Tactical AI Kit: Launch!

The Tactical AI Kit: RELEASE!

Well, the day has finally arrived. I've completed the first version of the long-awaited Tactical AI Kit, and I shall now release it to the community in all its glory.

Buy the Tactical AI Kit by clicking these blue words!

Or, try it out and play a free demo!

Shame that I have to resort to anonymous HTML hosting, but for now I just need something to support some PayPal buttons. I'll work on getting a real website up sometime soon, hopefully you can find it in your heart to forgive me.

I'd like to thank all of you who emailed me back in November to join the keep-me-updated list. I'm also SO glad that GarageGames is back. For now, I plan on selling independently until GG is completely back up on it's feet. At that time, I may consider selling in the store if it makes more sense and is more convenient.

What's the Tactical AI Kit all about?

Anyone who has played any sort of shooter-themed game has experienced bad AI. AI doing stupid things, AI that simply stands in place and lands perfect headshots on you. Cheating AI, magically knowing exactly where you are when they shouldn't. Bad AI can turn a potentially fun game into an annoying experience.

Inspired by my hatred of terrible games everywhere, the Tactical AI Kit was built to create a dynamic AI system for shooter-type games. Instead of resorting to lazy cheating, the default behaviors revolve around being intellectually equal to the player. When they are spawned, their job is to survive.

Tactical AI Players are capable of reacting to a number of different stimuli: finding bodies, hearing shots, noticing nearby bullet impacts, annoyances (car alarms, various distractions), suspicious movement, explosions, and of course, seeing enemies. Cheating does not happen. Shooting at an AI Player will not instantly give away your exact position, like with many AI implementations in other games. Instead, they'll deal with finding the attacker later, and either get to cover or get out of there! The key is self-preservation. They don't want to die!

No standing around in the open and shooting mindlessly. TAI Players will actively seek cover, peeking out and hiding to attack safely. The reaction behaviors are dynamic and randomized, making their positions and decisions unpredictable. Being fully dynamic, the player can either go through a level guns blazing, or sneak around and avoid alerting their enemies. Fine tuned and tested, they can perform in many different situations; they'll perform just as well in the tight corridors of a building as they will in a massive outdoors level. The unpredictability will drastically increase the replay value of your game.

Being built on a relatively slow computer, performance and smooth framerates were constantly kept in mind. By effectively using respawning and a zoned AI Manager, you can even create missions with over one hundred managed TAI Players.

The Tactical AI Kit is 100% multiplayer compatible, and you can customize it by adding or changing "brain" types and new behavior states.

Bottom line: the Tactical AI Kit is a feature-packed, smart, and realistic AI solution, providing a fair challenge that will get your players wanting more, and most importantly, having fun!

Hang on breaux. Is the Tactical AI Kit right for me?

As a side note, I'd like to apologize in advance for sounding profoundly like a car salesman. (@Steve Acaster: I was very much considering placing a picture of Toni below. The person responsible for that thought has been sacked.)

Thinking about buying the Tactical AI Kit? Here, answer these questions out loud and overenthusiastically:

1) Are you making a game?
2) Do you use Torque 3D 1.1 Beta 2 or 3?
3) Do you have access to the engine source code?
4) Do you hate stupid AI?
5) Do you hate cheating AI?

If you answered "yes" to these questions, then you should probably grab yourself a copy. I've spent the last four years working on this project while simultaneously using it with my game, so trust me--it's tested and she works very well.

Still don't believe me? Click on the link farther up this page to download a demonstration game with TAIK integrated. It's TGE 1.5.2, but it uses the exact same AI code, so you'll be able to see how it feels in several different missions of different types.

Ports of the Tactical AI Kit for TGE and TGEA will be out the door soon, and updates will constantly be in the works for all versions. My email address is in my profile, if you've got any questions or concerns, either leave a comment or email me privately!

Big News: TGE version released!

Bigger News: TGEA version released as well!

Thanks to everyone for helping me make this possible after all these years! Y'all rock.
--Bryce