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Randomized loitering of AC NPC's?

I'm trying to achieve randomized NPC behavior purely within AC, but it doesn't seem to be possible at the moment. (Trying to create homeless folks loitering aimlessly in an inner city.)
I can call NPC animations at path nodes which can imitate this behavior, but it doesn't come close. Is there a way to do random wandering in AC 1.62, or will it be possible in the future? Thanks.

Comments

  • OK, I've browsed through the forum, and this "Character: Random Wander" action has been something of a feature request for years. It doesn't seem to to be doable at the moment. So I'll try and reconcile Emerald AI with AC --- but it would be awesome if AC could do this natively.
    Is it possible to request this feature?
  • edited March 2018
    By the way, Path type: IsRandom is a great feature for path-based wandering, but it's obviously reliant on paths. So in practice it still looks more like patrolling, not 'true' loitering.

  • edited March 2018
    Ummm, is this for a large quantity of AI? or just a few? Doing AI with AC might be doable using custom actions and such, but it won't be efficient for a large number of Agents... For a large number of agent's you'll need code optimized for that task. You might even be better off custom coding systems to take care of the "loiterers" decisions, or maybe use single manager rather than have each act on their own (which, might work, since loitering could be similar to crowds). 

    GDC has several fascinating talks about AI, I'd recommend you to take a look at them. I specially love the ones relating to Bioshock: Infinite or the devs who worked on their AI. I'll link my favorite videos here. The first video specially can give you ideas if you are planning to have a bigger city. And Even simplified ideas could be really nice to try out.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXSlXb-_zOo
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wusK-mciCVc
  • To have a character wander between various points, you need only to use the Variable: Check random number Action that connects to a series of Character: Move to point Actions - with each such Action referring to a separate Marker.

    Or are you looking for "true" randomness in which a Marker position isn't even directly set?  Please be specific when requesting new features.
  • edited March 2018
    Chris: yes, I'd like to see "true" dynamic randomized wandering that is not dependent on markers or path nodes. Perhaps something like "Character: Random Wander", called on a per-NPC basis.

    Alverik: thanks for the videos, those GDC folks are mostly AAA coders and are way above my head when it comes to AI coding, so in practical terms it's not very helpful. ;) 
  • Wow Chris, thank you very much!
    And I can see that you've also added a Bolt+AC bridge yesterday.
    AC is a gift that keeps on giving.
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