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(+1)

Thanks for trying the game again.

I wasn't going to update the prototype again, but I had a sudden inspiration on how to mitigate the droids getting stuck in the warehouses, and I think this is now solved.

Build 0006 is now uploaded with the "stuck droids" fix, if you feel like giving it a go yet again.

The problem was that the Navigation system was sometimes sending a droid the "wrong way" through the warehouse as a way of avoiding droids coming the other way. If a droid was already moving in the correct direction through the warehouse, they would bump into each other and get stuck. I have simply placed an invisible object so as to make the inside of the warehouse less attractive (to the Navigation system) as an avoidance route. I tested it by using all 8 droids to build the same building at the same time, and none of them got stuck. There might be corner cases where they still get stuck, but this solution will do for the prototype.

As for droids colliding elsewhere, I am a hostage to the Godot devs. As they are all "agents" within the Nav system, they should not be bumping into each other like that. There is dev effort in this direction planned, so hopefully things should improve in future.

Thanks very much for the test/feedback offer. It will be a while before it happens, but I am very likely to take you up on that.

I also watched your uploaded stream of the game on YouTube. It was a very odd experience watching someone else play my game. But... it helped me understand your point about the menus and I have taken that on board for the future. I am not sure I will be able to do what you have suggested for everything, but I will give it a go where it makes sense. Creating this game is still very much a learning experience and it will be good to experiment with alternative ways of doing things.

I get this feeling that my own personal excitement for this is spilling into you and boosting you, so I'm gonna test this new build right now! :D

"I tested it by using all 8 droids to build the same building at the same time, and none of them got stuck"

I would recommend testing it with all the droids doing different things in different directions. This is usually what I've been doing when I get stuck droids. I also wonder if it's possible for them to catch on the wall when they're going in and out. I have noticed they tend to hug the wall rather tightly and catch a bit when going in. I remember seeing single droid jams in previous builds, and usually when these happen it's when the droid is trying to go out. I'm wondering if the walls inside the warehouse are causing these single jams?

Also, I just realized you made it that the middle mouse button can be used to turn the camera for different angles. Can I recommend adding this to Q and E as well, where Q moves the camera around its pivot to the right (thus turning left) while E is the opposite?

(+1)

So, as I said, I am a hostage to the nav system in Godot for further droid behaviour improvements. And yes, I am aware of them bumping into walls etc, and they do sometimes getting temporarily stuck. Just have to live with it for now.

Yes, Q and E sounds sensible for left/right camera rotation. Unfortunately, this is not as slick as using the mouse, as for some reason doing this recognises the key press delay from the OS (I have tried it in my two other games that are on itch). However, I have now stopped work on the prototype, and already started on refactoring and adding new/different functionality for a proper demo version. It will take a long time before the first build of that is ready. As well as adding missing functionality, I will also be radically changing the UI/UX functionality - I have thought about that quite a bit since your first bit of feedback and I think I know where I want to go with it now.

Thanks for all the useful feedback. This is what I was hoping for when I joined this jam.