The design and/or logic of how an in-game entity makes decisions about its behavior.
79
votes
9answers
3k views
What makes a computer opponent feel alive?
Are there any recommended blogs or whitepapers that talk about making the AI in an RPG game feel more real? (Specifically in turn based combat.)
I know something must be out there, but I am only ...
46
votes
5answers
6k views
How does Dwarf Fortress keep track of so many entities without losing performance?
In Dwarf Fortress you can have hundreds of Dwarves, animals, goblins, etc in game at any one time, each with their own complex AI and pathfinding routines. My question is how does this not produce ...
46
votes
8answers
2k views
How to prevent homing entities from orbiting their targets
I am developing a 2D space game with no friction, and I am finding it very easy to make a homing entity orbit a target. I am curious about anti-orbiting strategies.
A simple example is a homing ...
40
votes
10answers
4k views
New to creating AI - where to start?
I am new to game programming and am trying to make a basic 2d top-down space game with 2 space ships that fight each other. I am doing well with the user controlled space ship, but have no idea how ...
38
votes
5answers
1k views
Looking for a good technique for character movement in hack&slash game
I'm making hack&slash game and I want my characters move like for example in Torchlight, Diablo, etc.
Currently I generate set of nodes for all walkable areas of a floor. When I click somewhere ...
27
votes
7answers
7k views
How does pathfinding in RTS games work?
[crossposted from stackoverflow]
In a game such as Warcraft 3 or Age of Empires, the ways that an AI opponent can move about the map seem almost limitless. The maps are huge and the position of other ...
22
votes
6answers
2k views
Who does the AI calculations in an MMO?
I am building an MMO and want to add NPCs. The thing is I don't know the basic design. What does the calculations, the clients or the server? I would understand the server calculating events and ...
21
votes
8answers
852 views
Is there a simple way to stop enemies standing in the same spot?
So: top-down game, my enemies chase the player, when they get within a certain distance they stand still and fire. If they're all coming from the same direction they all end up standing in the same ...
21
votes
6answers
841 views
Spell casting - How to optimize damage per second
Imagine we have a wizard that knows a few spells. Each spell has 3 attributes: Damage, cool down time, and a cast time. Pretty standard RPG stuff.
Cooldown time: the amount of time (t) it takes ...
19
votes
6answers
1k views
Collision 100% avoidance implementation
I'm an absolute beginner with game development and all I know about collision avoidance/resolution, I learnt it on or through this site in the past week... so don't hesitate to correct me if what I'm ...
18
votes
10answers
3k views
Available AI middleware
A useful list of AI middleware. Please provide URL, free/open-source or licenced, and brief description of abilites.
Format:
*Package* (License)
Link
Pros
Cons
18
votes
5answers
1k views
Target Tracking: When to accelerate and decelerate a rotating turret?
Say I have a moving circular target defined as:
Vector2 position;
Vector2 velocity;
float radius;
And a rotating turret (mounted on a moving vehicle of some kind) defined as:
Vector2 position;
...
16
votes
6answers
625 views
Making the AI take different paths to each other
I have a top down 2d game where the AI spawn at the edges of the map and run towards the center.
I'm using A* and a node mesh to do the pathfinding.
Right now, the AI spawn at a point on the edge of ...
16
votes
8answers
848 views
How to demo Advanced Game AI as a portfolio piece?
Basically every Game company wants to see a portfolio that exhibits your skill set. If you're specializing in AI though, what and how should you show off your skills.
Some thoughts
Is nice ...
16
votes
2answers
674 views
AI: Learning vs. Strategizing
I have a theory on AI that I would like to write a "whitepaper" about. The distinction I want to explore in AI is learning vs. strategizing. My question is, where can I read other material about this ...
15
votes
4answers
527 views
What behaviors should go into making a “non-perfect” AI combatant?
When making an npc combatant, it's easy obvious what to do to get a robot deathmachine by optimizing combat tactics, timing and attack types, but harder (and more interesting in a fight) to get an ...
