Artificial Intelligence

My to-do list and ideas for Improved AI:

[1]- Hunger system for Carnivores
[2]- Fear system for all animals
[3]- Goals beyond aimless walking
[4]- Interactions
[5]- Random actions

[1]Hunger System

Carnivores desperately needs a hunger system for the meat-eating animals in it. Basically, it would add an inverse health bar to all carnivores, and when it reaches zero the carnivore will attack [Something] for food.

[2] Fear System

This is another thing that Carnivores lacks-- A good bit of randomness with actions, and enhanced realism that giving animals the ability to fear does. With this, a hunter could walk up to a group of herbivores and be pretty much safe from harm, etc... And just hang out, unless the herbivores became frightened [e.g. The hunter discharging his weapon]. This system would also be used alongside the hunger system for carnivores. So if a carnivore was hungry, but also very scared, it would run off before attacking. If the carnivore wasn't scared at all, and wasn't hungry either, then it would ignore the player and other animals.

[3] Goals

This would be an improvement on the now-used target system for things like finding water, or a place to rest.

[4] Interaction

This would also be a huge leap in realism-- Dinosaurs interacting with dinosaurs! There will be a few interactions, basically:

- Fighting
- Calling to each other
- Collisions and avoiding each other

For this, we would simply need to treat the animals all like the hunter in each situation.

[5] Random actions

Stuff like:

- Randomly calling out
- Stopping and smelling
- Running and calling each other
- Scratching themselves and the ground
- Possibly grooming each other

For some of this we'll need new models, but I think this list is pretty complete otherwise.

Carnivores desperately needs a hunger system for the meat-eating animals in it. Basically, it would add an inverse health bar to all carnivores, and when it reaches zero the carnivore will attack [Something] for food.

Agreed, I did have a hunger system in the works but it was back when I couldn't compile.

[2] Fear System

This is another thing that Carnivores lacks-- A good bit of randomness with actions, and enhanced realism that giving animals the ability to fear does. With this, a hunter could walk up to a group of herbivores and be pretty much safe from harm, etc... And just hang out, unless the herbivores became frightened [e.g. The hunter discharging his weapon]. This system would also be used alongside the hunger system for carnivores. So if a carnivore was hungry, but also very scared, it would run off before attacking. If the carnivore wasn't scared at all, and wasn't hungry either, then it would ignore the player and other animals.

Why not just improve the existing fear system? I know that after a certain distance, smaller AI carnivores flee from you instead of chasing you down.
But an Emotion system is a must.

[4] Interaction

This would also be a huge leap in realism-- Dinosaurs interacting with dinosaurs! There will be a few interactions, basically:

- Fighting
- Calling to each other
- Collisions and avoiding each other

For this, we would simply need to treat the animals all like the hunter in each situation.

Indeed, I'd love to see a VelociRaptor pouncing on a Gallimimus instead of me.
ADP already has a working Dino collision system, they avoid trees and rocks now.

[5] Random actions

Stuff like:

- Randomly calling out
- Stopping and smelling
- Running and calling each other
- Scratching themselves and the ground
- Possibly grooming each other

For some of this we'll need new models, but I think this list is pretty complete otherwise.

Hmm, this should call for that skeletal animation system that I proposed a while back, the CAR format already supports Bones, all we need to do is assign bones to Verticies.

ADP has a collision system? Oh good, saves me coding time

Why not just improve the existing fear system? I know that after a certain distance, smaller AI carnivores flee from you instead of chasing you down.
But an Emotion system is a must.

It is an improvement. Right now animals piss themselves at the first sight of you, which is very unrealistic. Emotions would just be different levels of fear. Nothing complicated right now. Maybe after a while.

Yeah he does xD it's sweet. I think it only detects if a collision will occur and then tries to avoid colliding though.

[1] Emotions:
This is a list of emotions that should make it in game:

Hunger
Thirst
Fear
Fatigue
Play

[2] Traits:
Dinosaurs should have predefined traits, but at load-time, the game should slightly randomize these traits to add a bit of variation in dino encounters.

Anger = How they should react to encountering the player(s) or a dinosaur that is not in their pack.
Tenacity = Should they give up a chase after a period of time? Or just follow their target like a dog after a bone?
Loyalty = (ADVANCED AI!) If a pack leader dies, does this member of the pack ditch completely or join the new pack?
... I can't think of more names for traits.

ADP already has a working Dino collision system, they avoid trees and rocks now.

I do? OH!
I think it was already there, I just had to activate some of it in the dinos (There are different collision functions, some avoid water, some avoid everything, some avoid nothing.)

RexHunter99 wrote:Yeah he does xD it's sweet. I think it only detects if a collision will occur and then tries to avoid colliding though.

[1] Emotions:
This is a list of emotions that should make it in game:

Hunger
Thirst
Fear
Fatigue
Play

[2] Traits:
Dinosaurs should have predefined traits, but at load-time, the game should slightly randomize these traits to add a bit of variation in dino encounters.

Anger = How they should react to encountering the player(s) or a dinosaur that is not in their pack.
Tenacity = Should they give up a chase after a period of time? Or just follow their target like a dog after a bone?
Loyalty = (ADVANCED AI!) If a pack leader dies, does this member of the pack ditch completely or join the new pack?
... I can't think of more names for traits.

Excellent, I'll write these down and improv.

So, here's my basic To-DO list, then:

- Herding/Flocking AI - DONE!
- Animal interactions - Almost there!
- Improved fear system - On it's way...
- A hunger system for carnivores - Haven't started
- The animals will behave more realistically, with more realistic damage being dealt - DONE!
- Animals will make more noise in general, especially when frightened or hunting - On it's way....
- Animals will respond to each others calls, so if you call in, say, a Ceratosaur, and there is another one near the one you are calling, but out of range of your call, when the first animal hears you, it will return a call, and thus lure in nearby animals - Haven't started....
- Emotion system will determine whether or not an animal will flee or attack - Working on it as I type!

Possible extra:

- Animals will carry out their life cycles in real-time-- Hunting, eating, drinking, mating, sleeping, etc...

To go alongside this, we will probably increse map sizes greatly, add real-time shadow mapping, and a moving sun, and allow for days-long hunts.

Dino mating....... hum.........................


As for larger map sizes, man that's a lot of code work! Not to mention the maps need to be enlarged!

Actually I'm pretty sure that if we modify the Map engine then we could have 'larger' maps without the effort of making a whole new engine to support this insane size
just remember that Carnivores maps eat more memory than all of the textures themselves.
So we need to work out a way to make .MAP size's smaller, and thus decreasing the data load. But also make it so the maps can be larger.

I propose a scale system for quads so they aren't always 8x8 units.

What about dinosaurs who run up to mountains and get stuck while they run in circles at the base of the mountain or keep trying to run up it.
That is sort of unrealistic.
Also what about if a dinosaur gets cornered it does different things like fight, call for help, or try to run again.
Where is most of the coding located for the game, is it in the .RSC files, the RES file has the weapons, dinosaurs, and prices, but where is the rest of the data.

Thanks.