MaelmDev

I would avoid trying to find a solution that works for massive mirrors in one fell swoop, and split up large mirrors into smaller, simpler surfaces that can get away with texture coordinate distortion for curvature.

Try to work out what features you want to implement before anything else.  Start with general ideas and work your way down to specific features and requirements.  Once you have all of your features in a list, you can start to design your architecture to implement these features, making sure to find solutions to dependencies between them. (this can be the hardest part!)

 

Don't bother with any pseudo-code after you've finished the architecture, as you've got all the elements needed to begin coding the actual game.  When you do this, make sure to always write code that doesn't depend on a feature you haven't implemented yet.  This should help you keep your game testable and cut down the amount of coding you need to do in between new builds, which will keep you motivated.

I would use an additive rather than a modulative approach to animation layering. Each frame, the skeleton will be reset to the bind pose. Then, the whole skeleton will be transformed by the lower-body animation pose. You can then transform the skeleton by additional poses to add on a shooting animation, a waving animation, and so on. In this way, the upper-body animations won't affect the root bone as long as the pose keeps the root static.