This is a tutorial on the basics of enemy encounters, and how most games go about creating them.
==========FPSC: Enemies and You===========
Most casual FPS players don't make sure to enter every room, just to marvel at the detailed textures. they don't make note of ever box on a shelf and the time it likely took to be placed there. Most casual FPS players don't fire their guns at a wall over and over to hear the beautiful sound it makes (unless your game is bad company 2). and most casual FPS players don't play a game just because they hear it has amazing level design. FPS players play FPS for the FPS aspect- not anything else. It's a sad truth you'll need to understand. FPS, as you REALLY SHOULD know, stands for First Person Shooter. it is a game, where the player sees from the eyes of the character they play, and that character, these days, usually stays within the stock character template for the FPS genre- Tougher than a refrigerator made of reinforced steel, grizzled enough to fit in with bears and sharks playing cards at a salty spitoon, and able to reload literally any gun in under a second. as important as that character is, it's not as important as the experience they get.
The character in the game, is meant only to be a medium for the player to connect to the game world. he is that player in the game world itself. this is why usually, the less personality you give the player character, the more personality is required on the part of the player. players are almost always happy to mix their own personality into the equation, it's why games like call of duty 4 and half life 2 did so well. the players know who they are in the world, but that's really just them under a name-de-game. Keep that in mind. while that covers the "you" aspect, the more important aspect of a SHOOTER is what I shall now move on to.
Enemies are what is usually given to the player in a game to shoot at, be they human, alien, or undead (which is a little TOO common around the forums lately). these enemies each have artificial intelligence that determines how they behave when it's killing time again. some games have incredible AI that knows how to take cover, flank, work as a squad, and even brush their teeth in the morning to minimize plaque buildup on that pearly white teeth texture, other games (like ones made in FPSC) have less focus on the actual AI of the AI characters. instead, these types of games compensate with large masses of enemies, or enemies that take a whole lot of bullets to kill. whether you have an amazing AI system who've memorized the spanish dictionary and studied being cannon fodder at oxford university, or a bunch of mentally challenged, man-shaped chimpanzees on extra-drowsy cold medicine, this small guide will focus of the best ways to maximize the "fun factor" of your games firefights- be they with people or otherwise
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LIST 1: the Basics. the core placement methods often used in games.
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THE ARENA: Usually a large room, with lots of cover and flanking routes, with enemies all about, ready to kill at all costs. This one's commonly used in tonnes of games, and it's a really great way to stretch out gameplay.
WITH GOOD AI: with good AI, try to keep this area long, but thin. maybe 35-50 feet wide and 60-90 feet long. at the far end of the room, the opposite end that the player enters, spawn about 2-4 enemies and tell them each to respawn at least 2-3 times each. this keeps the player pinned down in the room until it feels safe, at which point it usually is. it's best to make them fast movers so they can move from where they spawn and fight the player quickly, rather than a lull in combat because they take their time leisurely wandering to cover.
WITH POOR AI: poor AI make this more difficult to create, and craft it to be convincing. it's a little more taxing to use poor AI in this case as well, as there will need to be more actual characters, instead of re-used spawns. to do it well, spawn the poor AI closer to the player, and put more spawns with less respawns. this will give the poor AI an easier time of navigating to the player, and won't allow the player to spawn camp them if they don't respawn.
PROS:
usually can last 1-2 minutes, which is a good amount of time
fun over and over, with just subtle changes in layout.
works wonders when allied forces are involved.
CONS:
players can spawn camp the enemies if they don't pin the player down effectively
(to fix this, make them do lots of damage, move fast, and spawn obstacles like explosions to go off when the player reaches the spawn area)
taxing- requires 4 enemies at one time. if you're using low polygon characters, it's not bad, but with high polygon characters, it adds up.
(to fix this, make sure to use lower polygon enemies, and keep the real detail of the area to the textures and the cover, which you will be focusing most on)
bodies must dissappear
(to fix this, keep the players eye focused away from the floor... perhaps on a timer?)
AS USED IN:
Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6 Vegas 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5WRRzXdBSY (go to 4:23)
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THE AMBUSH (player): usually, the enemies have the drop on the player, and the player faces over whelming odds to kill them, but in this situation, the player is forced to sit and wait for his gratifying lineup of unsuspecting enemies to mow down.
WITH GOOD AI: really, this is more of a bad AI strategy, because the enemies arent supposed to notice the player until it's too late. give them low view angles, and make sure to give the player a cue of exactly when to attack, and when not to.
WITH POOR AI: simply set waypoints, and make sure the player is out of their sight. above them usually works well. give the player a cue of when to attack, and make sure to not let the enemies live long enough to show how awful their AI is.
