Hidden tips for using The UAISK

The Universal AI Starter Kit has many different features and I'd like to show you how you can use some of the more unique ones to enhance the quality of your gaming projects.

Item Based Spawning
One thing that can be done with the Universal AI Starter Kit is to use item based spawning. So let's say you're designing a game in which the player must get a hold of a manila folder in some type of military installation within your game world. The player takes the folder from within the secret base. Doing this could trigger the spawning of a group of enemies within the vicinity that will impede the player's escape. Of course this is just one example of how you can take advantage of this feature in order to enrich gameplay. This feature can be used whenever you want a game mission in which the player must take an item which is either guarded by or is able to "summon" enemy NPCs, such as in a fantasy scenario. This type of situation has been used in many different gameplay genres.

And for those of you that already own the Universal AI Starter Kit, here's general description of how to set that up: First you make an item. Then you add a call to the spawning function on collision with the item, and place the item in your mission.

Friend or Foe?
Another element of the Universal AI Starter Kit is being able to change characters in the game from foe to friend. For instance, if you are designing a fantasy game in which you want the player to be able to use a mind control power on enemies or to tame pets, you can have the aggressive bots in your game switch teams and act as teammates. You could cause them to switch teams by using a spell or attack on them within the game. If you look in the "Changing Teams" section of the Universal AI Starter Kit usage instructions, you will see how to easily connect this function to an attack, thus allowing the player to turn enemy AI into friendly bots dynamically, without respawning. This can be done in as little as one line of script.

Behaviors: Turret and Leashed
The Universal AI Starter Kit also comes complete with a variety of behaviors. Two of the more unique ones are "turret" and "leashed". Turret mode allows the bot to remain stationary but rotate on a particular point and assuming that the bot is using a ranged weapon, it will attack any enemies from that point. This can be useful if you want a bot to guard a very specific area. Acting in a "guard post" capacity on a wall would be one way to use this behavior. As for leashed mode, it acts a little like a dog leash and allows the bot to chase the player for a certain distance which you, as the developer, can specify. After the bot reaches its maximum distance and loses sight of the player, it will return to its original spot. This behavior can be very good for big bosses at the end of levels in which you don't want the boss to leave a certain area.

These are just a few of the lesser known features of The Universal AI Starter Kit. Of course, how you can apply these things is really only limited by your imagination and game design.