First M.A.D. video trailer is now available

[Avatar]

nice to see you here fishy .


I think the helicopters just follow the terrain at the moment, they are still in a very early stage of development so this may well change, the vehicles bunching up is another issue we intend to address further down the road.

the tanks have a nice fun feel to them and the AI is pretty smart already so things are shaping up to be quite enjoyable.


 our scheduled release date is currently set for march 2009 so that gives you plenty of time to save up ... 

Might as well use some of what we've learned during the BZ2 betas...

Consider keeping some of the 'early code' for AI use.  For instance it's great to have a Helicopter that's free from the terrain until the AI starts crashing, then it would be nice to have one that follows the terrain for them to use.  Would be so much easier than making AI that are good at handling altitude...  So, if you add free flight to the helicopter physics keep a flag that has them follow the terrain, maybe with some nice cushions and height look-aheads to hide the fact that the AI are cheating (somewhat)...

-Av-

[BS-er]

Hmm you confused me a bit there Av, but I think I get what you're saying.  Actually the aircraft don't rigidly follow the terrain in a simple manner.  They have a simple physics model.  the AI control the same vehicles that the players control.  I believe in making the AI and the player control the same basic units.  The AI is made aware of height and compensates, but there is no cheating that artificially restricts them from the ground.  In fact you may catch them flying through the terrain, which shows I have more work to do.  I have the AI probe the terrain ahead, but it needs more work.

[Avatar]

I do that a lot, I think... 

IF you can get decent AI in 3D that's great, but if it turns out to be difficult to add the height element then consider what I said...  the AI don't have to be equivalent to a human because you can't easily tell if they're cheating...

Giving them a physics-based upper and lower limit heightwise above the ground can save a ton of look-ahead, decision tree, and other AI code and simplify the AI response without sacrificing the 'reality' of playing against the AI...  I can understand not wanting to take shortcuts unless necessary but some shortcuts are easy and beneficial without any real sacrifice...

-Av-