OniFly

Planned features

• You press a key to start/stop flying. Same as Bid For Power.
• You can fly up with Jump. Also, if you aim your mouse up and run, you'll run "uphill" through the air. Same with down.
• When you're knocked over, you fall for a few seconds, then you can start flying again.
• You can move faster than normal.
• Enemies can move faster than you can.

And, in best-case scenario, it would lead to this stuff:

• Enemies can fly too, so they'll all chase you through the air.
• You'll have to dodge Superballs being fired from above and below.
• Mid-air pistol duels will be fairly normal.
• Throws will be essential for getting someone to fall a few storeys below you.

Implemented features

TODO

Bugs

AI

For this exercise, consider any AI character (The character is called Suzie in this document, to avoid having to say "the AI character" over and over.)

Suzie basically has 2 modes of movement. The first uses the game's pathfinding system, which pretty much limits Suzie to ground movement. If Suzie cannot find a path to her current goal, she will simply stand still.

The second system, the combat AI system, ignores the pathfinding data. Suzie will then chase their goal, ignoring any holes that may exist between her and the goal. If there's a hole in her way, she'll accidentally fall in.

In OniFly, Suzie will walk normally until she's aware of Konoko, then fly when she's trying to attack Konoko. However, the AI characters don't enter combat mode as often as they should; as a result, the characters sometimes stand still and glare at Konoko instead of chasing her.

Potential fix: Once Suzie has spotted the player (and performed the "woah, there's someone over there!" animation), we should make sure she stays in combat mode forever.

Useful findings

Findings that may be of use to other projects:

• Using custom code, it's very easy to detect & set a character's current animation and frame.