How to make Smart Guys...

How would somebody make an entity smart? Like in Age of Empires, the guys walk around stuff, and the like. How do they do that?

Its called Artificial Intelligence and its a vast subject.

You might want to start off reading up on path-finding.

Vast subject! I think I'll wait a few years before I try tackling that stuff...

its not that complicated, just learn how to use functions and types well, and you can start building decent AI with just abit of common sence.

This is my AI loop for a simulation of a load of ants going out, looking for food, and if they then found it brought it back to the nest. This is most of the code involved, apart from a sub routine handeling the way the ants move (just move in z):

			Select Hive\Mode

				Case "Looking For Food"
					If Hive\AttentionSpan > 0
						Gosub MoveAnt
						Hive\AttentionSpan = Hive\AttentionSpan - 1
					Else
						SeedRnd MilliSecs() : Delay 1
						TurnEntity Hive\Model,0,Rnd(-90,90),0
						Hive\AttentionSpan = (AntAttentionSpan * Rnd(1,AntAttentionRnd)) * FPS
					End If
					If EntityCollided ( Hive\Model,ColType_Food ) Then
						Hive\Target= CollisionEntity (Hive\Model, 1)
						Hive\Mode = "Found Food"
					End If 

				Case "Lost"
					PointEntity Hive\Model, Nest
					Hive\Mode = "Looking For Food"

				Case "Found Food"
					If EntityDistance (Hive\Model,Nest) <1.2 Then
						PointEntity Hive\Model, Hive\Target
					End If
					If EntityDistance (Hive\Model,Hive\Target) <1.2 Then
						For Food.FoodT = Each FoodT
							If Hive\Target = Food\Model Then Food\Amount = Food\Amount -1
							ScaleEntity Food\Model, (Food\Amount/300),(Food\Amount/300),(Food\Amount/300)
						Next
						PointEntity Hive\Model, Nest
					End If
					Gosub MoveAnt

			End Select

'Hive' is my type for each individual ant, this code is run for each ant every turn to determin what they are doing this loop.

Theres a good AI function in the Tanks game in the code archives, that helped me out alot when i first started my AI Lib.