15
votes
6answers
1k views
AI control for a ship with physics model
I am looking for ideas how to implement following in 2D space. Unfortunately I don't know much about AI/path finding/autonomous control yet.
Let's say this ship can move freely but it has mass and ...
14
votes
4answers
2k views
How to implement behavior in a component-based game architecture?
I am starting to implement player and enemy AI in a game, but I am confused about how to best implement this in a component-based game architecture.
Say I have a following player character that can ...
13
votes
3answers
972 views
How is AI most commonly implemented in popular games?
I'm no gamedev, I'm just a curious coder of not-games. I wonder, how does AI work in popular modern games, say, FPSs? Is it based on hard-coded rules? How much does it have in common with other kinds ...
13
votes
3answers
2k views
Are square or hex grids better for pathfinding?
Is there any significant difference between using a square or hexagonal grid for the area searched by a path finding algorithm. In other words, is square or hexagonal better, and if so why.
13
votes
6answers
1k views
How to build a “traffic AI”?
A project I am working on right now features a lot of "traffic" in the sense of cars moving along roads, aircraft moving aroun an apron etc.
As of now the available paths are precalculated, so nodes ...
13
votes
2answers
266 views
Territory patrol planning
I am developing a game/simulation where agents are fighting for land. I have the situation shown in the picture below:
These creatures are walking around and occupying pieces of land they step on ...
13
votes
3answers
244 views
How can I simulate limited AI vocabulary for a word game?
I've got a small handful of competitive word games in progress, and while the preference is for (mostly asynchronous) play against other human opponents, I'd like to provide players the option of ...
13
votes
2answers
569 views
AI to move custom-shaped spaceships (shape affecting movement behaviour)
I'm designing a networked turn based 3D-6DOF space fleet combat strategy game which relies heavily on ship customization. Let me explain the game a bit, since you need to know a bit about it to set ...
13
votes
5answers
853 views
Enemy evolution in shoot-em-ups
Are there any shoot-em-ups in which the enemies actually evolve as a response to their relative success against the player?
By evolve, I mean that each enemy has some genetic information encoding ...
12
votes
3answers
638 views
How do they keep track of the NPCs in Left 4 Dead?
How do they keep track of the NPC zombies in Left 4 Dead?
I am talking about the NPCs that just walk into walls or wander around aimlessly. Even though the players cannot see them, they are there ...
12
votes
3answers
871 views
Useful resources for beginning AI
What resources are available, including both free articles/ebooks and physical books and things, for game developers looking to begin simple AI programming/design?
Note: I know of this question, but ...
12
votes
3answers
430 views
Strategic AI in turnbased games?
I'm interested in how strategic AI engines work, e.g. how to evaluate where to place troops in a turnbased strategy game etc.
I do get how goal based AI works, and I guess that is a good approach to ...
12
votes
4answers
1k views
RTS Game AI Thread
I have a project to make a real-time strategy game from scratch. I am still at the early planning stage, but I have been programming a little to see the mechanics.
I know how to program. I also have ...
11
votes
4answers
716 views
what can be done to improve the ultimate insane real time strategy game AI?
I had this chat with a friend of mine about whether an AI can be created or not that could beat any human without resource cheating in a real time strategy game. An AI that would play almost ...
11
votes
3answers
1k views
Pretty open source game/rendering engine?
It might be outside the domain of open source (as there isn't much in the way of open source games that would want/need to implement all these) but is there an existing open source game or rendering ...
11
votes
2answers
672 views
How to create a reasonable AI?
I'm creating a logic game based on Fox and Hounds game. The player plays the fox and AI plays the hounds. (as far as I can see) I managed to make the AI perfect, so it never loses. Leaving it as such ...
11
votes
2answers
3k views
Complex Game AI for Turn-based Strategy Games
I'm doing some research for a turn-based Strategy game project and looking for good resources on this topic. The game is a typical war game where countries can fight each other, deploy units and have ...
10
votes
2answers
325 views
How could you model “scent trails” in a game?
