Questions tagged [ai]

The design and/or logic of how an in-game entity makes decisions about its behavior.

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123 votes
20 answers
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Is it unethical to make a game AI that is secretly non-competitive?

In several games the AI is designed to give the player an easy time without their knowledge. This can be having a 0% chance to hit the first time you appear, enemy letting you sneak up on them by not ...
PStag's user avatar
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111 votes
10 answers
9k 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 ...
user avatar
81 votes
9 answers
14k views

How does one prevent homing missiles 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 missile orbit its target. I am curious about anti-orbiting strategies. A simple example is a homing ...
John McDonald's user avatar
80 votes
5 answers
42k 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 ...
Rory Harvey's user avatar
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72 votes
1 answer
38k views

Difference between Decision Trees & Behavior Trees for Game AI

What are some differences between Decision Trees and Behavior Trees for AI Game Development? For what applications would you use one over the other?
Free Lancer's user avatar
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69 votes
2 answers
16k views

What is unit slotting?

I was watching the "Devs Play" S01E05 where JP LeBreton sat down with John Romero and played through Doom, while Romero would explain some of the game/level design choices they made. There are loads ...
tomsseisums's user avatar
  • 3,356
58 votes
9 answers
48k views

New to creating AI - where to start? [closed]

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 ...
jle's user avatar
  • 727
50 votes
5 answers
5k 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 ...
piotrek's user avatar
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47 votes
9 answers
34k 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 ...
blankets's user avatar
  • 471
42 votes
1 answer
4k views

Why use convex polygons and not concave ones in path-finding?

I read in Unity's path-finding documentation that they use convex polygons because there won't be any 'obstruction' between 2 points. Then they add their vertices as nodes along with starting and ...
Rany's user avatar
  • 473
31 votes
6 answers
8k 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 ...
Patrick Lorio's user avatar
26 votes
2 answers
26k 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 ...
BadmintonCat's user avatar
26 votes
5 answers
8k 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 ...
Andrew Russell's user avatar
26 votes
6 answers
6k views

Preempting Behavior Trees

I'm attempting to get my head around behavior trees, so I'm spiking out some test code. One thing I'm struggling with is how to preempt a currently running node when something of higher priority comes ...
me--'s user avatar
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24 votes
9 answers
5k 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 ...
Iain's user avatar
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23 votes
4 answers
9k views

How to make AI detect a target behind a wall, who is only partially exposed?

I'm making an FPS game where, even when a target's whole body is behind a wall or box, but its finger or foot exposed, the AI should be able to detect it and shoot its finger. So far the way I've ...
BrucePai's user avatar
  • 347
23 votes
3 answers
4k views

Command Ordering Architecture of Dwarf Fortress

What is the most elegant way to implement a command ordering system for AI? for example in dwarf fortress when you mark a forested area for wood cutting, the dwarfs then would do the following ...
jedt's user avatar
  • 333
23 votes
6 answers
2k 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 ...
aaronfarr's user avatar
  • 458
23 votes
1 answer
23k 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 ...
jokoon's user avatar
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23 votes
3 answers
10k views

How to wire finite state machine into component-based architecture? [closed]

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 ...
Pup's user avatar
  • 344
22 votes
3 answers
8k views

Efficiently pathfinding many flocking enemies around obstacles

I'm working on trying to improve the pathfinding for my game's enemies. Right now, they basically just constantly move towards the player's exact position by calculating the angle between themselves ...
Darin Beaudreau's user avatar
22 votes
10 answers
7k views

Available AI middleware [closed]

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 ...
21 votes
3 answers
36k 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 m ...
Solid Soft's user avatar
21 votes
4 answers
24k views

How can I implement a "20 Questions" algorithm?

Ever since childhood, I've wondered how the 20Q electronic game worked. You think of an object, thing, or animal (e.g. potato or donkey). The device then asks you a series of questions such as: Is it ...
Daniel Node.js's user avatar
21 votes
6 answers
11k 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 ...
Lunikon's user avatar
  • 321
21 votes
4 answers
7k 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 ...
ghost's user avatar
  • 1,529
21 votes
6 answers
8k 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 ...
mac's user avatar
  • 1,375
20 votes
8 answers
13k views

Imperfect pong AI

So I'm starting to learn Java and some OpenGL while using the LWJGL. To start off easy, I'm writing a clone of the Atari Pong. I got set up correctly the game screen, collision detection, and all the ...
Setzer22's user avatar
  • 480
19 votes
7 answers
8k views

How do I make A* agents avoid other agents?

