MythoLogic Interactive Forums

I forgot to post a status update last week but here's one to cover the past two weeks I guess.

Progress is being made for the bots shooting and their line-of-sight check, aiming and weapon behavior. This is an iterative process as we swap back and forth between different features to make the bots work as we want in the campaigns. I'm not going to dive into details as that would be too technical for a status update post so I will keep it short this time.

We're working on the bots and campaigns and will keep working on it for some time to come!

Cool,will this line-of-sight check work automatically in any custom map ?

Alexbra25 wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 23, 2018 9:24 pm

Cool,will this line-of-sight check work automatically in any custom map ?

Without explaining it in a too technical way the bots' line-of-sight is based on checking for solid tiles collision by means of a raycast.

It is completely independent to what map are you using, the code only checks if a straight line that starts from the bot to the target isn't interrupted by an object that will absorb bullets, and if it's the case the bot will shoot.

You can notice that I've also added a glass panel, this is to demonstrate that the system can ignore tiles that aren't actually blocking bullets.

JakSparro98 wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 23, 2018 10:53 pm

Without explaining it in a too technical way the bots' line-of-sight is based on checking for solid tiles collision by means of a raycast.

It is completely independent to what map are you using, the code only checks if a straight line that starts from the bot to the target isn't interrupted by an object that will absorb bullets, and if it's the case the bot will shoot.

You can notice that I've also added a glass panel, this is to demonstrate that the system can ignore tiles that aren't actually blocking bullets.

Oh... your explanation was really good, I imagine they will be able to ignore crates when they have sniper or magnum as well, like they can ignore glass.

Will they try to use "tactics" that consist in breaking the covers?

For example,if I have an m60,I can shoot people even if they're behind a crate,since it'll last just a few shots before breaking.
Will the bots have this kind of reasoning?

Del Poncho wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 24, 2018 11:34 pm

Will they try to use "tactics" that consist in breaking the covers?

For example,if I have an m60,I can shoot people even if they're behind a crate,since it'll last just a few shots before breaking.
Will the bots have this kind of reasoning?

There's technically no limit since they can read how much health every object in the map has.
I don't know how Gurt will structure his bots, but even in a ScriptAPI version (mine, for example) this could be possible.

To keep it effectively simple, a run of the mill goon type AI might not shoot unless a player is in view, essentially the AI will ignore any player that is out of the bot's sight line.

Even if the crate a player is in cover with has 1HP left, the bot will only attack if the player is in sight. Perhaps on higher difficulties, the AI would need to distinguish if it's worth it or not to destroy player cover.

TheOriginalCj wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 25, 2018 1:17 am

Even if the crate a player is in cover with has 1HP left, the bot will only attack if the player is in sight. Perhaps on higher difficulties, the AI would need to distinguish if it's worth it or not to destroy player cover.

I was, in fact, talking in terms of feasibility, the possibility that hard-level bots could break covers is up only to how the devs are imagined their behaviour, there aren't technical limitations and I was trying to say that also a script-made bot can also handle weak covers in order to shoot, let alone a native AI behaviour.

JakSparro98 wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 25, 2018 2:05 am

TheOriginalCj wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 25, 2018 1:17 am

Even if the crate a player is in cover with has 1HP left, the bot will only attack if the player is in sight. Perhaps on higher difficulties, the AI would need to distinguish if it's worth it or not to destroy player cover.

I was, in fact, talking in terms of feasibility, the possibility that hard-level bots could break covers is up only to how the devs are imagined their behaviour, there aren't technical limitations and I was trying to say that also a script-made bot can also handle weak covers in order to shoot, let alone a native AI behaviour.

That all boils down to game design. The typical "thug" in a campaign will probably keep moving towards you and only shoot you when they see you (if they carry a weapon) or stay still guarding a specific spot.

We have a system that scores a weapon based on a bunch of parameters, like obstructing objects, ammo, distance to target, target's health etc... This allows the bot to choose a magnum or sniper to shoot through weaker objects like crates. We will continue to add parameters to this system so the bot might consider a spray-and-pray tactic if the enemy is nearly dead.