I covered the revised vehicle AI in my previous post, but you’ll be able to see it in motion in this video now. I haven’t changed much since the last update so I won’t go over it again in detail, but in short it adds in the ability to change location to avoid being a static target, and adds in the ability to attempt to flank a target.
I wanted to move away from testing mechanics in isolation, as I found I kept breaking other mechanics without realising. Instead, I wanted to create a simple mission to test with, so I could test with all the mechanics working together. That way, anything broken would be noticable immediately.
I’ve created a very simple “defence” type game mode, intended for a little bonus challenge mode or something. It’s actually a revamp of a mission idea I had before that I scrapped, since it required too much custom code and too many new mechanics for just one mission. I decided to pull it out of retirement and use it for a fun challenge mode — thing of Horde from Gears of War, or Firefight from Halo.
As you’d expect, enemies appear in waves and attack, with the player tasked on holding out until the end of the waves. Between waves, they can repair and rearm, but also request help.
Currently, you can request anti-tank guns to be set-up, and request friendly vehicles to come help. These vehicles will be commandable once I re-integrate those movement commands.
Additionally, I want you to be able to call infantry to garrison in structures and fire from them, and eventually airstrikes (though they aren’t being worked on for now, much later). I also want you to be able to build barricades, to creake choke points and force the enemy to attack from certain directions. Barricades may either slow, or stop enemies.
This starting map will be a homage to the crossroads from Fury, so it will start quite open, with a few buildings and fences. With barricades though you’ll be able to force the enemy into narrow paths and funnel them into your defences!
-Rob
Parabellum 