Hello everyone! Over the past week, I have been working on a new update for Crumbling World. This update focuses on the combat skills of Unique Enemies and how I incorporated Artificial Intelligence into their combat behaviors.

Types of Enemies

There are a few different enemy types in Crumbling World: Normal enemies, unique enemies, and boss enemies. Normal enemies are spawned with average attributes and melee combat skills. Unique enemies are spawned in the base leveland almost never show up in the normal level (although changing your game mode can lead to them showing up more frequently). Unique enemies are bestowed with unique attributes like damage and life, in addition to different graphics and combat skills, like Melee Combat, Long Range weapons (like bow and arrows), and Magic.

On the other hand, Boss Enemies are unusual in that they only spawn in the last base level of a region. Each boss has very different combat skills and attributes, and in reality probably deserve their own blog post to give their combat prowess the appropriate amount of attention.

Unique Enemies

Unique enemies are able to inflict large damage and typically have more life points, making them harder to defeat. However, the trouble is worth it for players, as they reward you with more points to be used towards leveling up once they are defeated. It is worth confronting and defeating this enemy time if you have the skills and remaining life points available to allow you to take the risk.

Artificial Intelligence And Unique Enemies

In an effort to make sure the game always feels fresh and engaging, I added some more complexity to the artificial intelligence (AI) used by the enemies, who now behave differently depending on where they were spawned. For example, if they are spawned in the normal level, their AI looks for the player throughout the whole level and tries to defeat them, only stopping this onslaught if they are destroyed or end up falling off the level.

On the other hand, if an enemy is spawned in the base level, their AI will make them wait for the player. To make things more interesting, I added a line of sight for them, meaning that these enemies will only chase after players if they are within their field of vision (which is currently set to about 30 degrees). Additionally, I added some exceptions to the enemies behaviors to try and make them behave more naturally. Players are able to sneak up behind enemies, but they will get caught if they get too close. Furthermore, if an enemy is attacked, it will automatically chase after a player, regardless of what it was programed to do previously.

Combat Skills And Unique Enemies

One of the most interesting combat skills in the game is the Magic skill. Unique enemies with Magic are able to perform long-range attacks with their magic projectiles. These attacks can be dangerous for players, as the damage inflicted is larger than many other attacks within the game. Fortunately, players can count on their vitality to block many of these attacks. Vitality is an attribute for players to use that allows them to perform special actions, such as blocking attacks or launching special attacks to counter the actions of enemies.

In short, I wanted to develop Unique Enemies because I felt that they would bring more variety to the game, especially when one considers how their unexpected behaviors can make the game more fun and intriguing for all players.

As Crumbling World is currently under development, some of the features explained above may change before the final version is released.

As always, thank you for reading!