Printable View
Can anyone help me find a way to make it so a Zombie (Active Object with Bouncing Ball movement), can make it's way around obstacles, walls, things that it doesn't get stuck on? I'm not very good with path finding and such so please bare with me if I ask too many questions. Also is it possible that there is an object that makes it so that Active Objects can ignore other Active objects by going around them somehow?
There's a great pathfinding extension.
Warning: Pathfinding can be incredibly difficult and can consume a great deal of processing power... The way you posted your question makes it sound like you think it's as easy as adding an "ignore other objects and move around them" event, and it's much, much more complicated than that.
There are numerous pathfinding solutions but it really depends on a number of things:
1. How "smart" does the AI need to be? Is it just avoiding some simple objects? Does it have to navigate complex mazes?
2. Does it have to navigate moving obstacles? This greatly increases processing needed because it's having to run pathfinding nonstop to adjust for any changes in the path.
3. Is it okay if the object gets "stuck"? Many games have simpler AI solutions which result in allowing the player to trick NPCs into running constantly into a wall or corner.
4. Is your environment grid based? Is it multi-leveled?
I know I made it sound it like it was an easy thing but yeah I understand it can be complicated. If it's complicated to the point where I have to learn something new that's incredibly advanced, I'm fine with that. AS LONG as everything works out and makes the game look at least playable.
1. I just want the zombies be able to move around walls to navigate the player.
2. Like I said, I just want it to navigate the player.
3. As long as I get it so that it follows the player most of the time, I'm okay with this, although I've been dealing with this for the longest time, lol.
4. My environment is grid-based I guess, yeah. I made map using the snap on grid 32x32, however, some objects are placed on a 16x16 mark. Something like that. Multi-leveled? If you mean that the map is on multiple frames, then no. The map is just on one frame.
By multi-leveled I meant like being able to climb up to higher levels... jump up on things, etc... Like would the zombies be able to crawl over short walls or go up stairs or anything like that.
I would recommend the Integrated Path Planning object, but it's for Dev only. http://community.clickteam.com/showthread.php?t=60459&highlight=integrated+path
There's also the Advanced Pathfinding Object though which comes with a lot of examples
http://www.clickteam.com/epicenter/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=69250#Post69250
edit: but it requires .net 2.0 framework, which can be a hassle since people need to have it installed.
Nah, it's a top-down shooter type thing. Anyway, thank you. I'll see if the second one works cause I don't have Dev, unfortunately.
The nice thing about zombies is that they're supposed to be really stupid. For example, if they see someone enter a house through the front door door, they'll keep try to batter that door down or maybe the window next to it - they wouldn't think to try the back door (although a different zombie might be wandering around nearby and just happen to find the back door unlocked, and then decide to investigate...)
That means you can get away with very simplistic "AI".
eg. Wander around aimlessly til you can see the player, and then walk towards them. If you lose sight of the player, walk towards their last known position. If there is a wall in front of you, turn to avoid it (just using basic obstacle avoidance - not actually planning a route around it, which is very complicated and would require a pathfinding extension). If you haven't found the player again after a while, go back to wandering aimlessly. Then add in a few extras - like have them attracted to loud noises (eg. gunfire), and allow them to alert other nearby zombies when they sport the player.
If you want intelligent enemies, make them aliens or humans or vampires or something - not zombies.
Hmm, does APF work with iOS? Worried about it requiring .NET.
There's a great example of Zombie AI made with Box2D here:
http://www.create-games.com/download.asp?id=8087
I have a question about the Pathfinding tool. Using the example that LB created, I'm trying to figure out how to make it so that there is two objects finding one destination. however, when I make duplicates of the object, each object is always in the same position as each other, so both objects are in the same position, when I want it in their own areas trying to find a path.
An old Zombie AI that I made. It's not exactly advanced, and there is room for improvement, but it may help.
Welcome to MMF, where stuff can get really confusing. Given time, you will get solutions to your problem that are really elegant, but what I did, which is not elegant, is that I programmed the AI for each zombie in my game. There are no more than 12 zombies in my game at once, and they are all different objects. They all have a set of events which reference each one (zombie1, zombie2 and so on). This is, I'm sure, highly inefficient, but it will simply work.
As someone else posted here, zombie AI does not have to be good. I had no problem with my zombies banging into a car over and over again to get at the player. What I did do for a robot game, was to have the robot create a target to the left or right, a certain number of pixels away. As long as the target was visible, the robot moved to that object, and then resumed normal movement to find the player.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pixzel