Say you want to create a 3D game, and have either players, or mobiles, be able to tract other entity by following their scent trails. Is there any known data-structure that matches this use case?
If ...
10
votes
4answers
404 views
Where will my character stop?
Many years ago I coded some AI for a budget pseudo-3d game. There was one calculation which I never really figured out the best way to do, and that was calculating where the enemy would end up if it ...
10
votes
2answers
718 views
How to implement an intelligent enemy in a shoot-em-up?
Imagine a very simple shoot-em-up, something we all know:
You're the player (green). Your movement is restricted to the X axis. Our enemy (or enemies) is at the top of the screen, his movement is ...
10
votes
4answers
668 views
How do I make NPC pathfinding look believable?
Is there an "academic" way to have NPC walking randomly on a map, but having a believable comportment ?
The obvious scenario is a armed guard who is walking around a basement to secure it. It's quite ...
10
votes
1answer
372 views
Decision Tree vs Behavior Tree
What are some differences between Decision Trees and Behavior Trees for AI Game Development? When would you use one over the other?
10
votes
6answers
485 views
What forms of non-interactive RPG battle systems exist?
I am interested in systems that allow players to develop a battle plan or setup strategy for the party or characters prior to entering battle. During the battle the player either cannot input commands ...
10
votes
1answer
680 views
Is precomputed pathfinding still relevant?
Context
Old Lucas Arts (ScummVM era) point and click graphic adventure games used precomputed pathfinding. Here's a rough outline of the technique.
Step 1
The floor in each room was divided into ...
9
votes
3answers
4k views
How to implement A.I. for checkers/draughts?
I saw this checkers game and I wondered how the A.I. was implemented.
How should I implement an A.I. for checkers (draughts, dama, dame)? Are there any known algorithms?
Very thnaks full to all. I ...
9
votes
7answers
464 views
How should I replan A*?
I've got a pathfinding boss enemy that seeks the player using the A* algorithm. It's a pretty complex environment, and I'm doing it in Flash, so the search can get a bit slow when it's searching over ...
9
votes
3answers
1k views
Moving around/avoiding obstacles
I would like to write a "game", where you can place an obstacle (red), and then the black dot tries to avoid it, and get to the green target.
I'm using a very easy way to avoid it, if the black dot is ...
9
votes
2answers
1k views
Do higher-level 'Pure AI' concepts (such as Neural-Nets or Genetic Algos) ever get implemented successfully in commercial games?
Although graphics is my main area of focus, I've been dabbling with Game AI concepts for quite some time now; from simple A* path-finding to intricate Perceptrons..
My question is this; Does anyone ...
9
votes
5answers
461 views
Situational awareness in path finding
Assume you had to find the shortest path through a dungeon, where certain passages are only opened to you after certain items were collected, like locked doors and keys, for instance.
The normal gut ...
9
votes
1answer
4k views
Behaviour tree code example?
http://altdevblogaday.org/2011/02/24/introduction-to-behavior-trees/
Obviously the most interesting article I found on this website. What do you think about it ?
It lacks some code example, don't ...
9
votes
3answers
611 views
How do I make complex AI manageable? [closed]
In the past, I've used simple systems like finite state machines (FSMs) and hierarchical FSMs to control AI behavior. This pattern falls apart very quickly or any complex system.
I've heard about ...
9
votes
1answer
377 views
Algorithm to shoot at a target in a 3d game
For those of you remembering Descent Freespace it had a nice feature to help you aim at the enemy when shooting non-homing missiles or lasers: it showed a crosshair in front of the ship you chased ...
9
votes
3answers
2k views
How to wire finite state machine into component-based architecture?
State machines seem to cause harmful dependencies in component-based architectures.
How, specifically, is communication handled between a state machine and the components that carry out state-related ...
9
votes
2answers
283 views
Calculating the “power” of a player in a “Defend Your Castle” type game
I'm a making a "Defend Your Castle" type game, where each player has a castle and must send units to destroy the opponent's castle. It looks like this (and yeah, this is the actual game, not a quick ...
