WORKING AIR DEFENCE + ATTACK HELICOPTERS

So we got working air defence turrets with some predictive aiming, and attack helicopters that shoot missiles at random buildings.

Although you’re unlikely to get 3 attack helicopters at once… for now.

The helicopters blades do spin, they bob up and down, they go towards buildings. They shoot out these missiles, which pathfind their way to the targetted building.

They all have a healthsystem which means that the turrets do some damage on collisions only though, one turret might take a while but two (or the 7 you see below) will MOW them down.

Still have to hook it all up to the Finance Manager, Special Building placement and other boring stuff, but…

I need more IDEAS!! (read this thx)

…for more Military stuff that can be added. Tank wars? Who knows. I was thinking of a military invasion as being one of the rare events which spawns like 10 missiles and 5 attack helicopters and maybe a B2 bomber or some stuff. I also need more allied options, maybe I’ll add like an anti-bomb turret that is specifically for the B2 bomber or something and does 100000 damage. Or maybe your own airbase that spawns an allied helicopter and now you have dogwars. or maybe your own plane. idk

So yes @Adam_Lotfalla this is what the helicopter was for.

Yay more things to worry about!!!

Still have integrations left! I’ll see you (hopefully) tomorrow once that’s done. but its midnight now so goodbye.

WORKING AIR DEFENCE + ATTACK HELICOPTERS

So we got working air defence turrets with some predictive aiming, and attack helicopters that shoot missiles at random buildings.

Although you’re unlikely to get 3 attack helicopters at once… for now.

The helicopters blades do spin, they bob up and down, they go towards buildings. They shoot out these missiles, which pathfind their way to the targetted building.

They all have a healthsystem which means that the turrets do some damage on collisions only though, one turret might take a while but two (or the 7 you see below) will MOW them down.

Still have to hook it all up to the Finance Manager, Special Building placement and other boring stuff, but…

I need more IDEAS!! (read this thx)

…for more Military stuff that can be added. Tank wars? Who knows. I was thinking of a military invasion as being one of the rare events which spawns like 10 missiles and 5 attack helicopters and maybe a B2 bomber or some stuff. I also need more allied options, maybe I’ll add like an anti-bomb turret that is specifically for the B2 bomber or something and does 100000 damage. Or maybe your own airbase that spawns an allied helicopter and now you have dogwars. or maybe your own plane. idk

So yes @Adam_Lotfalla this is what the helicopter was for.

Yay more things to worry about!!!

Still have integrations left! I’ll see you (hopefully) tomorrow once that’s done. but its midnight now so goodbye.

Hmmmm…

What’s cooking? (Blender just WON’T count toward my hours but prolly spent 2-3 extra hours here)

The helicopter blades actually spin. And W Unity particle system for the missile.

Hmmmm…

What’s cooking? (Blender just WON’T count toward my hours but prolly spent 2-3 extra hours here)

The helicopter blades actually spin. And W Unity particle system for the missile.

I NEED YOUR HELP

Pocket City already exists as a game. I know this is stupid and I should have checked this before starting since I had the intention of publishing it to steam but here we are.

If you want more details, or more knowledge about the game check this video out: Video

Oops…

I NEED YOUR HELP

Pocket City already exists as a game. I know this is stupid and I should have checked this before starting since I had the intention of publishing it to steam but here we are.

If you want more details, or more knowledge about the game check this video out: Video

Oops…

UFOs in an Alien Invasion 💔💔

The second rare event addition to Pocket City!

Get a chunk of your population zapped up by some not so friendly aliens…

Any more ideas, let me know below!

But it was pretty neat to implement. 3D modelled it and everything.

3 hours of doing god knows what. Tried to figure quality settings out and probably did smth else but was too busy with the World Cup to remember what I did. Probably bug fixes and stuff.

Oh yeah and you see a pretty cool ripple pulse thing that propogates through the map.

