I'm a pretty big fan of TD's, and have been playing a couple of the ones released for the ipod touch (Tap Defense, Fieldrunners, Tower Madness) I like both the fixed paths and the open fields, but there's things about both of them that are good. Fixed paths are generally about tower placement, blah blah, and putting the right towers in the right corners. Fun for a while, but the learning curve is usually too steep for me once the paths stop spiraling. Open fields are more versatile, not only concerning tower placement, but which towers go where. Generally I make a long, winding path of the basic towers with powerful towers at each turning point, and these are smoother in learning curves, as it's easier to scrap ideas and try different strategies, since it's visually a different idea. However, I'm not here to talk about my own strategies for TD. I am curious as to whether there are any TD's out yet that have a different kind of AI then the two open field TD's mentioned above. You see, in those aforementioned games, the enemies go for the shortest path, and generally, the paths are long and winding, and there isn't much creativity to the paths. However, what if we could have an AI where the enemies would have no knowledge of the "best path" and just followed whatever they "saw?" They'd see a big wide open space and walk into there, thinking that was a path to follow, but seeing a dead end, they'd turn back. This kind of AI would open up a whole field of new strategies, including making an extremely tricky path with many false roads and some roads where the monsters would get completely stuck from trying to get past each other. Of course, it would be made harder by boss levels, where individual monsters come out one at a time, rendering the possibility of getting stuck nonexistant, and tests the brute power of the towers. If you couldn't understand any of what I said, if you've ever played Path D on Starcraft as a UMS map, the monster's AI would be pretty much the same. I hope you can understand the idea I'm trying to project, as it's different from any TD I've seen so far But my final point is: Is there any possibility that this kind of AI could be implemented?
Sentinel is kinda fun, some of the maps have multipaths, where you dont know if the enemy will take path a, or path b, or c, so you have to plan accordingly, and there are gates that the enemy will smash down, you gets money for having the gates in tact, and interest off that money, its not as easy as it sounds but it is fixed path... Defender Chronicles, which hasn't been released is a different twist on the TD genre...its more of a platformer TD http://www.defenderchronicles.com/ its not a New AI though well hard to say cause i haven't played it but to kinda answer but not really answer your question of "But my final point is: Is there any possibility that this kind of AI could be implemented?" Yes it could be implemented...and there are many developers that visit this forum, who may implement it...only time will tell....and we all benefit from a new type of TD game to keep us entertained
Thanks for the reply I'll check out Sentinel, thanks I guess all I can do now is hope a developer gets the idea sometime soon
Hi Password, I think the most innovative TD to date, in terms of non-orthodox TD gaming are concerned, would be Zombie Attack. The zombie enemies are free roaming, albeit with a final end goal being the hut to destroy. You influence their movements depending where you move i.e they follow you when you are within a certain radius. This adds an element to the TD genre as yet not expanded upon, as far as I know. I'd love to see more twists on the TD genre. I just keep buying them like a sheep as they come out in the vain hope that my wish might come to fruition
Defender Chronicles will have freestyle mode where enemies will be generated randomly and they can have multiple paths to go. It will be out soon.
