Real time enemy/team AI and turn based enemy/team AI complexity difference
Author
Which do you guys think has more complexity to it when coding it into a game? Real time battling, like action games, shooters and what have you, or turn based RPG battling?
Which do you guys think has more complexity to it when coding it into a game? Real time battling, like action games, shooters and what have you, or turn based RPG battling?
I think turn based is potentially far more complicated, with real time systems, you can skate by on some simple ai, because things are happening constantly that the player isn't always going to notice that the ai is using simple mechanism's. but with turn based systems, if an ai makes a stupid move, the player is going to scratch their head wondering why they did that.
Author
That makes sense. But I've played some shooters with their share of dumb AI and it's quite noticable. Isn't it just some basic checks for turn based? "Enemy timer bar filled. Now allow enemy to attack." Maybe some "Okay an enemies health is low allow it to heal itself OR have another enemy heal." But I suppose a team AI is much more complex. And it would depend upon the actual tasks they're required to do. You would think it's the same concept though right? "Team's timer filled. Allow team member to attack. If a team member's health is low, heal them." Now I very well could be over simplifying it but thoughts?
It's not that it isn't possible to do, from a computational standpoint, you can do more work on preparing a turn-based ai's next move, then you can in a real time environment, but it does come with the price of making sure the AI is complex enough not to look stupid.
sure, real time ai can still look dumb, no doubt. but i do believe it's possible to make them look less stupid with mechanics such as "look for enemy", "find cover" "retaliate". some games go more in-depth and add flanking maneuvers for team based attacking. but generally it's pretty basic as an example, playing mass effect 2 was simple when you realized that all you really had to do was sit behind cover until the enemy reloaded, since they rarely really advanced on you, whereas in halo 3, some enemy's would go around, while others attacked at the front.
but at the end of the day, good ai is important regardless of which environment you work in, if the player isn't being challenged by the ai, then it's probably not a very good AI.
sure, real time ai can still look dumb, no doubt. but i do believe it's possible to make them look less stupid with mechanics such as "look for enemy", "find cover" "retaliate". some games go more in-depth and add flanking maneuvers for team based attacking. but generally it's pretty basic as an example, playing mass effect 2 was simple when you realized that all you really had to do was sit behind cover until the enemy reloaded, since they rarely really advanced on you, whereas in halo 3, some enemy's would go around, while others attacked at the front.
but at the end of the day, good ai is important regardless of which environment you work in, if the player isn't being challenged by the ai, then it's probably not a very good AI.
We would have to define "complexity" before answering this question in a meaningful way. Also... complexity of what? The code? The coding process? The resulting behaviors?
Which do you guys think requires more effort when playing it? Team sports, like soccer, water polo and what have you, or individual sports?
Which do you guys think requires more effort when playing it? Team sports, like soccer, water polo and what have you, or individual sports?
Nice... well done, sir.
Author
I mean in coding it. I was having a debate with someone about what would be more complex to code. He figures smart turn based AI is more complex to code and get right than smart shooter/action game AI. I wanted to get other coders' opinions though.
But there are quite a lot of shooters that have pretty straight forward AI. I mean, I've coded some basic AI, waypoints, attacking, jumping over things that are in front, losing sight of player, etc. But pathfinding I would have no idea where to start. haha But turn based, like Final Fantasy for example, probably has its own level of complexity when coding it. But at least there I'd have a pretty good idea where to start.
You don't seem to have to take too much what the player is doing into consideration with turn based enemies. Team AI probably more so. But even then, with the team AI attacking enemies, it's almost the same concept as the enemy AI. I'm probably wrong though. haha
But there are quite a lot of shooters that have pretty straight forward AI. I mean, I've coded some basic AI, waypoints, attacking, jumping over things that are in front, losing sight of player, etc. But pathfinding I would have no idea where to start. haha But turn based, like Final Fantasy for example, probably has its own level of complexity when coding it. But at least there I'd have a pretty good idea where to start.
You don't seem to have to take too much what the player is doing into consideration with turn based enemies. Team AI probably more so. But even then, with the team AI attacking enemies, it's almost the same concept as the enemy AI. I'm probably wrong though. haha
Dude... listen to us a second... your question is impossible to answer. AI is exactly what you make of it -- if you write complex code, it is complex. If you write simple code it is simple. Your entire premise is based on something that is not even defined. Stop worrying about it.
But there are quite a lot of shooters that have pretty straight forward AI. I mean, I've coded some basic AI, waypoints, attacking, jumping over things that are in front, losing sight of player, etc. But pathfinding I would have no idea where to start. haha But turn based, like Final Fantasy for example, probably has its own level of complexity when coding it. But at least there I'd have a pretty good idea where to start.
Final Fantasy isn't exactly a good example of turnbased AI, it barely requires any intelligence from either the player or the computer.
When you talk to a programmer about turn based AI they're far more likely to think of games like Civilization where there are long term strategic choices and thousands of possible actions each turn.
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