Although it is a little weak right now but i’ll fix that next time. Super tired. mb

UFOs in an Alien Invasion 💔💔

The second rare event addition to Pocket City!

Get a chunk of your population zapped up by some not so friendly aliens…

Any more ideas, let me know below!

But it was pretty neat to implement. 3D modelled it and everything.

3 hours of doing god knows what. Tried to figure quality settings out and probably did smth else but was too busy with the World Cup to remember what I did. Probably bug fixes and stuff.

Oh yeah and you see a pretty cool ripple pulse thing that propogates through the map.

Although it is a little weak right now but i’ll fix that next time. Super tired. mb

Microsoft Authentication + Firestore DB

I’m currently working on my school website, which I decided to completely recreate and make it run for free indefinitely instead of just carrying on maintenance from the previous year because I had the know how and talent I guess to do so.

But I can’t be asked to deal with frontend. Designed something up in figma, sent it over to claude and let it cook. It actually did a decent job although touch ups were required. (But if you’re new to frontend do NOT do this - learn it first)

I’m mostly learning about the dev environment here, and if I really would enjoy the vibe and stuff. Also learning how to use git branches and collaborate with other devs, so this is pretty cool and a really new experience for me for the first time in like 10 years.

So below you can check out the old prod [here](UCGS Maths Society).

This is very maintainer design oriented, and I feel like this is the closest I’ve been to real production environments.

+3-4 hours working on firebase + azure

The worst devlog I’ve made

Last week, I had a work experience placement @ IBM (Cool init)

We had a group project and I created a website for it.

I was told to put this on stardance by my friends i’m sorry for whoever reviewing this mb for wasting your time.

Bugs are genuinely taking the life out of me

Genuinely the worst thing ever. I STILL can’t figure it out but I had to post my weekly devlog anyways. Can you believe we’re 28 weeks into 2026??!

Here’s the chaos where I accidentally created a “Pocket Empire” (Day 1105)

Watch the video (click the title) if you wanna see how I ended up here and a minor crash out. very minor.

Bugs are genuinely taking the life out of me

Genuinely the worst thing ever. I STILL can’t figure it out but I had to post my weekly devlog anyways. Can you believe we’re 28 weeks into 2026??!

Here’s the chaos where I accidentally created a “Pocket Empire” (Day 1105)

Watch the video (click the title) if you wanna see how I ended up here and a minor crash out. very minor.

I’m being forced to post

Yeah thanks stardance. 10 hour limit for what. Probably spam filter.

Also MASSIVE BUG(s). One is that the game just randomly deletes all the buildings from a chunk. No idea why, I’ve been at it for so long. Another issue is the stupid vacancy counter which has been broken FOREVER but atleast now it doesn’t go negative. I have a serious feeling I will have to spend a week just POLISHING the game.

Whatever, Currently working through a new feature of allowing you to use your money that you spent so long accumulating to try and fix the chaos that you went through.

This is done through the “Council FX” which I may rename if you guys can think of a better name, and you can see the countless things to do such as:

• Taking On DEBT!! YAY!! 100k that gains 1% every day. Seems low.. but it will pile up very quickly since it’s compound interest.
• Overclocking the grid for free placement + infinite water/power
• Maximising Housing/Business revenue
• Curing all infections

… and many more as well as the ??? at level 100… who knows what that does. £2.5 million btw. Of course, those levels are the XP, which has finally given that a use.

And no you wont be at level 11000 just like that, i’m just being lazy for testing.

Also rebalanced so that all of the commercial buildings have ~10-15% of their previous employment caps. So that you’re not just spamming residential. It also makes industrial more useful as they have more employers even though they produce less money.

I’m being forced to post

Yeah thanks stardance. 10 hour limit for what. Probably spam filter.