I'm implementing a multi agent A* algorithm on a tile map. Agents move only in the X and Y axes. I avoid collisions between them by checking where the others are when calculating paths. It works fine ...
Krzysztof Antoniak's user avatar
19 votes
6 answers
1k 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 ...
Kzqai's user avatar
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19 votes
6 answers
3k 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 ...
Petteri H's user avatar
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19 votes
1 answer
5k views

Behavior Trees :: Actions That Take Longer Than One Tick

From what I understand on Behavior Trees, each Behavior should be a short goal oriented Action that could be done in a few iterations. So for example, below is an image of a Behavior Tree: Now let ...
Free Lancer's user avatar
  • 1,263
18 votes
2 answers
6k views

Why is reinforcement learning not widely adopted as an AI tool for agents in well-known games?

Reinforcement learning has shown remarkable success in game-playing agents, as seen in the achievements of AlphaGo and OpenAI's Dota 2 AI. There are a few tools, such as Unity ML Agents, to integrate ...
rcmalli's user avatar
  • 291
18 votes
5 answers
3k 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 ...
Bluestone's user avatar
  • 183
18 votes
8 answers
2k 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 graphics ...
18 votes
3 answers
910 views

How can I maintain a rectangular formation when units are added or removed?

I've got bots in a rectangular formation with rows and columns. A problem arises when a bot is added or removed from the formation. When this happens, the bots have to rearrange themselves so that the ...
18 votes
2 answers
11k views

Driver AI in racing game

I'm curious how I could control cars in a racing game. Should my AI agent control its car with commands like "throttle on 0.35, steereing wheel on 0.5 right, brake on 0.0"? Or should I rather pre-...
dargemir's user avatar
  • 397
17 votes
3 answers
4k views

How feasible is it to integrate a personality system such as the MBTI into a game?

Specifically, how difficult would it be for an indie developer to implement a system similar to the MBTI so that the player character's dialogue, actions, and choices will change, according to the ...
Piomicron's user avatar
  • 279
17 votes
6 answers
1k 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 ...
TerryB's user avatar
  • 1,273
17 votes
4 answers
5k 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.
Edwin Earl Ross's user avatar
16 votes
3 answers
2k 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 ...
lampak's user avatar
  • 271
16 votes
2 answers
1k 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 ...
ashes999's user avatar
  • 11.3k
16 votes
2 answers
1k views

Good way to handle offscreen AI?

For example sake: Let's say there are 10 rooms in the world. And let's say the world is inhabited by 10 entities. And each entity has it's own "daily routine" where it performs certain actions in ...
Ceiling Gecko's user avatar
16 votes
2 answers
2k views

Dynamic thruster balancing of space ship

The space ships in my game a meant to be player-built with an arbitrary amount of thrusters attached anywhere with any rotation. I currently have some dirty code to rotate the ship to a given angle (...
Kim's user avatar
  • 161
15 votes
1 answer
20k views

When to use a blend tree vs state machine for animation

Im an experienced game dev hobbiest making my first game with 3d animated characters (in Unity) and am struggling to figure out when to use blend trees vs animation state machines. I understand both ...
weichsem's user avatar
  • 515
15 votes
1 answer
3k views

How do I tell if my enemy can see my player?

Given a player and an enemy with position, and given the direction vector of each, how can I tell if one can "see" the other? In other words, how do I test if one position with direction is in front ...
izb's user avatar
  • 850
15 votes
3 answers
683 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 ...
Steven Stadnicki's user avatar
15 votes
3 answers
4k views

Useful resources for beginning AI [closed]

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 ...
15 votes
3 answers
1k 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 ...
kaoD's user avatar
  • 1,935
15 votes
2 answers
3k 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 ...
David Gouveia's user avatar

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