Provide adequate level variety and realism

58 2. APPLICATIONS OF SCRIPTING SYSTEMS

■ Breaking into simple groups for the purpose of attacking the player from a number of angles, depriving the player of a single target to focus on.

■ Breaking into logical “task groups” that hinder the player in different ways; as one group directly attacks the player with a point-blank assault, other groups will set up more long- term defenses, such as blocking off power-ups or access to the rest of the level or arena.■ Literally surrounding the player on all sides (assuming the group is large enough), leav- ing no safe exit for the player.

The Solution

If enemies need to communicate, and enemies are based on scripts, what I’m really talking about here is inter-script communication. So, for example, the script that controls the “leader” needs to be able to send messages directly to the scripts that control the other enemies. The enemy scripts are written specifically with this message system in mind, allowing them to interpret incoming messages and act appropriately.

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