I started using state machines. You can see the result below

https://youtube.com/shorts/Vur448bRpXU?feature=share

This is a continuation of the Building a better RTS AI series from codeproject.com . I want to add an image and you can't add images on codeproject so I`m posting here.

To get a good RTS AI player the fog of war needs to be disabled for him, or in other words he needs to be able to see what his enem…

 A short video displaying mining resources behavior. The large square is the HQ. 

https://youtube.com/shorts/xT3heqX8GWs

Units on patrol. This was a tough one. I had to imagine Im using a state machine to figure it out. Im not using a state machine right now.  

https://youtube.com/shorts/5bwWuP5TdaI

Another video, this time 1 vs 1 collision when pathfinding is required. There is a bit of overlapping there I think I should disable walking in diagonals if walking takes place near obstacles. 

https://youtube.com/shorts/mQCkUjTGzJs?feature=share​

Arriving safe and sound at the destination

Now th…

for now it`s avoiding moving obstacles while traveling in just one direction 

Avoiding moving obstacles - YouTube

I'm switching from DirectX to GDI, this is what I have so far. I hope nothing will get in the way until the porting is successful 

I`m codding again. Soon I will have a new video or at least a screenshot with the new things I made. Meanwhile I want to talk about something related to what I posted recently on my other frequently visited forum. The post was titled “Building a better RTS AI. Starting from the end”. In that post I…

My coding season is over and I still didn`t get to work on my almost one year old goal, I did made I few steps to get closer to it though. I have started to read about A Star the pathfinding algorithm again. I don`t know if I`ll end up having a working version of it written by me but reading alone …

after fixing some bugs I made another video:

Units avoiding each other - YouTube

the next task to replicate the resource collection behavior. that`s going to prove tricky  I think.  I need to figure out a way to represent resource collection which will be probably the  unit (a cube) sp…

It`s one thing when you see a feature in a commercial game and something else when you have that same feature present in your game. I finally managed to get two colliding units avoid each other and continue towards the destination. 

collision recovery and resume advancing - YouTube 

Starcraft and Warcraft are known for one thing at a time unit behavior. Starcraft units don`t shoot and move at the same time, it`s either one or the other. Total Annihilation units can shoot while moving (some units can even aim and fire at several targets at the same time), The TA version is more…

[edited]

I made a unit  class to help me manage better a case when I have several units.

Units - YouTube   

In my reflections when I think about how things work in a RTS I`m considering Starcraft as the main term of comparison.  I`m trying to get a perspective on what `position` means to AI. When does the `location` come into play? When the AI player decides to attack another player it will send it`…

local html inflation

I have a picture I would like to use as cover photo on my profile page however the space there is too small so I`m placing the picture here 

this might seem like an odd approach but , for now, I`m not doing the front end of my game. You can`t control units, the setup will work such that the game will have only AI players all that`s left to you is watch. 

the amount of art work needed to have just one unit is discouraging, using a hexagonal grid will ease a bit the pressure. I know -2 animations per animation type is not much but with several characters/units the difference piles up.  Meanwhile I have been working on sprite Z sorting. 

The next thing on the to do list is resources. I will work on making units gather resources.  There are no animations just yet, a unit is a mere moving square for now.  When I will have art assets the units will get appropriate representation.  

I`m undecided about the type of resourc…

The next thing I`m doing is pathfinding. along with some obstacles that will make a map. I`m not an artist so the map items (trees, rocks etc) will be algorithmically generated. Nothing beats the hand of an artist so I will need to be generating at least half way complex geometry to make up.  …

I`m making my GUI without helper libraries. I`m not using a mouse, it`s all keyboard driven. It`s a editor not game GUI. 
I keep wandering what makes a GUi balanced.  How many items are enough to be displayed in a given context i.e how do you know for example when to switch from a standard…

Since I haven`t made mention of it, I think it should be noticed that I`m also working on a sci fi RTS. It will get its own blog thread as soon as there will be stuff worth showcasing ( a minimum amount of onscreen interaction within the game).  I`m calling the game Nanostorm2 after an older p…

From where I am now I can`t state the precise recipy (formula) of our dish but ray tracing will be an ingredient.  I know  real-time games and ray-tracing don`t match but we are not going the traditional path. And even if ray tracing doesn`t make it in the game executable it will find it`…

3D games are better than 2D games. However coming up with 3d graphics (art assets) that are high quality and omoneneus across the game is difficult. That`s the real challenge. We might have 3d graphics one day but until then it`s 2d. 

Next up adding animated sprites. I don`t have any animated sprites yet. As  I was saying I will make the sprites with my editor and use the pngs in my engine. So first thing is adding animation looping capability in the engine.

As with all those living in the C# camp, I got used to easy/no memory management.  I did had some C++ projects but I have never learned how to dispose the trash. So it`s time to take on that. I will make an ASM game/app.  

 The editor is basically a tool to create the game graphics. Our game is set to be isometric. I`m going to make the sprites by modelling 3d objects/meshes in the editor and then screen capture them to make the sprites.