AI walks X steps towards Player? (Tile Movement or Manual?)

Hi All,

I have a grid split to many 32x32 cubes (quick background).

I made the PLAYER to walk 32x32 (one step at the time) using the Tile Movement Behavior, so far so good!

Since my prototype is a turn based style of game: Basically each character can walk X steps on the board.

For the player it was very easy to setup, but for the Enemy I didn't start since I'm not sure what's the most simple way to do so.

So, after failed tries with Path finding which always sliding and easing-in and out, I liked the Tile Movement best and I want to use it for the Enemy AI.

THE PROBLEM:

If I set the same parameters for the ENEMY AI using Tile Movement 32x32 Grid, I wonder how I do these:

1 - How do I make the Enemy to walk 32x32 but consider not just the X which is easy, but also the Y. How can I make the ENEMY to ALWAYS LOOK for the player and go in his direction, again based on the 32X32 Tile Movement.

2 - If I put some 32x32 Solid obstacles on the board, how can I make the ENEMY AI understand manually that "THIS BLOCK is an obstacle" so CHOOSE Y (up or down) if one is ALSO an obstacle, try the other option and only then do your X Tile Movement based on 32x32 each step.

Basically it's a manually path finding but not complex as the actual Path Finding behavior which I don't want to use, I want to make it manually as explained on #2 above.

I want to limit every character (PLAYER or ENEMY) have 1 step for starting, later I will limit their steps but the test is very important to see if it works so they won't walk all they want.

HELP or Advice will be very appreciated:

I'm afraid I'm not good with loops and complicated stuff like this, but if this is possible to accomplish and you can think of a way or even better: SHARE an example file based on 32x32 grid it will be very helpful!

Thanks ahead and have a wonderful weekend! :)

Some quick general tips, I don't know how you have your existing system set up exactly...

You can use the pathfinder behavior to find the path, together with the tile movement to do the actual movement.

Grid systems are in essence rounding to the nearest x/y on the grid, a translated coordinate system.

Set the pathfinding behavior with a cell size similar to your grid. You can then access the pathfinding node coordinates, and round/translate them to fit in your own grid system.

With the nodes in hand, you'll need to handle the movement steps manually - don't use pathfinding's move along path action. I don't believe the pathfinding can give you a node per cell, you'll have to interpolate those yourselves. Basically you need to figure out a way to describe each step between two nodes. For example, you start at 1,5 and need to go to 3,9. There's a few ways to go on a grid system. You can go right first then down, down first then right, or a mix of both by figuring out the slope.

It might be simpler for you though since it sounds like you're only taking one step at a time, so you only have to get the next step. If you have your destination node, you know if its above or below, left or right of your current position. Pick one up/down or left/right, test if there is an obstacle with tile movement's can move to position, then move. Repeat with a new pathfinding step for the next move.

Here's a pretty straightforward solution, for one step at a time at least.

dropbox.com/s/pzqv9zb9q2mxh8w/Enemy_AI_Test_2%20%281%29.c3p

Thanks for sharing this code oosyrag! :) with the PathNode sprite you've added it looks much more visually and easy to understated the path calculation result on the layout, very cool!

Unfortunately, I'm looking at it and I see these overwhelming parameters inside the System on the Repeat loop and I'm even more confused to be honest it's probably not on my level to use Pathfinding.

Alternative Solution (without Pathfinding):

I wonder if there is an alternative to something more manually, based on the idea of the way people use to make the a weapon or target "LOOK AT" the mouse X & Y all the time then SHOOT to it's direction.

So my idea is to make every tick (always) that the ENEMY will "LOOK AT" the Player position on the grid.

Then when click to END YOUR TURN, it will go on that direction based on the 32x32 grid probably with the Tile Movement simulation.

Sure, this won't solve how to handle the Solids... but before that, how do I make the enemy to "LOOK AT" the Player's position every tick, and do 1 step on the X (for start) towards the player when ending the turn. IDEAS Anyone ?

I think this could be the basic enemy's movement mechanic, more manual and not accurate but it should work in theory. I just don't know how to begin with the above.