Interesting Enemy AI issue

Questions & Answers
1

So, I’m making a 3rd person shooter. I have this script for the Enemy AI which is attached to all enemy characters. The problem is they either all shoot at me fast at once, and kill me instantly. Or, they just follow me around and don’t shoot at all. It works pretty crappy. Can any of you savvy chaps fix it?

This is it:

 var projectile : Rigidbody;
  
 var speed = 70;
  
 var player : Transform;
 
  var MoveSpeed = 1;
  
  var MaxDist = 20;
  
  var MinDist = 3;
  
  private var timestamp = 0.0;
  
 function Start() {
     var rendum = Random.Range(1F,3F);
     }
  
 function Update () 
  {
      transform.LookAt(player);
      
      if(Vector3.Distance(transform.position,player.position) >= MinDist){
      
           transform.position += transform.forward*MoveSpeed*Time.deltaTime;
  
                      
           if(Vector3.Distance(transform.position,player.position) <= MaxDist  && (Time.time > timestamp))
  
          {clone = Instantiate(projectile, transform.position + new Vector3(0.0f, 1.5f, 0.0f), transform.rotation);
 clone.velocity = transform.TransformDirection( Vector3 (0, 0, speed));
  
 Destroy (clone.gameObject, 0.5);
 timestamp = Time.time + timestamp;
 } 
 }
 }
2

So sorry to bother you again @LucasMars but nobody else seems to be able to offer any useful advice. How could I improve this script because it works pretty crappy right now?

3

The way to get them to not fire all at once is to have a global counter that checks how many bullets have been fired. One way to do this is to have all bullets as a child of another blank gameObject, and then count all children.

Another way to get them to not all fire at once is making them have to aim shots. Give them a Random.Range value to wait, and it’ll have to be in that position for a time until it can shoot. That will also probably sort out the overfiring problem. Pseudocode:

//declared at start:
var timer : float;
var amountOfBullets : int = 0;

//inside of firing function:
if(timer > Random.Range(3,5)&&amountOfBullets<5){
	Fire();
	timer = 0.0f;
}
timer += 1 * Time.deltaTime;
amountOfBullets_reset();

To get it to fire when it is bugging out is also going to need to be fixed. Rather than checking the distance of the object, use a RayCast to see whether the player is in the sight of the enemy. If it is, it can fire. If it isn’t, then the player isn’t in the sight of the enemy. Pseudocode:

var fwd = transform.TransformDirection (Vector3.forward); 	//raycast
var distance : float = 10.0f;					//distance

if (Physics.Raycast (transform.position, fwd, distance)) {	//raycast forward and see...
	if(hit.transform.gameObject.name == "player"){		//whether it is a player...
		Fire();						//if this runs, then the player is in the sight of the enemy! 
	}
}

Hope this helps :slight_smile: