User blog:C3PO the Dragon Slayer/I'm making another game

No, I haven't stopped production on Avian Hunt. Nor have I shifted focus.

Let me explain what this is all about: I have just about everything I need for the basic 3D dogfighting engine. I have the code and models ready for most of my 17 playable ships, plus Star Destroyers and Corellian corvettes. I have multiple environments, a functioning menu system, lots of music, efficient collision detection, intuitive controls, the whole shebang!

Except all the enemies do is fly in circles. BORING!

In short, the essential piece to the vast puzzle of Avian Hunt that I have yet to complete is the computer artificial intelligence, or AI. I need to program the computer to control non-playable ships intelligently, so that the battles in Avian Hunt will not be repetitive or redundant. I think it's much more fun to dogfight something that acts like a person (minus the hissy fits that sometimes succeed the loss of a particularly childish player) than to destroy mindless drones that behave very predictably. The thing is that programming smart AI is a big challenge in 3D. So what do I do?

Get some practice in 2D.



Last week, I started making a 2D faux-Avian Hunt (which I whimsically titled "Star Wars: Ace and Commander"), which uses the Cylons space engine. (Cylons is a game I am co-developing with a friend; you can go here to play a demo I uploaded some time ago.) I did this mainly to practice AI scripting and creating simple, yet efficient, game engines without the hazards that come with entering 3D. It also helps me test some of the statistics for different ships that I already entered into Avian Hunt. As of today, I have an efficient engine that lets me add new ships very easily. I timed the programming of the TIE interceptor and it took me about 20 seconds. It also turns out it was a good thing I started programming AI in 2D before I tried to tackle 3D because at the moment the enemy AI is a disaster.

Anyway, this is what I'm working on now. Once I can establish my confidence in programming smart AI, I will resume production on Avian Hunt, and shortly thereafter publish the "third" demo (the second having not been published due to an issue with the Yoyogames virus scanner). It is possible that I may develop this into a full game some time in the future (it's a really good engine), but my focus is right now on getting the practice needed to program 3D AI.

On another note, I've been playing with Empire at War's map editor and XML files to make mini-mods to the game, dealing mostly with AI. It is helpful to see what another Star Wars strategy game does to make smart AI (this is less relevant to the 3D AI and more concerning the AI of the commander in the strategy game, but still something I need to plan for).

In the meantime, enjoy these screenshots from Ace and Commander.