Development Update: Handling the environment as a proper actor

I may try doing some smaller updates as I typically code in short bursts these days.

Recent Progress:

Doors
Added doors! (Seems silly & was easy enough to do, I just didn't have them in there)

Targeting Locks
Target lock - ranged enemies with this setting now need an extra turn before they fire. This gives you a chance to somehow block or otherwise avoid the shot (force them to move is an easy way). Even with the symmetrical FOV changes I did last week, it still felt like ranged attacks were a bit overpowered. This new mechanic has a fun feel to it - and also differentiates monster difficulty. Now I can have 'easier' ranged enemies that require a target lock - in later levels you may run into enemies that don't. Another idea is to give ranged enemies other disadvantages such as being immobile (turrets).

Environmental Effects
This is mostly behind the scenes, but I added a special 'architect' actor, who acts on behalf of environmental effects (fire, gas, features that interact with player/monsters standing on them). Because my engine is event-based, it was getting a little kludgey to have terrain/feature effects work properly.

This makes more complicated scenarios much easier to deal with. For example, if you want to have differing speeds for the player at some point (e.g. a haste or slow effect) then you want to be sure the 'environment' is behaving. If a player is trying to escape some gas or fire, and somehow speeds themselves up to escape, the fire or gas should not speed up too! Conversely, if a player somehow slowed, the gas should overwhelm them more quickly than normal.

Eventually the architect will also control things like spreading nano-materials and timed explosives.