We have started working on the Artificial Intelligence part of the new content. There is quite a bit of work to be done. We have managed to setup a stupid enemy and plugged in a rough mechanism to enable player with the ability to shoot fireball. Still, the skill activation mechanism is not developed yet and the A.I monster is only able to move left and right and move faster when it sees a player. Nothing more. It is… currently in a sorry state so we wouldn’t show it off just yet. There is a lot of residue in the development and we are slowing down.
Currently we are trying to solve some collision problem and trying to find a reasonable solution to establish object to object relationship. For example, the Fireball object will have to tell the Enemy object that it has been struck by it. On the other hand, the Enemy object will have to tell the Fireball to start moving when it has successfully use a Fireball skill.
We aim to have at least one challenging AI behavior developed as soon as possible. Our current vision for the prototype:
”Monster will roam the area. If they are attacked they will retaliate. Their skills usually activate faster than the player skills in the beginning, so they will have a high chance of interrupting the player. The player will still be able to dodge in time if they break their skill activation earlier and move away”
“Players press and hold down the spacebar to charge up a skill. If they release the spacebar key prematurely, before the skill is fully charged, skill activation will fail. On the other hand, the skill will activate if player release the spacebar key when the activation bar skill is full. The trick is to master the timing of skill activation to use skills in quick succession. Interrupting an enemy successfully should have some bonus effect, for example: deal extra damage, stun, etc. This may serve as another challenge for the player, to perfect their skill activation momentum.”