Update 2023 - Q4

Updated: Apr 7, 2024

This update was primarily focused on upgrading the Game Engine, implementing a Quest System, and fixing bugs.

Expanding the offerings of the current Quest system to cover the needs of Delora.
Work on starting quests has begun.

Cleaned up the Player Animator to remove unused data elements to simplify future work.
NPC Spawners can now be configured to Override an NPCs default starting health.
Streamlined the way water objects are built.
Upgraded version of grass rendering engine.
Upgraded version of main game shader.
Upgraded version of water engine.
Streamled and standardized the creation of Interactable Objects.
Refactored the placement of many objects in the Asset hierarchy, and will continue to improve this moving forward.
Removed Shaders which were part of an old and unnecessary process.
Removed a number of unused assets, and will continue to remove more moving forward.

NPCs will now persist between game sessions.
Major update to the character controller which resolved a lot of bugs, as well as added new features.
NPCs will now respect line of sight and no longer pursue you through walls or other obstacles.
Reduced the distance needed to cause NPC nameplates to appear.
Shifting stats can now be increased with the characters level.
Reimplemented the way loot colliders are set on NPCs.
Removed in-game interaction GUI from triggering.
Minor tweaks to the Main Menu scene and the first game zone.

Added two new item types: Quest Starter and Quest Item to be used exclusively with Questing.
Added the Container item type.

Completely reimplemented the NPC nameplate system to make it a more "classic" feel.
Targeted NPCs will be more obvious with a flashing nameplate.
Tooltip popups are much smoother than they were previously.
Enhanced in-game tooltips with some additional item type information.

Fixed a bug where the attack cursor would show over a dead NPC after it died.
Fixed a bug where the player combat value would attempt to be calculated on on off-hand when it was a shield.
Fixed a bug where decimal values could show on the player selected target GUI object.
Fixed a bug that prevented the character party HUD from displaying new character info on first loading into game.
Fixed a variety of error messages that occurred when creating a new character.
Fixed a bug where an Interactable Object was interpreted as an NPC and it couldn't be looted.
Fixed a bug that allowed saved game data to be in an inconsistent state between game sessions.
Fixed a bug that prevented LERP from triggering when flying NPCs died.
Fixed a bug that prevented the Party HUD from correctly loading with some data when a new character was created.
Fixed a bug where equipping an item could cause your stats to unexpectedly lower.
Fixed a bug where the player prefab wouldn't be destroyed when switching between New Game and Existing Game.