AI for Torque
by Morrie · in Technical Issues · 12/14/2006 (5:58 pm) · 2 replies
I was looking on Gamedev and just wanted to make sure this was right. TGE only has a Finite State Machine it for the AI and TSE only has Pathfinding right. Also I thought there was going to be an AI pack released or was it put on hold.
Also I'm make a game like Fear where the bots are smart and move when you throw a grenade, What would be the best type of AI to use for this. Can I put more than one kind of AI in it.
Also I'm make a game like Fear where the bots are smart and move when you throw a grenade, What would be the best type of AI to use for this. Can I put more than one kind of AI in it.
#2
There are definite places in the KK AI scripts to allow for the "self-commenting" nature of bots that Davidovich referred to. Currently, those spots get echoed to the console, but they could just as easily play an appropriate sound clip -- a different one for each AI event.
If you get TGE or TSE, you should definitely check out the Killer Kork resource.
12/15/2006 (3:26 am)
I can't help much with the AI logic discussion, but I can say that the Killer Kork resource adds some very cool AI behaviors to TGE. One of the highlights of KK is projectile avoidance, so if your grenade is a projectile class object, then the enemy AI will get away from it. Also, the KK implementation supports hunting for health packs, looking for ammo, etc. The AI units have visual and audio detection features. They can be set up for opposing teams, friendliness to player, and other cool stuff. Best of all, implementing it requires no engine code changes, since all of the AI is handled from script.There are definite places in the KK AI scripts to allow for the "self-commenting" nature of bots that Davidovich referred to. Currently, those spots get echoed to the console, but they could just as easily play an appropriate sound clip -- a different one for each AI event.
If you get TGE or TSE, you should definitely check out the Killer Kork resource.
Torque Owner Davidovich
A* path finding made lightning-fast by pre-compiling
AI Guard Unit
A finite state machine is the easiest to program, but there is also at least one guy working on a neural network. He posts his progress in this forum, so have a look at that too.
For TGEA (TSE) I don't know, I don't have it, but someone else will help you out. I also don't know what happened to the AI pack.
Good luck with your smart bots. It's a hell of a chalenge. I think that AI programming is some of the most difficult out there to do well.
On an off note, I don't think the Fear bots were any smarter than most good bots out there. Yes they had extra abilities, like turning over tables and so on, but I think the main reason they are percieved as so smart is that they were vocal about what they were thinking and it made people aware of it.
For example, how many AIs would have something allong the lines of:
if (squad strength < 20% )
run away
Which gets the action but and is nice and functional. But if you add in something like:
if (squad strength < 20% )
yell "Oh $&*@# He wiped out the whole squad!"
run away
Then the player is immediately aware of the thinking the bot is doing and it seems smarter. Just my 2 cents. Feedback to the player is very important.