Vehicle AI is quite a scary thing. With all the AI I've done before, it's a case of breaking it down to simple tasks (move forward, find enemy, run to cover, target location, navigate to point etc), but with vehicle AI, you have to somehow capture the precision of driving fast.
My initial thoughts are you'd define a perfect route around the circuit (basically the racing line) with loads of nodes. You'd then define the target speed for each of those nodes, so the AI knows when he should be accelerating or braking. I think the basics of that would get an easily controllable car around an empty circuits (after lots of tweaking). But dealing with overtaking, unpredictable physics handling, recovering from skidding, sliding, being hit, adapting to different car setups or damage etc. would be tricky! It'd be a fun challenge though!
If I was to make a racing game at some point, I'd probably favour something completely different, with some unique gameplay elements to it. I see no point in working on a realistic racer, because there are other games out there that would eclipse it. My initial thoughts would be a Mad Max style post-apocalyptic racer, with knackered old rusted cars, where side swiping and ramming opponents is encouraged.
In that kind of game, the key things would be:
- Good physics. Nail the setup so controllable power slides are possible etc.
- A really detailed damage model. So the core sub frame can be bent, all external panels can be bent and come off, and all surfaces have dynamic textures that can be painted with dirt/damage decals.
- Really varied and convincing AI behaviours. All the way from the fastest, most fair playing AI, to the lunatics who actually turn around and come back to the other way, because they just want to kill you.
Gahhh. Look, I'm going into imagination overdrive.
What sort of racing game are you interested in?
