Hello, This may seem an odd post but I am really just seeking some input from other developers. I was not sure if this belonged in the AI or General Programming sections so I am posting it in the AI section. I am currently working on a small scale, FPS, with enemies that are skeletons and zombies. I have decided to follow in the footsteps of Monolith's FEAR and I am using goal driven Agents. Agents have two specific AI functions that they are given. They are given at minimum one primary goal that they will spend their entire existence trying to fulfill. They are also given a behavior matrix, which is just a table of simple "behavior" controllers. To better illustrate that we'll look at a Zombie Grunt that I have... The Grunt is the most primitive and stupid of all the Agents. They have one primary goal: to kill any enemies. They are given the following behaviors: search, blind attack, steering, and gather. Without getting to complicated the search behavior just gives the Agent access to a set of predefined nodes in the level (search nodes) and will use an A* algorithm to move around the level until it sees an enemy. Then it will use the blind attack behavior (which is just straight attack, no strategy) to satisfy its main goal. The steering/gather are if the zombie encounters allies and how to behave in a group (flocking). Anyways, I really apologize because most of that may seem irrelevant to the rest of this. I am looking for additional help with coming up with new types of behaviors -- I'll worry about implementing the behaviors later. I just want to build a nicely abstract list that I can draw from. So far I have come up with these typical behaviors: - Search - Blind Attack - Gather (crowd) - Steering (Flocking behavior) - Feed (plays the feed animation, restores health while playing) - Flee (the Agent can compute a path to get away from an enemy) - Hide (the Agent has access to a set of good "hiding" nodes) - Ambush (an attack technique, the agent tries to stay in hiding and strike quick and retreat to hiding again) - Follow the Leader (the Agent is considered a "lesser status" and if a commander takes control of this Agent, the commanders directions become the Agents goal [they cannot refuse] and the commander can instantiate new behaviors onto this Agent) - Lead (this Agent is a commander, this Agent gains access to all Search nodes, all Hide nodes, all Ambush nodes, and any other Nodes that will be added later. This agent can order around his followers) - Lure (this is a behavior assigned to commanding Agents. The commander may force some of his followers to stay in a hidden area while simultaneously leaving one or two of them out in visible areas. When an enemy takes the "bait" the others will be ordered to ambush the enemy) This is kind of where I have stopped and now that I am reflecting back on it, I am thinking I may need to change behaviors like "lure" into a commandment instead of a behavior -- I'm conflicted on renaming it though since I have sort have defined all behaviors as whatever actions an Agent takes to fulfill its goal. Regardless, I could use any input or suggestions on other types of tactics or behaviors that would fit into an FPS game. Thank you in advance!

The Halo designers mentioned in a presentation that subtelty in AI goes unnoticed. So you may have reached the point of diminishing returns, especially focusing on behavior that executes when the player isn't present. The presentation talked about how they built in exaggerated animations and lots of vocal clues to help the player understand what was going on in the characters' heads

Right, I believe the bots in FEAR did this as well.

They would shout orders to each other and state things like, "Target Spotted" or "He's trying to flank."

I plan on using similar ideas to illustrate the intelligence but what I'm more at a loss for right now is coming up with actual behaviors to try and emulate. I suppose I need military tactics.

Upon further research on AI for goal driven Agents, I found that my solution is not the best choice :) I do not need behaviors because I guess the best way to approach it is to create a standard list of functions and have the Agent profiles contain specific code related to how the Agent should respond when the function is called.

Oye!

Thanks for any feedback but don't need it!

Taunt: Jump into an open area in front of the player and play a "come and get me" or an "I'm invincible" sort of animation.

Tease: Peek out into the open in front of the player and hide again. a la "Peek-a-boo"

Thats awesome, I'm going to call it the InnocuousFox behavior lol.

Quote: Original post by Theoreticalstudios
Thats awesome, I'm going to call it the InnocuousFox behavior lol.

Uh... don't.

Classic Zomnbie maneuvers:



Fight over tasty brains...

Backing away from something unpleasant (fire or a pointy stick)

Milling about when no 'food' is sensed nearby.

Zombie coming to 'life' (transition from corpse to undead)

Beating on obstructions/ attempting to push thru opening (even if its too small)

Squirming around on ground after various parts of zombie anatomy have been cutoff