Also MASSIVE BUG(s). One is that the game just randomly deletes all the buildings from a chunk. No idea why, I’ve been at it for so long. Another issue is the stupid vacancy counter which has been broken FOREVER but atleast now it doesn’t go negative. I have a serious feeling I will have to spend a week just POLISHING the game.

Whatever, Currently working through a new feature of allowing you to use your money that you spent so long accumulating to try and fix the chaos that you went through.

This is done through the “Council FX” which I may rename if you guys can think of a better name, and you can see the countless things to do such as:

• Taking On DEBT!! YAY!! 100k that gains 1% every day. Seems low.. but it will pile up very quickly since it’s compound interest.
• Overclocking the grid for free placement + infinite water/power
• Maximising Housing/Business revenue
• Curing all infections

… and many more as well as the ??? at level 100… who knows what that does. £2.5 million btw. Of course, those levels are the XP, which has finally given that a use.

And no you wont be at level 11000 just like that, i’m just being lazy for testing.

Also rebalanced so that all of the commercial buildings have ~10-15% of their previous employment caps. So that you’re not just spamming residential. It also makes industrial more useful as they have more employers even though they produce less money.

Main menu 👀

I need help. UI clearly isn’t for me

Main menu 👀

I need help. UI clearly isn’t for me

CRIME!!! + C# Generics

I added Arson and added a Police manager that goes out and solves these crimes. Lots more to come, let me know of any ideas you have!

But before that let me teach you ALL something.

C# Generics.

I had a bunch of scripts that all did ABOUT the same thing but with different.

This was FindClosestHospital, FindClosestFireStation and the thing I was adding which was FindClosestPoliceStation.

It felt quire redundant to copy the same lines but instead of Hopsital it was replaced with FireStation or PoliceStation.

    //Generic functions
    private T FindClosestReachableService<T>(Vector2Int targetPos, Func<T, bool> hasAvailableVehicles, out List<Vector2Int> bestRoute) where T : Building
    {
        T closestBuilding = null;
        bestRoute = null;
        int shortestRouteLength = int.MaxValue;
        bool foundBuildingOfThisType = false;

        foreach (var kvp in gridManager.GetMapGrid())
        {
            GridManager.GridTile tile = kvp.Value;

            if (tile.buildingScript != null && tile.buildingScript is T serviceBuilding)
            {
                foundBuildingOfThisType = true;

                if (!hasAvailableVehicles(serviceBuilding)) continue;

                List<Vector2Int> testRoute = CalculateRoadPath(tile.buildingScript.gridPos, targetPos);

                if (testRoute == null || testRoute.Count == 0) continue;

                if (testRoute.Count < shortestRouteLength)
                {
                    shortestRouteLength = testRoute.Count;
                    bestRoute = testRoute;
                    closestBuilding = serviceBuilding;
                }
            }
        }

        if (!foundBuildingOfThisType)
        {
            bestRoute = null;
            return null;
        }

        return closestBuilding;
    }

Above is an example of the C# generic.

We have “T” type, and I think this is a good place to learn about them.

Instead of defining the function as returning something like Building, we make T a type. and you can see it passed in a little <T> after the function name. We can also pass in entire functions like Func<T, bool> which is utilised as shown below:

Building bestStation = FindClosestReachableService<PoliceStation>(building.gridPos, ps => ps.HasPolice(), out route);

you can see ps => ps.HasPolice() calls that out. And finally, to define what T is meant to be, I’ve added where T : Building.

You can do this many times, such as by having both a T as well as a U! and you’d have a repeated where T : Building where U: PotatoChips or something idk what U is meant to be bro.

This was my first time using it but it’s pretty cool and if you’re using C# I’d recommend learning it as it saved me like 200 lines of code and changing something 3 times to change the same thing!

And yes, I added a third thing which is Arson! which is a crime based thing, and you have a visual that shows up as a timer. if a police doesn’t solve the crime it sets on fire. It’s not too bad but it adds a use for the police, with much more to come for the police to deal with in the future!

