Hi Please look at my demo game. or here in

">youtube(they are just the same). Right now I created a path/track editor to control my space ships path/movements. I already created 3 tracks for them to follow, apparently, either I created 20 of these tracks and have each spawned ship randomly picked out from these 20 precreated tracks, or apply a procedural track every time I spawn a ship. The problem doing it procedurally is its difficult. First, I need to plot the points. then, i need to take into account the ship's orientation when it turns. Anyway, I would like to hear your ideas - if the best way is to just have pre created tracks and just have bunch of them so players won't see a pattern, then I can have it that way. Thanks.

Might be hard, but each step seems fairly straightforward:

Generate the track procedurally, when doing so make sure the angle between the last point and the next point isn't impossible.
Then get (your bomber) moving smoothly through the course, without caring about orientation. If your course is defined by line segments, then your bomber will probably have to start turning before it hits the next point, and both its speed and rate of turn should be inversely proportional to the size of the angle between the next point and the point after.
Then figure out how to change its orientation realistically.

Do this all with 2D routes first, and then extend it to 3D. It won't be aeronautically correct, but you should be able to get it to suspension of disbelief.

From the video it looks like Steering Behaviours might give some ideas

Quote: Original post by tonyg
From the video it looks like Steering Behaviours might give some ideas

You think so? In fact i just semi-finished my port of XNA steering behaviors.

although applying it to full 3D (I don't think the samples and the framework takes Y into account) might be a little difficult, dunno.

Argus2 is probably right, i need to generate a 4 point path randomly and have the ship steer towards this 4 point -before finally applying the "arrive/seek" state to drop the bomb on the house halfway through.