AI in Construct?

Hi Everybody!

I'm a new user to Construct, and learning as much as I can: I used to use game maker a lot, and already I can tell Construct is a great alternative. My question though, is what does Construct offer in terms of AI, specifically: path finding, collision avoidance, and motion planning? Like I said, I'm just learning Construct, so I'm not sure how to do much, but I'm not seeing anything address these issues in behaviors or actions, but I may just be missing them. Please let me know what Construct has to offer, what people are working on, etc.

Thanks

AI is completely possible, though of course complex AI would require a lot of work.

Pathfinding, collision avoidance etc is best done with the RTS behavior, which can do what you mentioned. Programming enemy behavior is a difficult topic to generalise, though there's some examples out there.

The RTS behavior has an implementation of A* pathfinding which is pretty good for navigating around complex maps. There's also stuff like intelligent aiming you might find interesting (see the attachment further down the thread - the maths in the original file has since been built in to Construct).

Construct's event system is also very capable of coming up with an AI system. It is, however, entirely up to you to code it. Quite often questions along the lines of "How do I make AI?" are asked, which is too vague to answer. I think you can make a fairly good AI system in a much simpler way than most people think. All it is is automatically controlled enemy characters - it's easy to come up with some simple rules that make them interesting enemies in gameplay.

Thanks for the replies guys

I apologize that the title of my post was a little vague: I do realize that AI isn't just an option in programs like game maker and construct, and I have had my own success in programming AI in game maker by doing just what you said, i.e. setting up a series of responses to events. My basic interest are what is out there for construct in terms of automating path-finding, motion planning, collision avoidance, etc. Those are things that are a little beyond my reaches, and it's nice to have built in options for those things, so I just have to define what the AI should do after it finds the path, is in motion and so forth. (on a side note, it was really collision avoidance that got to me in game maker, as I couldn't come up with a decent way to make two colliding instances of the same object simply go around each other, or figure out who should move first, if that makes any sense at all).

In any case, thanks for the info about the RTS behavior: I will definitely be checking it out, and I'm glad to hear it has A* as well. I'll play around more before I post any more questions -- thanks again for the input

I think there needs to be some more AI objects to faciliate this kinda stuff, maybe a behavior which allows you to set up an object to randomly move, in paths, and to chase/attack a player. Ashley has created an RTS object in the past which handled some useful stuff like attacks and defense, which would also be handy (hint).

Just don't let it get to the point where you drop 5 extensions into a layout, give it art and you're done.

Don't make the games for us

I fully support ambiguous features though

Just don't let it get to the point where you drop 5 extensions into a layout, give it art and you're done.

Don't make the games for us

I fully support ambiguous features though

I want my Match Three clone option dammit.

Welcome to Construct.

[Pac Man Clone]

[Match Three Clone] *click*

You've selected Match Three Clone. Now add your graphics.

[Import Graphics]

[Just Draw Some For Me] *click*

Congratulations, your game is complete. Thank you for using Construct.

> Just don't let it get to the point where you drop 5 extensions into a layout, give it art and you're done.

>

> Don't make the games for us

>

> I fully support ambiguous features though

>

I want my Match Three clone option dammit.

Welcome to Construct.

[Pac Man Clone]

[Match Three Clone] *click*

You've selected Match Three Clone. Now add your graphics.

[Import Graphics]

[Just Draw Some For Me] *click*

Congratulations, your game is complete. Thank you for using Construct.

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

> Just don't let it get to the point where you drop 5 extensions into a layout, give it art and you're done.

>

> Don't make the games for us

>

> I fully support ambiguous features though

>

I want my Match Three clone option dammit.

Welcome to Construct.

[Pac Man Clone]

[Match Three Clone] *click*

You've selected Match Three Clone. Now add your graphics.

[Import Graphics]

[Just Draw Some For Me] *click*

Congratulations, your game is complete. Thank you for using Construct.

Yeah lets not make Construct in that sort of program-that-creates-games-and-applications-by-wizard

No I definitely agree that making fully generic AI extensions would be bad, as it would reduce variety and creativity in games. But some specific routines would be helpful, and wouldn't lead to this problem -- tons of games use A* for example, without feeling generic: it's all in how you implement it. Anyway, I still have to really get into Construct and start learning how to use it, but I hope collision avoidance is something I can figure out this time around ...

Thanks for your help guys, please post any other info if you come across it