AI: Difference between revisions

Ah yes. After all those OTHER things, we finally got to how A.I. system handles core gameplay feature of this game, hand to hand combat.

:Answer lies within [[TRAM]] files. Each animation which can hurt somebody should have EXTENTS. Extents are invisible marks which tell A.I. character how the attack's ''trajectory'' looks. There are two types, horizontal and vertical, but more important thing A.I. wise is that without extents attack TRAMs will not be registered by A.I. characters as attacks, so A.I. will not try to block them or dodge. But if the attack has extents, then the moment A.I. character registers this enemy's attack, the A.I. gets a complete knowledge of a whole path of attacking bodyparts of this enemy's attack (see attack part of [[TRAM]]).

Now back to A.I. and hand to hand combat. Fistfighting is handled via [[MELE]] profiles which are assigned to the spawnable character in her/his [[CHAR]] profile. When in melee mode, A.I. character uses vector type of movement. Unless specified otherwise, A.I. character is made to run towards its enemy.

:[[MELE]] profile alwas contains these parameters regarding A.I. (xml tags in brackets):

Basic melee setup is done. Now the profile branches into '''attack''' part, '''evade''' part and '''maneouver''' part. Each part has a certain number of "melee techniques". Melee technique is a compound of one or more melee moves. Melee moves are simple elements of hand to hand combat - attacks, throws, positioning, maneuvring. Maximal amount of techniques in one melee profile is 32. If this limit is exceeded, Oni crashes. Now for those three branches:

:*Evade branch - Techniques contain moves which are used to evade attack. That means escape moves (SHIFT + some direction) and various jumps/slides.

::*Interruptible - This technique can "home" to some extent and if enemy gets away from its reach, technique is ended prematurely

::*Unknown2 - Either GenerousDir or Fearless, meaning of this flag unknown.

:*Weight - Techniques are chosen randomly but with "weight" of techique taken into account. Techniques with higher "weight" are used more often than those with lower "weight".

:*RepeatDelay - In frames, how long should be the technique unavailable after its use (to prevent from predictability).

::*Position - usually takes three parameters: minimal distance, maximal distance, tolerance range, but does not have to (StartToCrouch takes no parameter). These moves are used to set up correct distances and correct stances (crouch, stand, jump) for execution of subsequent attacks or throw moves [[OBD:BINA/OBJC/MELE/MoveList/Position|HERE is a list]] of all available position melee moves.

::*Throw - no parameter, simply some throw. [[OBD:BINA/OBJC/MELE/MoveList/Throw|HERE is a list]] of all available throw melee moves.

::*Maneouver - up to three parameters, these moves are used to make A.I. character move around somehow (advance, retreat, circle left/right, rouch, jump etc.) [[OBD:BINA/OBJC/MELE/MoveList/Attack|HERE is a list]] of all available maneuver melee moves.

:In melee techniques there can be a mixture of melee moves, so one technique can contain position move followed by attack move and concluded by some maneuver move.

And...that's all ^_^. According to technique's weight, enemy's position and MELE setup (multipliers such as Not blocked, Blocked but has stagger etc) some "Attack branch" technique is chosen and executed. In "Attack branch" there are some maneuver techniques as well, those do not (and must not) have position move as the first move in the technique.

Next, if enemy's attack is registered by A.I., it can either let it pass completely or block it or attempt to dodge it (chooses some technique from "Evade branch").

Code behind all this must be pretty complex, hands down before Oni developers. However we, outsiders, can only guess how much work was poured into it.