Simple Enemy setup?

Game Engine Game Engine Support and Discussion
1

I recently tried to setup an enemy in a game with simple logic and steering actuators…

The enemy is a zombie so it’s motion is basically just following the player and attacking when they get close. My setup works fine, but is VERY hard to follow the flow of the logic bricks because there are soooooo many blocks!!

The basic setup is an armature and the objects assigned to it, parented to an empty with a script that governs the steering actuator to track to the nearest property (“player” in this case). The armature is setup so that when certain parent objects collide with the projectile from the players gun, certain animations are played while others are stopped and the empty is removed as the armatures parent… So various other things are included like adding blood on the floor and blowing up the zombie’s head and such…

All of this has become very confusing as I have done pretty much all of it with logic bricks… There are just too many variables to keep track of!!

Does anyone know of a simpler and easier way to set this up? I’m afraid when I add more zombies and objects to the level that blender will crash because of the large number of logic bricks…

2

Interestingly, this is a marvellous case for learning Python.
Python is useful, because in scenarios such as yours you need an overarching summery of logic. A text file can achieve this easily, (code names, functions and documentation) whereas the best named logic bricks can clutter.

3

For now I might use the logic bricks seeing as this part is just a proof of concept survival demo… But I will definitely be learning more about python for the final game…

I’m pretty sure the way I have it all setup, it will fit into just one or two text files… However the most I can do with python is make things move when I push a button :stuck_out_tongue:

4

Go to the official Blender Site and download the .pdf Version of the API, that will help you most with Translating the Bricks into Python – a Bit like a Dictionary or Lexicon.
If all your Logic already works you surely can write some of it into Scripts pretty easily, that is like »Translating«. It is especially useful for Things that would also be used on other Enemies like the Blooddrip or the Headshot.