Hello everyone.

For those of you who have not read my previous development update, this update took a very long time because I was refactoring a whole lot of important AI and mission structure which is critical to the future of ASE. I had no idea what I was doing so I went in circles for a while, but I think I got there in the end.

In a nutshell, OperationMaverick and OperationZero, the two projects that ASE is based on, were developed to mimic singular missions from Top Gun Maverick and Ace Combat Zero respectively. With only these two missions to worry about, the AI and mission structure code is designed to replicate the flow and mechanics of these missions specifically. 

With ASE attempting to introduce more complex missions with multiple allied and enemy units and mid-mission updates, the current code just wouldn't cut it without some extremely disgusting hacks, so I decided to learn and implement my own solution - being a total refactor of AI code and the introduction of a mission trigger & event system which begins to allow me to expand missions beyond "destroy X targets".

With this in mind, let's get into what's new:

Bug Fixes

• Fixed using the mouse on the menu leading to deselection of menu box and soft-locking the game
• Fixed gun reticule sometimes staying on screen after enemy is destroyed (maybe)
• Fixed a whole bunch of other stuff, but I forgot cause it's been so long since the last update

Known Bugs

• Post-processing toggles on and off when camera is switched
• Allied aircraft flies through the ground sometimes
• Enemy planes stop momentarily when hit by bullets
• Running the game on resolutions higher than  1080 x 1920 creates a scaling issue with the bomb UI
• Switch controllers don't work - this isn't really a bug but Unity need some weird interface to be implemented which I haven't done yet. 

New Content and Other Changes

AI

• New AI State Machine System: A wrapper around AI aircraft allowing it to execute several different types of tasks. Tasks can be changed at any time during a mission. 
  • Tasks include:
    • Look For Targets: The AI randomly creates waypoints and flies to them, while periodically searching around it for targets.
    • Attack Target: The AI turns on its weapons and flies towards the target, attacking when it is able.
    • Head to Waypoint: The AI creates a list of waypoints. It can fly either to the closest waypoint or start at the top of the list. When it reaches the end of the list it can either loop around to start or look for targets.
    • Patrol Waypoints: The AI will receive a list of waypoints and loops through them, periodically searching around it for targets.
    • Fly in Formation: The AI will attempt to match speed and fly at the appropriate offset from a formation leader, who has a different task.
    • Break Formation: The AI will fly away from the formation to a predetermined break position before engaging a designated target, or transition into the Look For Targets state if there is no target. Formations can break messily if they are attacked by a missile.
    • Escort Target: The AI will fly in formation with the escort objective. if it is assigned a target, the AI will attack the target until it is destroyed or moves away from the escort objective. If the target is destroyed the AI will get a new target from the escort objective. If no other targets in range the AI will return to formation.
  • The AI State Machine is responsible for not only assigning and changing tasks, but also situational awareness. Separately from running its tasks, the state machine also checks incoming missiles and ground collisions. If it needs to, it can suspend the current task and enter an emergency state to avoid collisions with missile or terrain, before resuming the state.
• New Escort Objective System
  • Targets can be designated as an escort objective. Escorted targets periodically check around them for threats and assign escorts to attack them. 
  • Moving these checks to the escort objective instead of escort targets reduces the amount of processing going on!

Mission Editor

• New Mission Manager System: A series of triggers which watch for events in game and send messages to other things when they fire.
  • Triggers include:
    • Destroy Targets: Target objects can be linked to this trigger to fire an event when a certain number of them are destroyed
    • Score Points: Triggers events based on how much score the player has
    • Position Trigger: A physical object in the world that fires once an object with the appropriate tag enters their hitbox
    • Timer: Triggers events based on how much time has elapsed since the mission beginning.
    • Targets To Destination: Integrates with the position trigger to detect when a certain number of gameobjects have entered an area
  • Multi-parameter events
    • A system that can send multiple pieces of information in an event, allowing for aircraft state machines to change their missions by specifying mission type, target and position, if necessary.

Others

• AA guns and SAMs can now attack enemy aircraft which come near them. 
• New music by Manbou 2nd Class
• New mission - Operation Fortitude: Escort the allied AWACS and civilian airline out of the combat area
• Tweaks to existing missions:
  • Mission 1 - Operation Argus: Intercept the enemy bomber formations and prevent them from leaving the combat area
  • Mission 4 - Operation Magnum Major: An ace squadron will spawn if you destroy a certain amount of targets. The mission will clear upon all targets being destroyed
• Tweaks to camera tracking delay to make aircraft movement more dynamic
• Re-enabled smoke trails when aircraft get damaged
• Bullets now riccochet - I didn't program this but it randomly started doing it...

That's it for now.

 I apologise again from the delay - I was very confused with all this AI stuff and it took me a while to really get my head around things. Hopefully the hard stuff is done and there aren't many bugs to fix. New AI missions and triggers will come as they occur to me!

What's next?

I'm not sure, there are a lot of things which need attention, and I really want to add more mechanics in game. Here are my thoughts:

• Controls remapping and actual options screen
• Minimap and UI refactor
• Ground force AI 
• Teaching aircraft AI to use guns

We'll see. That's all from me for this update!