Planning

For my first weeks work I have planned out how the AI's finite state machine will look (Created a flow chart) and have created designs for the characters sight and hearing as well.

By creating this flow chart it has allowed me to better visualise how the AI character will be thinking and what decisions he should be making next. I will try to keep this flow chart up to date with any changes I make during the development of the AI.

I've created a diagram showing how the viewcones for the characters AI will look. The viewcones will check for the player starting with the shortest of viewcones then going through each cone checking. If the player is see in the viewcone it will stop trying to find the player and the next part of the finite-state machine will begin. This is a system that is similar to that used in the game 'Thief' (Leonard, 2003).

I've also created a diagram to show how the AI's hearing will work. If will start by checking for the player inside of the trigger. If the player is found it will begin additional calculations to see how much noise the player is making and how far that noise has to travel to get to the player. If the distance is still close enough then it'll move onto the next part of the state machine.

I've also looked on the Unity asset store for any assets that will be useful for me when creating the AI. I will be using some standard assets (Unity, 2017) that have been created by Unity (Character model, animations and sounds) and will also be using ProBuilder basic (ProCore, 2017) that will allow me to quickly put together scenes and environments to test all the different mechanics that I will be making. I will keep an eye on the asset store while developing to see if there are any other useful resources that I can use to help with developing.

I have also created a GitHub page for my project so people can look at my Unity project and give any feedback if they feel things should be done differently or to use it to learn some techniques of creating AI.

GitHub page: https://github.com/ABurton96/GameAI

References
Leonard, T. (2003) Building an AI sensort System: Examining the Design of Thief: The Dark Project. Available at: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2888/building_an_ai_sensory_system_.php

ProCore. (2017) ProBuilder Basic. Available at: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/11919.

Unity. (2017) Standard Assets. Available at: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/32351.