ArchAngel075 wrote:guards have either roam or preset waypoints to navigate when there is no alert. In roam they will randomly move from random points, only setting a new point once they reached their current. BUT each time a check for the player making noise is done and if they are alerted.
Sounds great, I'll try to do this
ArchAngel075 wrote:Alerted, or spotting player :
Instead of psycho following the player, first check if the player is within a good range for shooting. If out of range then the guard moves directly to the player (as the psycho does now) once in range the guard will use the random waypoint system above but the waypoints try to make him stay within range of player.
So if the player shoots within a large radius, the guard goes toward him, but doesn't shoot until he's in a certain, smaller, radius? This can be easily done, but I don't know what you mean by the random waypoint system to keep him within range. Why not just have him follow him once he sees him? Or maybe the guard can't go out of a certain area? But that would be unrealistic. If police see someone, they should continue to chase them, even if they go out of their specified county/state/area.
ArchAngel075 wrote:When a guard gets low on health, he looks are surroundings and determines what barriers would obstruct the players bullets, he will then run directly for that barrier. he can wait it out trying shots by poking out the barrier or moving directly for a location of money.
Hm, this can be implemented eventually. Right now though, I can make it so that he runs away if he's below a certain health. Once the maps get working though [they are currently in development], we will look further into this.
ArchAngel075 wrote:Guards have a view range too, a cone infront of them, this makes it harder to escape in a straight corridor. Adheres to the alert system above.
Cones sound awesome, I'll get to it!
ArchAngel075 wrote:If you can, try makign a more dynamic sound system. When a guard takes a hit, a cone of sound alertness (like the green circle atm) grows in that direction, this means fire from one spot or close in the same area and the guard grows alert to that area, if a guards helathj is high enough he will attempt to move slowly towards that point if the alertness reaches a certain point. If low on health the guard can move up to another guard at higher HP and passes 50% of his alert ness of that direction onto him (groups of guards be deadly).
Wow, that's an amazing idea. I thought about adding "guard communication", but now it is a must!
ArchAngel075 wrote:Guards on low hp will also attempt to avoid the bullets flying further in their direction but examining their last angle of being hit and their strongest alert cone. Moving away from these points will have him avoiding.
This is a hard one, maybe later. I wrote it down!
ArchAngel075 wrote:On cones :
cones can be a oject of sorts held by guards, so a cone is genererated when no other cone in that direction overlaps with a base sized cone already somewhat in that direction. IE when guard heard from 45 degrees, and cone is 5 large, now he hears from 50 degrees and this overlaps with prev cone, so make the prev cone swivel and grow in the new direction. Perhaps guards have a limit of cones at a time.
Another hard one to think about later. I might just have the guards be alerted and move towards you after they get hit or you shoot, but only if they're health is above 50%.
ArchAngel075 wrote:The cone idea is pretty hard to implement (especially above swivel and overlap), but makes interesting gameplay as a player can make noise in one area to extend a guards cone and attract them without alert, then player can move off into another area to complete objectives.
What I might just end up doing is removing the circle from being displayed all the time and only have it display when you shoot, or if you are close. I also might do the same with the cone, only have it show up if you are close to their visual range. The hardest thing to do would be to handle wall collisions, so that guards can't see/hear through walls.
ArchAngel075 wrote:I also think that time in a rush is crucial, cause the longer you take the more backup guards can arrive. Going in during a rush may be easy but getting out will be harder!
Agreed. We are trying to balance out the system and allow the player to choose what they want to do, whether it be go in stealthy, or guns blazing, everyone's different. Later in development, guards might be able to call in backup, whether it be cops or the SWAT team, maybe even the army [tanks, maybe
]. We definitely plan on added new enemies with different stats and stuff, as it is one of the first things on the TODO list.
Thank you for the great questions, you definitely helped us out in this development and we will be adding many of your ideas. Who knows, you might even make it into the credits!
Again, if anyone has any questions, comments, or ideas, [if you actually read this wall of text] they are greatly appreciated, I am not a very creative person, I'm just an okay "coder" that knows how to use LOVE 2D effectively. Again, thank you!