Tactical AI Kit: Making More New Levels
by Bryce · 03/21/2009 (7:45 pm) · 13 comments
Hello children.
I don't really have a lot to say in this post. Here are some screenshots showing off some of the new levels I have made for the next Tactical AI Kit Demo. Enjoy!
Airplane
This map was created after I was inspired by the Call of Duty 4 epilogue mission. It certainly isn't as epic; there's no hull breach, hostage situation, countdown, free fall, or any British accents (for anyone reading this who has a British accent, I forever envy you. You don't know how lucky you are.), but all I really care about is that the map successfully shows off the AI's handling of very close-quarters combat.
I currently don't have it set up for AI use yet, because the map isn't finished yet.
Airport
This map serves two purposes: 1) Encourage the evaluator to be stealthly to show off the AI senses and alert system, and 2) to somehow establish a reason to assault an airliner while it's in-flight. The player is supposed to sneak through the airport and sneak aboard a 747 waiting on the tarmac (which you then assault in the next mission, which I showed above). You don't have to be stealthy, but it will be advised because I will be putting a lot of guards there.
My original plan for this mission was to just make it a small airfield, but then I started adding more and more stuff and it started looking like an international airport...Oh well, this is much cooler.
The player starts out in the lower level of a parking garage, where I plan to have him take out two or three guards with a silenced weapon. The player makes his way through a service hallway and up a set of stairs, under the airport's terminal entrance.
After making their way through that, the player finds themselves at the airport terminal's entrance.
Now we arrive in this area, where a clever player (or an A* path weighted for visibility) would use the ticket counters at the far end of the room to avoid detection by the patrolling guards.
Some not-so-typical airport advertising:
Going downstairs to the gates. Notice the sign on the wall that shows the way. I'm trying to make this mission as non-linear as possible. The player will be given a good-sized map to explore, but the main idea will be to find a way to the tarmac, and then to their plane. The added areas provide hiding spots in case of detection, or bonus firefights if the player wants to freak out the guards.
The gate area. From here, you can enter the baggage claim, look out the window, head to the food court, and get on the tarmac. I'm still not exactly sure how everything is going to happen in this mission, but more areas will probably be added.
There's a lot to see outside:
The food court, a work in progress. Imagine more signs, tables, and color.
Before this map is finished, I will put in a way onto the tarmac. Once on the tarmac, the player be given the option to take on the guards on the ground head on, sneak past them, or snipe them from the air traffic control tower. I'll post a screenshot if I ever get to that (and if I remember).
Tell me what you think!
I don't really have a lot to say in this post. Here are some screenshots showing off some of the new levels I have made for the next Tactical AI Kit Demo. Enjoy!
Airplane
This map was created after I was inspired by the Call of Duty 4 epilogue mission. It certainly isn't as epic; there's no hull breach, hostage situation, countdown, free fall, or any British accents (for anyone reading this who has a British accent, I forever envy you. You don't know how lucky you are.), but all I really care about is that the map successfully shows off the AI's handling of very close-quarters combat.
I currently don't have it set up for AI use yet, because the map isn't finished yet.
Airport
This map serves two purposes: 1) Encourage the evaluator to be stealthly to show off the AI senses and alert system, and 2) to somehow establish a reason to assault an airliner while it's in-flight. The player is supposed to sneak through the airport and sneak aboard a 747 waiting on the tarmac (which you then assault in the next mission, which I showed above). You don't have to be stealthy, but it will be advised because I will be putting a lot of guards there.
My original plan for this mission was to just make it a small airfield, but then I started adding more and more stuff and it started looking like an international airport...Oh well, this is much cooler.
The player starts out in the lower level of a parking garage, where I plan to have him take out two or three guards with a silenced weapon. The player makes his way through a service hallway and up a set of stairs, under the airport's terminal entrance.
After making their way through that, the player finds themselves at the airport terminal's entrance.
Now we arrive in this area, where a clever player (or an A* path weighted for visibility) would use the ticket counters at the far end of the room to avoid detection by the patrolling guards.
Some not-so-typical airport advertising:
Going downstairs to the gates. Notice the sign on the wall that shows the way. I'm trying to make this mission as non-linear as possible. The player will be given a good-sized map to explore, but the main idea will be to find a way to the tarmac, and then to their plane. The added areas provide hiding spots in case of detection, or bonus firefights if the player wants to freak out the guards.
The gate area. From here, you can enter the baggage claim, look out the window, head to the food court, and get on the tarmac. I'm still not exactly sure how everything is going to happen in this mission, but more areas will probably be added.
There's a lot to see outside:The food court, a work in progress. Imagine more signs, tables, and color.
Before this map is finished, I will put in a way onto the tarmac. Once on the tarmac, the player be given the option to take on the guards on the ground head on, sneak past them, or snipe them from the air traffic control tower. I'll post a screenshot if I ever get to that (and if I remember).
Tell me what you think!
#2
You wouldn't want our teeth, though ... ;D
edit: Just as a side-note, remember it's not the levels you'll be trying to sell, it's the AI Kit, so maybe don't spend too much time "beautifying" the environments.