Also added asteroid BOMBARDMENT as a debuff. Yeah it’s brutal. 3 strikes… thats up to 108 tiles DESTROYED and set on fire.

And of course, the image is from a youtube video:

Click me!

CRIME!!! + C# Generics

I added Arson and added a Police manager that goes out and solves these crimes. Lots more to come, let me know of any ideas you have!

But before that let me teach you ALL something.

C# Generics.

I had a bunch of scripts that all did ABOUT the same thing but with different.

This was FindClosestHospital, FindClosestFireStation and the thing I was adding which was FindClosestPoliceStation.

It felt quire redundant to copy the same lines but instead of Hopsital it was replaced with FireStation or PoliceStation.

    //Generic functions
    private T FindClosestReachableService<T>(Vector2Int targetPos, Func<T, bool> hasAvailableVehicles, out List<Vector2Int> bestRoute) where T : Building
    {
        T closestBuilding = null;
        bestRoute = null;
        int shortestRouteLength = int.MaxValue;
        bool foundBuildingOfThisType = false;

        foreach (var kvp in gridManager.GetMapGrid())
        {
            GridManager.GridTile tile = kvp.Value;

            if (tile.buildingScript != null && tile.buildingScript is T serviceBuilding)
            {
                foundBuildingOfThisType = true;

                if (!hasAvailableVehicles(serviceBuilding)) continue;

                List<Vector2Int> testRoute = CalculateRoadPath(tile.buildingScript.gridPos, targetPos);

                if (testRoute == null || testRoute.Count == 0) continue;

                if (testRoute.Count < shortestRouteLength)
                {
                    shortestRouteLength = testRoute.Count;
                    bestRoute = testRoute;
                    closestBuilding = serviceBuilding;
                }
            }
        }

        if (!foundBuildingOfThisType)
        {
            bestRoute = null;
            return null;
        }

        return closestBuilding;
    }

Above is an example of the C# generic.

We have “T” type, and I think this is a good place to learn about them.

Instead of defining the function as returning something like Building, we make T a type. and you can see it passed in a little <T> after the function name. We can also pass in entire functions like Func<T, bool> which is utilised as shown below:

Building bestStation = FindClosestReachableService<PoliceStation>(building.gridPos, ps => ps.HasPolice(), out route);

you can see ps => ps.HasPolice() calls that out. And finally, to define what T is meant to be, I’ve added where T : Building.

You can do this many times, such as by having both a T as well as a U! and you’d have a repeated where T : Building where U: PotatoChips or something idk what U is meant to be bro.

This was my first time using it but it’s pretty cool and if you’re using C# I’d recommend learning it as it saved me like 200 lines of code and changing something 3 times to change the same thing!

And yes, I added a third thing which is Arson! which is a crime based thing, and you have a visual that shows up as a timer. if a police doesn’t solve the crime it sets on fire. It’s not too bad but it adds a use for the police, with much more to come for the police to deal with in the future!

Also added asteroid BOMBARDMENT as a debuff. Yeah it’s brutal. 3 strikes… thats up to 108 tiles DESTROYED and set on fire.

And of course, the image is from a youtube video:

Click me!

BETTER UI + XP

At the top of the image you can see a little progress bar… yep I’ve added XP now. Got plans for that, probably going to allow you to unlock stuff later. Like the lockdown ability etc.

The UI has been overhauled. The actual images are a touch on the placeholder side apart from the road but it looks pretty good. You cycle between road, zoning and special building placement with 1, 2 and 3. Use R to rotate between the modes like residential, commercial and industrial zoning as well as Utilities & Emergency for the special buildings. Then finally T to rotate between those specific buildings.

Complicated? Maybe? But it’s also a lot faster. I have completely lost my muscle memory of spamming R like the “good old days” though.

Looks good? Bad? Horrible update and the game should never be changed ever again? Best update in the world and I should win £1 trillion? What do you think?