Xbox360 and PS3 Prototype

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Rapid Prototyping

After my time on the Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 DLC packs I worked on an internal prototype using the MUA2 engine. Without being too specific the prototype was based around cooperative play like what is found in MUA but with more meaningful team roles and mechanics. Though I contributed to the overall mission layout and implementation my main role on this prototype was AI scripting. Engineering had just replaced the scripting language and I was the lucky guy to put it through the ringer. And I do mean lucky :-P

New AI Design

Another unique aspect of the prototype not found in MUA2 was the addition of player stances. Player stances could be standing, crouching, prone, crouching in cover, pinned, reviving and so on. According to the design the AI needed to manage themselves in regards to these Player Stances.

Scripted Decisions

For this task I created a simple Finite State Machine to be run on each AI. The FSM used the previously mentioned player stances along with player location and player inflicted damage to dictate what state the AI should be in. Their AI states included but weren’t limited to sliding into cover, traversing, choosing targets, dying and being distracted. Also different from MUA was how targets were chosen. The AI chose which player to target using a scripted system that weighted each player according to a set of stipulations. These checks included, how many AI are already targeting this player, has this player distracted me, is this player in cover or out in the open, is this player reviving another player, and so on. This weighted system allowed the AI to intelligently make decisions while considering not just the player actions but the the states and actions of other active AI as well.

Damage

The last addition for the prototype was a major change in how damage was dealt. The prototype design called for a much more RPG like damage system that factored distance into hit chance along with player stance dependent damage modification. For example a standing player 30 feet away from an AI was to take more damage than a player aiming his gun over a wall 10 feet from the AI. For the implementation of this design the existing MUA AI damage system was turned completely off and all damage dealing was computed and delivered through script.