market research... I'll also be playing every new gacha game that comes out, for example Arknights Endfield, and Seven Deadly Sins Origins. I do this to all of them and it is just part of who I am. So you're gonna have to deal with it.[/p][p]---[/p][p]As with the previous month or two, I'm still working on Structure Art, and interleaving it with other stuff to prevent getting burned out on it. Structure Art will be worked on for the next 7 weeks, then I will move on to other parts of the game regardless if that is finished or not, replacing unfinished art with placeholders.[/p][p]- Structure Art[/p]

[p]Welcome to the week 56 devlog for Cosmic Construct. Apparently I'm sick again, winter has not been good to me. I went from throat pain, to coughing, now I'm leaking. But its whatever. Not much I can do about it.[/p][p]To follow the game's progress you can join me at:[/p]

• [p]My bluesky account which gives more frequent updates.[/p]
• [p]The Cosmic Construct community discord server.[/p]
• [p]Also Wishlist Cosmic Construct on Steam and follow it's steam page.[/p]

[p]---[/p][p]Structure Art[/p][p][/p][p]Most of the Dansland biome stuff is finished. I have a few biome specific plants to make, then I'll have it integrated into the game. Dansland is going to supply some of the more brown tone decor item recipes, and as mentioned before fruits for cooking[/p][p][/p][p]I did some work on the Hotel, Stadium, and Resort, though not as much as I would have liked. I'm going to blame sickness for my unwillingness to sit down and draw. Let me instead talk about what is done, what needs to be done, and what I'm going to do next. Seeing that this devlog is a sparse on images.[/p][p]Tier 6 buildings need the Bazaar coded in, although all of the parts are done the procedural generation isn't looking right. The City Hall, Guild Hall, Observatory, and Treasury haven't been imported into the game yet, but are complete. The Library and Museum arts are still in progress, both are large triple buildings so that take a lot more work. After those are done all of the Tier 6 structures will be done.

Tier 7 buildings have the Auditor, Terraformer, and Centrifuge arts done but not imported. I have to do a special animation for the Terraformer which need its own code. The Hotel and Stadium are in progress. Not started or with almost no art are the Institute, Mall, and Mausoleum, as well as an unnamed triple size structure. So Tier 7 is about half way complete.[/p][p]Tier 8 Buildings are barely started, and need the Embassy finished (which is almost done), then the Distro, Mansion, Resort, University, Colosseum, and 5 other unnamed structures. Tier 8 is barely started. I think I'll spend most of February doing that.[/p][p]---[/p][p]I'll still be doing Structure Art for at least the next 8 weeks, after which I'll be moving onto something else regardless if it is finished or not.[/p][p]- Structure Art[/p]

[p]And now welcome to the 55th week devlog for Cosmic Construct.[/p][p]To follow the game's progress you can join me at:[/p]

• [p]My bluesky account which gives more frequent updates.[/p]
• [p]The Cosmic Construct community discord server.[/p]
• [p]Also Wishlist Cosmic Construct on Steam and follow it's steam page.[/p]

[p]---
Structure Art[/p][p][/p][p]This isn't anything new, but I've been working to get the parts in for the Bazaar procedural generation. Its more complicated that I realized, as the existing seed function I have in place was making the generation look too regular, so I've been tweaking it a bit so that parts don't get repeated. I'm not too knowledgeable about how to prevent these modulo based hashes repetitions, so I've had to learn about that.[/p][p]New Biome[/p][p][/p][p]I'm working on a new biome called Dansland which will be tropical themed. We don't really have enough fruits, so I plan to add a few in this biome to encourage exploration. Also, a new type of tree with a new type of fiber for decor later. Basically, after the game releases, I can support it with expanded decor recipes, which will allow for a late game "progression" feeling without the need of additional character levels by doing tiered decor. Some of which will have functions and be interactable by pawns. I'm just getting stuff set up for that.[/p][p][/p][p]I have a couple of trees I am preparing for a future biome, as well as palm trees for Dansland which I've barely started. These trees will help increase diversity across biomes so that biomes don't just contain a single type of tree.  Something I'll flesh out more once the structure art is done. Good news is that after the structure art is done, I only have items, interactable, biomes, UI and minigame art. There are only 4 more planned biomes, and biomes are generally "easier" than the structures are for me. Minigame art is the most complex, but I have assets I can reuse for most of that. Also, much of it is UI anyway, and programming[/p][p]Side Projects[/p][p][/p][p]A dungeon map page generator for tabletop games. I wanted to see if I could do it real quick, and I like it. I might flesh this out a bit more and make some maps PDFs .[/p][p][/p][p]I've been working on developing my conlang from 10 years with of documentation into a textbook that teaches the language to others. [/p][p][/p][p]So I made this Kawaii sakura-themed page layout for the textbook.[/p][p]---[/p][p]As has been for a while, I'm still working on Structure Art. But, I'll now be interleaving that with the new biome. I should have the new biome done either this week or next. We'll see.[/p][p]- Structure Art[/p][p]- New Biome[/p]