Squad base AI design and implementation

Second release of squad base AI demo can be downloaded from
http://s35.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0IVURILAL9IDE16LQ3J2NCO1GV

Player can now point at medipack and command sidekick to retrive it

In-game screenshot

Flowchart for following SideKick AI


The player will always have a beacon following .. it'll rotate upon player's axis if it collides with solid object

Features of bot (both the enemies and sidekick)

- Shoot player from behind cover
- Run for next cover if current cover compromised (player too close or getting too much hit)
- Able to contact other nearby unit for help

Flowchart for bot AI

The bot will search for cover when its current position has been compromised, eg – getting hits too many times in the same position.



Potential cover will have a marker entity placed within the body of the block, the bot will search for nearest marker in the level.



Four beacons will be spawned around the marker, the beacon will perform a visibility test (trace) against the enemy that the bot is trying to evade.



The beacon that failed the visibility test will be marked as a “safe” beacon.
Finally the bot will move to the location of either “safe” beacon.


View of how cover-helper entities (Red coloured thingy) are placed in WED



There are currently 2 different types of cover-helper entities (dynamic and static)

dynamic entities are placed in covers that can be destroyed (Physic object - Newton crate in this demo)

the dynamic entities will poll at a regular interval to check if it is still within a solid object, if not it'll ent_remove(self)

That rocked CKS. Its really coming along well

oh..just a side note.. for anyone interested in game AI, check out project NERO

http://nn.cs.utexas.edu/NERO/

Created by a group of 30 ppl with Torque engine, it has machine learning..etc
anyone interested in doing something similar with A6?

Hi CKS,
I just visited your HP and downloaded your game and the A6 portation. And I like it very much. Good work. And because you asked, I because I cannot understand why no one wants to do it up to know, I have to say that I would like to work on something comparable for the A6 engine. Will study the papers that I got from your side..
Greetings
André W.

Im also working on a squad based system similar to yours! Im glad to see you got yours up and running in the demo. GREAT stuff!!!

I dont know the cpu hit, but isnt spawning new defense nodes in/around a solid object slower than placing the static defense nodes in WED? I think you may be able to shave some resources by using pre placed static defense nodes around structures that are indefinitly static (buildings, large rubble etc). Plus this could get rid of checking "content" when making a defense point, since the defense node is placed in WED. This way you can have more squad mates/enemies since they wont be creating a whole mass of defense nodes (each checking content).

I'm glad to see someone else working on a squad based game! I have my test bed working and I'm making a few levels to test pathfinding and flanking. I will come to you for answers!

Woohoo!! show as some demo soon!!

ive not tried on a varity of machine .. machines ive tried on are either AMD 2800+ or intel 2.8GHZ with hyperthreading all with 1GB RAM .. could be the reason why i do not see any performance hit..

initially when i was designing the "search for cover feature" i prioritize on dynamism instead of performances.. i wanted to just place a single node that would work on any kind of shape/size block

Your demo encourages us to work harder!

Actually you know what, your definitly right about your dynamic preference over performance. I guess its a matter of taste and the target system. I now understand that you wont be spending time carefully placing defense nodes in WED, and that means less time testing, using trial and error adjustments of the node positions over and over again (that also means more hair on your head when your done). Plus you can technically have any type of structures in your map without too much care for the placements of nodes. That brings your dynamic preference full circle

very great work!

I missed the download. Is there a way someone can host this or send it to me? Looks interesting. Thanks for help.
-Shadow Knight

Here
http://s31.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1Y2FRM6FXXNLS2Y222N0RX65Z3