Newsgroups: comp.ai.games
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!bb3.andrew.cmu.edu!newsfeed.pitt.edu!scramble.lm.com!news.math.psu.edu!news.cse.psu.edu!uwm.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in2.uu.net!nwnews.wa.com!nwfocus.wa.com!nmb-news!not-for-mail
From: Tony Schroeder <tony.schroeder@netmanage.com>
Subject: Re: Evolving a flock/army
Message-ID: <NEWTNews.829950074.7124.tonys@tonys.bellevue.netmanage.com>
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 96 14:36:09 PDT
References: <t91matfa.829227479@news>  <31759942.4E95@parallax.co.uk>
X-Newsreader: NEWTNews & Chameleon -- TCP/IP for MS Windows from NetManage
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Lines: 65


In Article<31759942.4E95@parallax.co.uk>, <rjg@parallax.co.uk> writes:
> Path: nmb-news!psinntp!psinntp!psinntp!pipeline!newsjunkie.ans.net!newsfeeds.ans.net!howland.reston.ans.net!swrinde!newsfeed.internetmci.com!btnet!zetnet.co.uk!dispatch.news.demon.net!demon!news.parallax.co.uk!usenet
> From: Richard Gemmell <rjg@parallax.co.uk>
> Newsgroups: comp.ai.games
> Subject: Re: Evolving a flock/army
> Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 18:22:10 -0700
> Organization: Parallax Solutions Ltd, UK
> Lines: 31
> Message-ID: <31759942.4E95@parallax.co.uk>
> References: <t91matfa.829227479@news>
> NNTP-Posting-Host: dangermouse.parallax.co.uk
> X-NNTP-Posting-Host: red.parallax.co.uk
> Mime-Version: 1.0
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
> X-Mailer: Mozilla 2.0 (Win95; I; 16bit)
> CC: mfa@dtek.se
> 
> Mattias Fagerlund wrote:
>  
> > So? What's the point?
> > -------------------
> > Well, I'd really love to hear your ideas on this. I'd also want to know if
> > anyone has heard of anything similar done/being done. Is anyone other than
> > me interested in this?
> 
> > ******************************************************************************
> > Each boid has direct access to the whole scene's geometric description,
> > but reacts only to flockmates within a certain small radius of itself.
> > The basic flocking model consists of three simple steering behaviors:
> > 
> >    1.Separation: steer to avoid crowding local flockmates.
> >    2.Alignment: steer towards the average heading of local flockmates.
> >    3.Cohesion: steer to move toward the average position of local flockmates.
> > ******************************************************************************
> 
> I've been thinking about Warcraft II lately.  The game's AI is very poor at 
> delivering a group of units to a certain spot.  This shows up as follows:-
> 
> If you select a bunch of units and move them, they very rapidly break up.  
This 
> causes the following problems.  Units get left behind, your group arrives 
out of 
> formation and the group arrives in dribs and drabs, not all together.  
> 
> Perhaps flocking behaviour could resolve these problems.  The only real 
> difference is that the "flock" now consists of different sorts of "birds".  
You 
> would have rather different rules of course.
> 
> Richard
> 
The problem is simply that all the characters move at a different speed, the 
advanage of Ogres or Palidans besides strength is speed. If you were to have 
them move as a group then you would have to slow the faster troops to go as 
slow as the slowest one in the group. I actually like the fact that they all 
move at different rates. What I normally do is send one axe thrower/archer or 
grunt/footman with a larger group of Ogres/Palidans, and the reason is if I 
run into a force that I would lost to I would retreat my forces, then as the 
enemy follows the first one they would catch would be the slowest, same with 
towers, then when they are busy on him they would ignore my troops when I send 
them back in, losing the no body, and getting some good hits in with the 
stronger guys. Why lose or have a damaged unit that costs you more?
 
Cpt. Picard



