I added a new guiding principle for my game’s Enemy AI code prioritised over all other directives… Prioritise the proximity of valid enemies over all other factors! That’s right, enemies are now dumb as hell, preferring to move towards and attack whichever valid target is closest without caring about trivial matters like “optimal damage output” or “ability to survive the engagement” unless it needs tiebreakers.
Still not the dumbest AI I’ve coded… That would be my attempt at making a writing AI to critique my writing and help me grow as a writer. I cooked an open model with a ton of Project Gutenberg books for hours, and the result was a schizophrenic glitched nonsense machine that occasionally recites semi-coherent legal copyright disclaimers like an Alternate Universe Spamton.
Now you might be wondering… “Won’t this make the game too easy?” Trust me, it’s necessary. And it doesn’t make enemy AI much dumber than enemy AI already is in fangames/hacks that give you near-invincible (or fully invincible) Knights/Cavaliers with a Taunt item, Taunt AOE Combat Art, or wide area of effect Taunt Skill.
Because of the way I programmed this AI tweak, getting the distance of valid targets from the unit and adding colossal targeting priority weights to the targeting algorithm based on said distance, there is a chance, however small, that a sufficiently tempting target existing somewhere can override the distance’s weight on targeting priority. That doesn’t seem to be mathematically possible at this moment in time, even when giving AI units a chance to safely oneshot a 1 HP 0 DEF unit without the capacity to retaliate when attacked, or retaliate at all. But it is potentially a possibility, should Skills be added that wildly modify targeting priority numbers.
Man… Wouldn’t it be funny if I set up a Chapter where one player unit must battle one vastly superior enemy in an arena, and the only way to win the engagement is to rig RNG for dodges and crits? But no dumb cursor-waggling or waiting for the right frame. And obviously assisting that unit in the arena with your fellow player Units causes an instant Game Over. Instead you having the rest of your enemy cycle through the RNG’s Random Numbers by battling assassins sent to weaken the unit in the arena. It’ll be, like, so meta and subversive! However I believe RNG gets in the way of meaningful strategy so my game won’t be using that gimmick for a level.
