Kaan Altay

Case study — Threat-aware naval navigation

Ships in Grog 'n Glory are physically simulated hulls driven by wind and rudder — stock UE navigation can't steer them. I built a custom system: routes planned over a grid-based cost field where every hand-placed danger zone carries a power level, so a zone is only dangerous relative to the ship evaluating it. Weak ships route around waters a flagship sails straight through; a fully surrounded ship escapes through the weakest zone rather than freezing. The follower steers with the ship's real maneuverability in mind — starting the turn before the corner, the way a helmsman does — and routes re-solve when zones move, power levels change, or the ship is knocked off course. One system served both enemy fleets and the player's own autopilot.

Development footage from the editor: the planner's cost field, a danger zone's power level being changed live, and the route re-solving as a result.

• 0:00 — The cost field. Every cell of the navigation grid, drawn over the water with its cost. The zone raises the price of the water it covers rather than blocking it, so the planner can route through danger when going around would cost more.
• 0:10 — The same zone, re-levelled. Its power level drops from high to low while the ship is under way. The path re-solves in place: a route that arced wide now runs straight through the water it was avoiding a second earlier. Nothing else changed — only the threat's rating, and so only the ship's judgement of it.
• 0:30 — Trapped, and getting out. A ship caught inside a zone stronger than itself solves for the cheapest way out instead of stalling, then re-solves to a shorter line once the zone moves off its route.

The core ideas are re-implemented from scratch in my open-source naval-navigation-sample — same thinking, brand-new code, 30 in-engine tests plus a 600-assertion engine-free harness.

Case study — Real-time crew management

The demo's signature system: a crew of fifteen split across three roles — gunners, sailors, repairers — reassigned live through a radial triangle menu. Drag the pin toward gunners and more cannons fire; toward sailors and the ship turns faster; toward repairers and the hull regenerates. Ammo types (round shot, shrapnel, chain) target hull, crew, and sails respectively, so mid-fight reallocation is the tactical heart of naval combat.

Seven sailors and four gunners meant fast manoeuvring but only two of five cannons could fire. Reallocating to ten gunners brought all five guns online. The crew is one pool: speed and firepower are bought with the same currency, and a fight is a series of decisions about which one you need in the next ten seconds.

Gameplay from the demo: crew reassigned and ammunition switched mid-engagement, in one continuous take.

• 0:00 — Firing, badly set up for it. The crew is weighted toward sailors, which is what made the approach fast and what is now limiting the broadside.
• 0:04 — The triangle. Crew is pulled off the sails and onto the guns.
• 0:06 — Ammunition. Grapeshot selected from the wheel. The choice is about what you want to take away from the other ship — hull, sails, or crew — not how much damage you want to do.
• 0:08 — The same guns, transformed. Firing resumes with the reallocated crew.
• 0:15 — The result.