I was just thinking about how the AI for monsters will work in an RPG I am making, and I hit upon what I think is a good idea.
Packs.
Randomly generate monsters in packs of about 10, with a randomly designated leader that they stay within range of. These packs stay together, and can possibly go into combat with other packs of monsters. Add in a system whereby monsters can level up, and you start getting monster packs that survive longer then others, gain levels, become more powerful so they survive longer ala Darwin, the result being that bosses turn up on their own. Make monster packs start following a different leader if he is more pwoerful then their current one, and losing a leader resukt in anarchy in the group, and you have a nice setup.
It would be even better if the monsters bred, resulting in tribes of monsters, that get bigger if unchallenged.
ID:153545
 Oct 19 2003, 9:38 pm
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If you made that, you'd have to make natural death aswell. Otherwise over population would occur. It's hard however since whiping out an entire species is very easy in a combat based game.
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The key is space. Animals will never breed enough to exceed the amount of space of their living environment (yes, not even humans -- humans simply don't need much space to survive). (Technically, that's not entirely true, but when animals begin to exceed the available space, they die off from disease and famine, and the available space increases.)
URW does this well. (If the link doesn't work, try it again a time or two. The server's in Finland.) | |
DarkView wrote:
If you made that, you'd have to make natural death aswell. Otherwise over population would occur. It's hard however since whiping out an entire species is very easy in a combat based game. Pardon the not so on subject post but. I thought about making natural death to players as well. Then when a player whos been playing for 1 year and is like lvl 60. Dies by chocking on a charrie. hehe I would then play the Simpsons laugh. | |
You don't even need to generate them in packs, necessarily; if you start out with a few placed ones, then randomly spawn young 'uns nearby over time, then the packs will create themselves. Instead of having a leader, they could have a worldwide event loop that does all their AI stuff and makes nearby monsters work together. That also allows for two wandering packs of monsters to merge into a larger pack.