AI Behavior: Shift
Added 2025-09-04 22:05:31 +0000 UTCHi!
I'm currently still bug fixing some of these new systems for the final demo but while I was doing some AI stuff I realized that I haven't never shown these AI improvements which are part of the commercial branch.
One of these improvements is a new behavior called Shift.
This behavior is relatively simple but it provides quite a lot complexity to the AI combat since it uses path randomization which makes really hard to predict where the AI is currently moving.
In this example video, the actual turn speed for the "shift" is a bit unrealistic but basically when this behavior actives the AI can start randomizing the navigation routes, so it's not a direct attack towards the player and it's not either a direct path toward some specific point.
The "long-shot" idea behind this behavior is kind of simulate how a player would move, meaning quite randomly at times but obviously since I'm working with limited set of animations this is still pretty far from "it moves like a player" but maybe you get the point here :)
Obviously in this video the AI firing was also turned off but even when this behavior is quite simple it makes keeping the ADS towards the enemy surprisingly more difficult and it's a nice little "change of pace" when this Shift activates.
Since I have played around with this behavior so much recently and tested the Village map with it (really liked how it worked there), I will probably include this one to the final demo and leave the rest like Grenade behavior and others for the early access, so there's at least something new related to the AI on top of the voice acting :)
-Antti (Developer)
Comments
I do like a little bit of erraticness, but I think it might be better if the AI was at least heading towards something instead of just jiggling. Will the waypoints actually stick to something or will they be random? If the waypoints were like, maybe at points of cover or something, it could look at least a little calculated.
Eddie Kurtén
2025-09-07 14:51:44 +0000 UTCThe way the bandit shift from left to right is exactly the way some people behave in games, i like it
Shamnolya
2025-09-05 18:46:23 +0000 UTCLooks good! Is the intention that the AI in the finished game is more "player-like" or more "realistic" as in doing things real humans would likely to do in a combat scenario? As in would the AI leave their fortified positions taking cover to ADAD-strafe in the open? That's the question I get from watching this.
Eero Salmi
2025-09-05 05:30:01 +0000 UTCReally cool, glad you're thinking about this stuff. All the little things add up.
Orion
2025-09-05 02:13:27 +0000 UTC
