cocos2d for iPhone

A fast, easy to use, free, and community supported 2D game engine

1. 

   shivaz
   Member

   Hello All

   Just hoping to pump the forum for some experience here :)
   I am working on a game that involves a number of sprites that will need to be computer controlled. Basically the computer chooses a sprite out of the available inactive sprites and moves it to a new location.

   So sprite 1 is currently in position 1, has the choice of going to position 2 or 3. From position 2 it could go to 4 or 5, from position 3 it could go to 5, 6 or 7. etc.

   So was thinking that I could populate an array of arrays - and then use a random number to select a choice at each position.
   Then when I call a function to move a sprite, it calculates its route - then makes an action sequence up from actions we prepared earlier.

   Only problem is, I am not sure if this is really that flexible for what I want. The dba in me is tempted to design a sqlite database that has each location and links from each location to available locations. I can then query the database for each location. But I worry that the performance would be a lot worse.

   How are people handling their AI? Is there any code out there that demonstrates a decision tree?

   Thanks

   Justin

   Posted 2 years ago #
2. 

   jd
   Member

   I would go with your first thought. It depends on how "smart" you want your AI.

   Posted 2 years ago #
3. 

   Codemattic
   Moderator

   I would have an array of nodes. And then each node would have an array of possible moves from that node.

   Im not sure what type of AI you want to build, but if you need any kind of pathfinding/traversing of your nodes, if you havent read up on the A* pathfinding algorithm, google it:

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A*_search_algorithm

   Posted 2 years ago #
4. 

   Codemattic
   Moderator

   crap the link didnt get parsed correctly, if it doesnt work in this 2nd try (no edit button) just copy and paste the link in to the browser location bar. Sorry
   A-Star search algo on Wikipedia

   Posted 2 years ago #
5. 

   ob1
   Member

   Depending on how you are doing it, you might also have a speed and direction and destination for you sprites and update the position in the game loop, might be more flexible (if there are obstacles, collisions and stuff).

   Posted 2 years ago #
6. 

   shivaz
   Member

   Thanks for the replies so far.

   Okay, so it is looking like an array of nodes with an array of moves. Then I will also have an array of actions to do the moves (because moving 3,3 on a curve could be the same from one node or another).

   The AI doesn't really need to be too smart - just appear to be smart! Do like the idea of giving the sprites speed, direction and destination - but not sure if that would suit my current needs.

   Will have to map out my moves and decision points - then convert into arrays - then see how it all works. Still like the idea of a database, but I think the overhead is probably too much.

   Justin

   Posted 2 years ago #
7. 

   patrickC
   Member

   I'm doing a top-down car game and had to find a way to deal with AI cars.
   It still needs some work on the driving, but I ended up ditching A* and just using follow path algorithm.
   I have an array of points with x,y and pointers to the previous and next node.
   I wrote a QT "level editor" to allow me to do that and export an xml file and then parse the points into the game.
   Hope that's somewhat helpful

   Posted 2 years ago #
8. 

   shivaz
   Member

   An xml file sounds like a good idea. Have not done that with objective-c yet - but there seem to be a few good tutorials - will go learn it :P

   Justin

   Posted 2 years ago #

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