A.I Have Enemies

​Since the last chat we had I've put the 3d game stuff on hold and returned to 2d game development - reason being it will just eat up too much time and money producing things. So as a consequence the game I was working gets tossed on the "no one will ever know you existed" pile, which is becoming a worrying mound I can tell you.

Now though I've got a new working prototype, which you can see in a ridiculous early stage of development. It's the kind of early look under the hood that interests only a handful of people - so lucky you, you spoilt bastard.
So let's chat about what's happening in a way that won't induce vomiting.

​The enemy have a set of states that they can be in, certain checks in the code will change what state they are in - simple.
To start off the enemy a.i has a patrol state where it goes forward unless it meets an obstacle, then it turns left and carries on. It just like them tiny little yellowish organisms you saw when school made you look at a white tray full of pond water and scooped up pond life for "science". I can't remember what the little creatures are called, maybe I can film some in the future so you know what I'm on about.

Anyway beyond patrolling, if the enemy sees you they fire at you, if they have a gun that is. They also pause to reload when the ammo is depleted. If they lose sight of the player they go to his last location and search about for him, then return to patrolling if they didn't find you again. Let's see what else?

Oh right yeah, you should have noticed the player can pick up and shoot (the little boxes with numbers are guns)
weapons as well as throw them at enemies. When the players' gun hits an enemy it knocks them out, causing the enemy to drop their weapon. Which the player can now pick up and use.

Going forward and what will happen is that when a gun is in enemy hands it has infinite ammo, but the player will have a set number of rounds, so will have to make shots count(well this is how it works currently actually).

I hope you noticed the way the gun bounced off the walls as well. As the weapons in the game are irregular shapes they will bounce off a wall differently to something like a ball. So I've put an element of randomness into how the angles are worked out. This means sometimes the player could try to bounce a weapon off a wall to hit an enemy, knocking them out - while other times it might fly back at them.

I think that covers most of the games enemy a.i, other than the things you see in the video. 
​
But what I will be adding, is that firing a gun will get nearby enemies to come to your location. I'm thinking of mixing up action with a hint of stealth, like tiny hint of stealth, teeny tiny bit of stealth in what will be otherwise shooty stabby madness. I'm focusing on the basics and then seeing what works and what doesn't work. I think it will be a super hard game to play, the kind of thing you actually brag about beating.

When I get more time to add some more features I'll update ya sweet pea - kisses.