The next survival mechanic is need to sleep. As stamina, it will only exist in Challenging, Cruel and Adventure. What it boils down to is that you can function for about 2 game days without sleep. After that, you will lose consciousness and collapse, wherever you are. Most likely, the animals will then make a hash of you :-)

Here’s a little video (condensed from 2 game days) to show you how it looks in the game:

http://youtu.be/xRMqcL0aavo

No, the yellow lines and dots in the earlier post was not Pac-Man mode :-) As many of you noticed, it’s pathfinding. There are a few issues with it, though.

First of all, it’s quite costly (i.e. needs a lot of CPU), so the animals try to avoid it unless absolutely necessary.

Second, at the moment it does not work very well. The pathfinding itself (the yellow line on the screenshot was the path found by the algorithm) works perfectly. What doesn’t work so well is the animals navigating the real world along the path. The world in Survivalcraft is quite complex and 3D. Things like doors, narrow or low passages, sticking out corners, dangers (magma, cacti etc.) make it quite difficult to get it to work reliably. But I am trying.

I think it’s important that I get this done. I have been planning it for a long time. Without it the animals are like little insects, only seeing a block or two around them. With pathfinding they will be able to penetrate into your builds if you leave a hole open (or forget to close the door). They will also be able to do other things that I plan for the future.