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Plan for Gonzo T. Clown

Plan for Gonzo T. Clown
Name:Gonzo T. Clown
Date Posted:Oct 19, 2004
Rating:2.5 out of 5
Public:YES
Comments:YES
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Profile Page:View profile page for Gonzo T. Clown

Blog post
Taking a bite and chewing it by god!
What in the hell is your Synopsis about?

Well, I've been "thinking" about filing a plan for months and months, so now I'm just gonna do it. Been so busy with the kids and all, I just put myself in superman mode and started whipping the house, yard, PC's, and scripts into shape. Now I'm starting to do all those thing I said I was gonna do, lol.



What's the plan then?

Well, with all the buzz about AI going on in the forums I've decided to whip up my own AI code just to see how well I could do it. I thought AI was out of my league until such time as I could put some serious study into it, but it turns out it's really no different than any other coding in most respects. It's all about logic and a little luck. It's just a matter of artistic touch and attention to detail to get things flowing smoothly and make some bots that are not only multi-faceted, but almost completely unpredictable in combat. Now that I have the basic bot control functions in place with fighting bots that kick butt, I'm going to start making them appear smarter by utilizing environment for cover and responding to dangerous objects or materials such as gas barrels near itself or it's targeted enemy.



How much engine coding has this taken so far?

None, it's all scripted. In fact, as it stands now it's pretty much drop in compatible with the HEAD and it greatly improves the stock AI.



After all that what are you doing?

Going to install the Lighting Pack for TGE and screw around with that for a bit to get used to it and then start working into my new Top Secret mondo supra hyperfied kick ass new game I'm working on.


And I guess I could throw another plan out here again soon, lol.

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Nick Zafiris   (Oct 19, 2004 at 11:12 GMT)
I bet you feel a lot better now that you have a plan and know where you are going right?

Have you implemented pathfinding in your AI script?

Firas   (Oct 19, 2004 at 12:22 GMT)
what about your AI are you planing to sell yuour AI when it become complete?

Gonzo T. Clown   (Oct 20, 2004 at 06:53 GMT)   Resource Rating: 5
@ Nick - Remember, I'm an AI newb, lol. But if you mean following paths node by node, then yes. If you mean pathfinding as searching for a way through town on it's own, then no.

At this time, bot's have 3 modes with two states each. The states are either 'Firing' or 'Not-Firing' their weapons. The modes are...

Attack - puts bot into chase and destroy mode. Bot will follow and attack the assigned player till one or the other is dead. Each and every bot is slightly unique and operates in a different manner giving a nearly unlimited variety of enemies to combat.

Evade - bot has reached a point in combat that meets with conditions that causes it to begin evasive actions. The bot will continue to fight while trying to throw your aim with misdirection and movement. (My next change on this is to allow some bots to fire while moving, others to evade then fire, and then give the bot's the ability to choose which it will use).

Resume - If the bot makes a kill instead of being killed, it resumes what it was doing before it entered into combat(following a path, gaurding, etc...).


Just using these these 3 modes allows for some pretty effective bots, but I want to expand their abilities a little further in regards to hearing sounds and acting on them (Investigate mode), and work in more intelligence and awareness as stated earlier. I think what my ultimate goal is to have bots that you can just drop into missions and they can take care of themselves and do their jobs.


@ Firas - Honestly, I don't know. Several factors could have influence on that, and some of those factors I don't control.

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