I would like to know everyone''s opinions on what the best way to implement AI in a space shoot-em-up. I am writing one know and have almost everything finished but the AI, it really bothers me. I am currently just using patterns stored as waypoints. I have patterns where they do a circle, and basically just follow a pattern. Predictable ? Yes, after a while...... What would be a solution to this ? Just add more and more waypoints making the pattern more complex is one way I thought and is the way I will probably do unless I can get some useful pointers to other ideas..... Thanks for the help "Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time" - Monty Python and the Holy Grail themGames Productions

Hey I love shooters. I started making one but now am sidetracked
on another project. I think patterns is the way to go. The main reason is because that''s what a lot of my favorite games of that type did like Gradius,Life Force,G Darius,Sokio Grantai,etc. One
reason for this is if you just have ships flying around with their own AI they will be crossing each others path''s. This will
look cheasy in a 2D game. You could have the AI watch for both
enemy and player fire to avoid this but this could be hard.

Some things I would suggest for your patterns. Have each ship have a few patterns at least so it''s not exacetly pridectible.
Also I think the way you fly multiple patterns at once will affect the game play. What I mean is say you make a fleet of 5
ships fly out do a loop or something fire at you and then fly back off the screen. If this is all that is happening it will look boring. But if as soon as one pattern starts firing at you another pattern comes on the screen flying a different pattern that is much better since there are two things going on at once. Good shooters have like 5 things going on at once but the patterns are flown in a way that none of the ships are crossing paths in the air. This is the real tricky part but I would suggest you spend the most time on this part since in my opinion of this genre, this is the heart of the game the part that will make or break the game. Everything counts of course but if the patterns are fun and intense I would rather play a shooter like this then one with graphics,sound,and killer weapons.