AI

what's the best start to creat an ai-system?!
maybe waypoints?
or what else?

hope some of you have a clue where to start, and how a system should look like?

Finite state machines seem popular. Each AI friendly or enemy can be in several different states representing beahviour. like STATE_FLEE, STATE_ATTACK, STATE_KAMAKAZEE, etc. etc. These states each have a set of if statements that define the behaviour. these if statements can also switch the AI to different states. An FSM combined with waypoints should work very nicely.

If you're interested in a tutorial and demo on finite state machines, go here.

There's also the concept of levels of AI to consider - e.g. an overall 'commander' who deploys units across the battlefield, then perhaps local 'generals' - but each unit also has its own AI specific to local conditions.

one more suggestion

I use a sort of 'cascading' waypoint system which goes from least to highest important, which I've found useful

patrol waypoint - preset patrol route - least important

deploy waypoint - unit is sent to enemy's last known pos'

attack waypoint - when an enemy is in range and the unit makes its own mind up about where to go.

retreat waypoint - when a unit has decided to retreat regardless of its orders

avoid waypoint - when a unit needs to steer around another unit or get out of another unit's way.

When a goalpoint is reached or no longer needed, it's cleared and the unit then takes the next least important
so if a unit has not been deployed and is not engaging the enemy and is not in retreat or avoiding another unit, it'll follow the patrol waypoint path.

very interesting.
thanks for the points.
will have a look with one works best for me :)

I got myself "AI Game Programming Wisdom" book which is pretty good although bit technical at times... there's now "AI Game Programming Wisdom 2" too available:

http://www.aiwisdom.com/

i like the weights system, which can be used in state machine style.

the more angry goes up the the lower calm goes
angery = 0
calm = 100
same with happy and sad
happy = 50
sad = 50
same with these too.
scared = 0
bravery = 100

just very basic example but if you do a search on the net you find these kind of ai styles.

One last suggestion - plan out as much as possible before beginning coding - define what essential features the AI must be able to handle and try to code a system that's essentially modular. Bad AI can wreck a game and it's easy to get into a mess of conflicting rules/statements that don't work reliably.