SEAR DevBlog, week of 7/27/26: Re-writing the NPC AI

Somewhere in the middle of all this is a typical AI pawn.

Had a little bit of additional progress on the TTF reswave this week with a nice glow added to the reticle to make it easier to see. More improvements on the tutorial and the visuals related to showing specific keys to the user (for example: "press enter to continue" represented by a key shape glyph custom to the game). Finally got our holographic arrows that signal upcoming turns, and we'll be adding those in to the existing levels throughout the month.

For my part I was mainly focused on NPC AI. Our existing AI infrastructure consists of a quick fix jammed in over one week which was just enough to create the feel of live opponents you could pass, 100% spline path-based. I've been wanting to update it for months. Felt good to finally get started.

The easy stuff is now done: opposing vehicles reliably recover top speed, catch boost reswaves, and use turbos. That's enough on its own to transform the way they feel to race against. But the next step is getting rid of those path splines and moving to something more obstacle-based. This rewrite is underway in the new week and if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get back to it!