Combat AI Prototype

I figured it was time to overhaul the old AI I had been using for my top down games, which closely resembled Ghost Shooter. This is a combat test of two opposing sides, with AI that handles path finding and shooting. It's not exactly groundbreaking but I thought I'd share it with the community here.

This is a pure AI test, no player input. I've tried to create the AI to be dynamic, so no two battles are the same. I have noticed some bugs though... these make some soldeirs stand still for a bit at the start of the battle and give some more health than others.

<img src="http://i55.tinypic.com/24v305e.png" border="0" />

Download (5MB):

mediafire.com/download.php

Would you mind going over a few points of how to made the AI? I am working on a top down game at the moment and am a little unsure how to proceed when it comes to path finding etc.

I liked the demo there, but the mouse control is awful. It was really hard to follow the battle as I was fighting with the mouse! The chaps seem to also be seeing each other through walls, particularly the angled sprites.

Apologies for not replying sooner. I just got back from a week long hiking trip and it's really taken it out of me. <img src="smileys/smiley17.gif" border="0" align="middle" />

I actually have a thoroughly commented CAP version of it that I was going to post as a tutorial but I noticed a few bugs just before I posted it that make it a bit too unstable. It would be great if an experienced person could go through it and fix up bits I don't understand, but I guess that's a little demanding.

It should be easy enough to stop them shooting through walls. I didn't implement it, but it should be as simple as checking if the AI has LOS to the wall object. And I kind of just chucked the mouse movement in at the last second, so it's kind of crap. <img src="smileys/smiley1.gif" border="0" align="middle" />