I can help you some, but AI is a huge topic and there are tons of posts on this forum to prove it.

Before you realize the end result of what it is your wanting, your going to have to realize everything that goes into to making a good ai, basically the "brains" of it all.

I agree with you on the template ai, but believe me it is certainly a better start than having no ai at all, and it's very easy to implement. If you have the latest wed version and the latest templates, it's simply a matter of selecting the Map Properties in the File menu and creating a new script that is a "shooter". Once you do that, you will have actions ready to go, to attach to your enemies with no ai scripting at all.

If your not willing to use the templates, then you better buckle up and get ready for some serious studying if you want to be a good ai programmer because it is definately one of the most difficult areas of programming.

If you want to write custom script, start simple and work your way up. Begin with what is called FSM(finite state machine). This ai logic is based on the "state" of your enemy, which can change upon certain events.

But even with FSM logic, you will still need to learn a good pathfinding technique or your ai will suffer visually by walking blind. There are wed paths that can be used, Astar Easy Astar and other techniques as well, just google up programming AI and I bet you find tons of resources.

Remember if your totally new to ai, start simple and small. Document the details of your enemies on what you expect them to do. Think about how they are supposed to travel and where they can or cannot go. How they are expected to find the player. You must take care of of those details before even thinking about melee fighting, unless its turn based ai .

Well... I could go on and on. So maybe I have either motivated you, or scared you away from ai programming, lol, hope not wasn't my intent. Happy AI coding.

-raiden