Over the last few days I have been doing the major framework for the soldier based enemies. Since this asset needed proper AI I had to learn some of the ideas surrounding the behavior tree and how it works. At times it was a bit of a headache so I did a section of the AI a day and worked on other things to get away from it.
The end product of the work is pretty good and the enemies can do a decent amount, however they may be a bit to good at times when there is a lot going onscreen so I'm planning on using them sparsely with simpler enemies like turrets and melee attacks being more common (At least for the early levels).
At first I had the enemies withstand a fair amount of damage from weapons but I referred back to the games that inspire this game and standard enemies die really fast in them. I think this is to keep the pace of the combat fast and exciting. In the end I reduced their health and increased weapon damage so that they die easily, however I have reduced the ammo given for a weapon to compensate for the power they now have. For example originally the sniper took 3 rounds to kill an enemy, now it does it in one shot and it feels so much more satisfying and powerful for the small amount of ammo it has.
Finally when they die instead of doing a canned animation I thought it would be more fun to do something similar to the exploding planes from the tank level as players have liked that happening. When they die they rag doll in the impact direction and from playing it myself I have laughed at some of the moments where one dies from a sniper shot and slams into the ground because of the impact.
Video of the AI and Level
Onto a bit of level and game play design. To keep consistency between both game modes the players bullets can hit enemy bullets like the tank can. Also red bullets (Not in game yet) cannot be shot down, again like with the tank.
Since the player will have already done 2 tank levels by the point of this one I won't be including any tutorial notifications as the controls are basically the same aside from the ability to crouch. This first level will be used to get the player families with playing as lily and have sections that are based off using one of her movement or shooting capability.
This small area forces the player to use jump mechanics to move forwards and then introduces a single enemy that cannot spot the player unless they are on top of the big box. This gives the player ample time to notice the enemy and work out what to do. As the level goes on the mechanics will be used in unison since the player should be used to the mechanics. The next step for the level design is to work out the whole area before I start building in engine, otherwise I could spend hours wasting time on useless areas or something not suitable for the level. It will also help work out what other enemy types are required for this level.
Final image is a pretty shot of the opening area with some meshes I made while having a break from coding, it's nothing fancy at the moment but it's more interesting than boxes.
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