Twisted Metal kind of AI ideas?

[Emerson3]

Hey Clickteam,

I made 2 levels of a racing game. It has 1 player and 3 opponents. It works great but now for the third level I want to mix it up. I want to make a level like twisted metal, where the object is to shoot and destroy the opponents. How could I have the opponent cars drive around the screen and shoot the nearest opponent or player. If you have any ideas or old MFA's that I can view and learn, please share! Thanks.

[jn2002dk]

If we're talking a normal race track couldn't you just add range checks for the enemies and fire if within range?

If you're talking open levels like in Twisted Metal i'm not sure, maybe look into finite state machines

[Emerson3]

I'm thinking more open like Twisted Metal where its a crash car derby arena, open level with spikes and contraptions. If you don't mind jn2002dk, what is "finite state machines?"

[Sumo]

Basically create different "states" for your AI. Such as searching for enemy, following enemy, running away, roaming, etc. You code each of these "states" separately and try to mesh them together in a cohesive AI unit. For example your AI could start off in "search mode". It will try to roam around and find the closest car to ram into. Once it find a car, you can set it "state" to chase mode. Then the AI would try to follow the car using bouncing ball movement / pathfinding etc. Maybe if other cars are chasing the AI, it could go into escape/run away state. It really depends on how your game is coded. A lot of trial and error. I would suggest starting off small and trying to code each state separately, then add them together in the end.


So for your game you could use this distance formula to test the distance in pixels between your car and the other enemies. If your car comes within a certain range (less than 600 pixels for example) of another AI and the AI is facing your direction (test the angle of the car) then have the AI start chasing you. Check out Line of Sight examples to see if the AI can "see" your player. If there's a ton of obstacles in the way, you may need to have a simple pathfinding system with nodes so the AI can try to move around the obstacles in the way. If its an open area then it'll probably be a bit easier.

[Emerson3]

Dang Sumo,

Thanks for the info. That makes sense to work on the AI separately and fire them off in order. I'm going to work on this all weekend and post. Thanks Sumo!