03/21/2009 (8:43 pm)
Quote:(for anyone reading this who has a British accent, I forever envy you. You don't know how lucky you are.)Eh what old chap?
You wouldn't want our teeth, though ... ;D
Quote:You don't have to be stealthy, but it will be advised because I will be putting a lot of guards there.Looking good, mate - it's good that you're thinking of a gameplay/mission plan rather than just making a level and then thinking of scripting the action afterwards. And nice to have the choice of stealth-em-up or all-guns-blazing, should show off the various gameplay elements that you've been working on nicely and adds replayability.
edit: Just as a side-note, remember it's not the levels you'll be trying to sell, it's the AI Kit, so maybe don't spend too much time "beautifying" the environments.
#3
03/21/2009 (9:11 pm)
i like how you changed the McDonalds sign to McWonalds and reversed the M to W good thinking on keeping it legal. :P
#4
Yes, I've been keeping that in mind, but I'm obsessive-compulsive when it comes to level designing :-p
I do work back and forth between AI and map making; sometimes I will notice an AI bug when working with AI in a new map. For example, the reaction system worked fine to me, until I added a map with stairs. I started to notice that NPCs would find cover at the bottom (or top) of the stairs and stay there forever. I realized I needed to have them set to cautiously move to where they think their attacker is on random intervals. As a result, I now die very often on stairways. When I'm making my way downstairs, I commonly get mowed down by someone making their way upstairs.
As I experiment with different environments set up in different or unusual ways, I notice ways to improve the AI to help make it suitable for any level a developer throws at it.
03/21/2009 (9:14 pm)
Quote:OMG...please keep going. I want to play CoD4 on Torque very badly :)As do I :) My PC is able to handle "Call of Torque"
Quote:it's not the levels you'll be trying to sell, it's the AI Kit, so maybe don't spend too much time "beautifying" the environments.
Yes, I've been keeping that in mind, but I'm obsessive-compulsive when it comes to level designing :-p
I do work back and forth between AI and map making; sometimes I will notice an AI bug when working with AI in a new map. For example, the reaction system worked fine to me, until I added a map with stairs. I started to notice that NPCs would find cover at the bottom (or top) of the stairs and stay there forever. I realized I needed to have them set to cautiously move to where they think their attacker is on random intervals. As a result, I now die very often on stairways. When I'm making my way downstairs, I commonly get mowed down by someone making their way upstairs.
As I experiment with different environments set up in different or unusual ways, I notice ways to improve the AI to help make it suitable for any level a developer throws at it.
#5
I'm with everyone else offering you encouragement on this. Keep it up, because I've been neglecting my AI after seeing these series of blogs.
03/21/2009 (10:02 pm)
I like that you been experimenting with different environments, but I've been meaning to ask: just how open ended are you designing the AI for multiple gametypes? COD is all good and everything but I'm shooting for more than that.I'm with everyone else offering you encouragement on this. Keep it up, because I've been neglecting my AI after seeing these series of blogs.
#6
I am doing whatever I can to make the Tactical AI Kit code as easy to modify and add on to as possible, so that developers who need it for purposes other than just a guard can change it without any difficulty.
03/21/2009 (10:18 pm)
I'm not modelling my AI around Call of Duty (their AI is mostly scripted), just some of my levels. As for multiple game types, the AI is not really on a specific game type. At the moment, it just stands around (or moves to a location, or follows a path) until something gives it a reason to act. It would be possible to add a new state to the state machine that tells the NPC to look for the opposite team's flag, and move to it. A switch for it could be added in the Idle state (the state where the NPC does nothing but decide if it should change states), so if it sees that there is an object, for example, with the name FLAG1, enter the flag capture state. The state calculates a path to the flag, deals with encountering and killing enemies, and once it knows it has the flag, the state could then set the NPC to path back to its base.I am doing whatever I can to make the Tactical AI Kit code as easy to modify and add on to as possible, so that developers who need it for purposes other than just a guard can change it without any difficulty.
#7
03/21/2009 (11:18 pm)
Cool, that's the answer I was wanting to hear, thanks! 
#9
03/22/2009 (3:03 am)
Looks great Bryce, keep it up.
#10
03/22/2009 (8:34 am)
@Max: I'm designing it on TGE. Since this is mostly script (besides the pathfinding resource I use, which has its own TGEA version), it should work on TGEA. I'll check up on that whenever I decide it's ready for a beta test. 
#11
Haha, is the McWonald's slogan "I'm eating it."? That's awesome.
03/22/2009 (9:52 am)
Loving the levels, can't wait to see them in action with your AI. The seats int the plane seem very dark though.Haha, is the McWonald's slogan "I'm eating it."? That's awesome.
#12
03/23/2009 (5:25 am)
Looking good bryce. You've done a lot of modelling work there. 
#13
03/23/2009 (10:06 am)
Wow..... O.0 .....awesome, Looking forward to it all...keep up the good work....
Torque 3D Owner Brett Seyler
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