PROS:
easy to do
very fun if done correctly
can last a while if you make the player wait
CONS:
not challenging
(to fix this, perhaps make the player have to find a good place to hide BEFORE the enemies arrive)
not fast paced enough
(to fix this, make sure that the pace of your game slows down to fit the scene. don't throw this in the middle of an arena firefight)
doesn't last
(to fix this, make the anticipation outlast the encounter. this is a scene for buildup, not a gunplay skill test)
AS USED IN:
BAD COMPANY 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veYeGsvgDl0&p=96131DC6B8FCCDC2&playnext=1&index=2 (go to 2:40)
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THE APPROACH: This is a fun one, it's great with good or bad AI, but best with good AI. the basic premise, is that enemies are in a house, and the player is FORCED to move slowly up to the house, under heavy fire, and clear the house. it's especially fun to play.
WITH GOOD AI: the player starts outside the infiltration building, the enemies spawn inside, and fire out the windows. spawn them at the windows, where they can plainly see the player. if there are multiple stories, than it makes this scene even more epic. these enemies should keep respawning, at least twice or 4 times each, and when the player finally gets the chance to enter the house, spawn more inside. another way, is to simply make them stop spawning when the player gets inside. this is done often in call of duty 4, but make sure not to spawn them unlimitedly, as this gets annoying, and without a lull in action, the player will never get the idea that it's time to go in.
WITH POOR AI: do the same thing, however simply stopping the spawns will not work, as they most likely will spawn once at the window, and keep popping up right there. the player will then come in the house, and they won't understand to come to the player inside, making it easy for the player to walk right by, leaving enemies alive, taking up resources.
PROS:
epic fun that can be reused multiple times.
varies indoor and outdoor combat
can use a relatively small area
CONS:
very taxing- FPSC especially hates indoor-outdoor maps.
(to fix this, make the entire map indoors, but perhaps a large chamberlock wall with windows needs to be breeched)
Difficult to construct
(there is really no fixing this, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again)
Enemies may not all die
(to fix this, give them limited spawn lives)
AS USED IN
CALL OF DUTY 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFw_NnkD0lE (go to 6:15)
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THE ADVANCE/RETREAT ARENA: to basically see the general layout of this, see arena, but at the very end of the arena, the player has to go all the way back to the start. it's like having to make it t the end of a room, just to get a key to the door next to where you entered the room. it uses the same basic "arena" method.
WITH GOOD AI: see "the arena". and make sure to place a spawn trigger right over where the player will ultimately need to get to, half way through the encounter, when they have to retreat.
WITH POOR AI: see "the arena". spawn the characters one at a time on the way back, to give them an easier time of being found by the player. or make them immobile, where they'll automatically see the player.
PROS:
can take up an entire level's worth of gameplay
can stretch out one level into a level twice as long
great climax events.
CONS:
REALLY TAXING
(to fix this, make sure to optimize the static level as much as humanly possible)
no one likes backtracking
(to fix this, perhaps make different routes available to them when they go back to the beginning of the level)
what keeps the player from just running right to the winzone?
(to fix this, place destroyable dynamic blockades)
SEE ALL OF THESE BASIC AI TECHNIQUES USED IN ONE LEVEL IN:
CALL OF DUTY 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EapRJ0SndIo
in the beginning, there's an ambush, then comes the massive arena up the mountain littered with small approaches, finally, you reach the top and learn you have to go all the way back down, which is an advance/retreat setup.
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all of these AI techniques and more can be used, and combined for amazing scenes in your games. here's a few combo pictures:
THE APPROACH/ARENA HALLWAY: This is a long arena, surrounded on both sides by approaches, giving the player a choice on how they wish to enter the encounter.
used in: cold war mission- BFBC2
war pig mission- COD4
imageflock.com/img/1284858098.png[/img]
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THE ARENA-APPROACH: an arena, that is also an approach to an area the player needs to be. this is often a little more diluted in games, and not so plain and simple, but the basic technique is still present.
used in: the boneyard airplane graveyard mission- MW2
makarov's estate mission- MW2
imageflock.com/img/1284858121.png[/img]
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THE APPROACHING ARENA: a simple approach to a building that contains an arena. there's a fight into and inside the building.
used in: The Gulag mission- MW2
imageflock.com/img/1284858137.png[/img]
my next section of this tutorial will cover zombie basics, and some more advanced human enemy techniques.
imageflock.com/img/1272671763.jpg[/img]
skype = isaacpreston. I want to talk to YOU
