The artificial intelligence for monsters in Acheron’s Awakening is very different from anything you’ve seen before in a BYOND action game or action RPG. Like Proelium, movement in this game is based upon four directions with no diagonals. This means that the monsters and other NPCs have to move based upon a four-direction system.
Not only has the AI been drastically improved from Proelium in terms of path finding and targeting; monsters are programmed to work in groups. They’ll surround you, cut off your escape path, and then proceed to beat you senseless. If you’re using ranged attacks to “pull” one monster at a time, then you’d better hope that your target is relatively alone. Even if you aren’t in sight, nearby enemies will come to their aid.
Another major addition: ranged NPCs. While the melee monsters surround you and pin you down, their allies with ranged attacks will pummel you from a distance. Ranged monsters are smart and precise. Because they can’t shoot diagonally, they will line up behind each other to rain attacks on their target. They’ll also try and avoid a face-to-face fight and will run away if you get to close.
A Skeleton Archer shoots arrows while the “Seaweed Fiend” below hurls poison seaweed at the player. As with most action RPGs, the “0” indicates the amount of damage done by the last attack. The icons for both monsters are temporary placeholders.
Players who develop their skills in certain ways will be able to summon a variety of ranged NPC allies, from Skeletal Mages and Valkyries to Water and Fire Elementals. It’s quite a sight to watch a mass of NPCs square off against each other.
Boss battles are quite different. Each of the boss fights in the game is unique; they aren’t just larger, more powerful monsters. The best way to describe them would be to compare them to boss battles in games like The Legend of Zelda. I’ve never played the “Four Swords” version of that game, but from what I’ve read it strikes me as very similar to what I’m trying to accomplish with parts of Acheron’s Awakening. Several of the boss battles in particular will require a lot of teamwork and strategy.
At any rate, because a large part of this game involves killing hordes of monsters, I’ve tried to make the battles as interesting as possible. I recently released an updated version of Proelium in which I transplanted a small part of the Acheron monster AI related to NPC path finding. It was a dramatic improvement… and I didn’t even get around to touching the targeting system.
