AI for the bosses

Even though I have been home with a fever this week I have tried to do some work from home. I have been drawing some sort of flowcharts over the three bosses AI. The boss I am going to start with when it comes to code is the final boss, Mothgomery. This because if we run out of time we think this is the most important one for the game. He is the “emperor of the suit” who started the invasion and leads the other bugs.

First when you enter the room with Mothgomery all the exits close, then Mothgomery says some cool line to start the fight. Mothgomery then has two phases in the fight. He starts in phase 1 where he is invulnerable and he lets four of his minions (Buggers and Grubligs, the normal enemies) fight to protect him. When all his minions are dead he will enter the second phase. Here Mothgomery is vulnerable, he stays in this phase until he is down to a certain percent of his life or (if it takes too long time) the time is up. Then he goes back to phase 1 again. This goes on until the player has killed him, and wins the game. The minions will have a different AI than the normal bugs, they will always be in their chasing AI so they follow the main character, Barney, wherever he goes.

Before you can challenge the final boss you have to meet and defeat the two other boses, Ben Bugger and Grubby McGrub, who will have a quite simple AI aswell. Ben, who is the boss you have to kite to kill, has only one phase. He follows you around the room trying to catch and kill you. He will only get faster and faster as time goes. There will be some sticky goo on the floor which the player should try to kite him through, because Ben will be slowed and take more damage. While kiting Ben the player has to shoot at him to lower his life and kill him.

Grubby will have two phases. He is the boss which acts kind of like a whack-a-mole. In phase 1 he is underground moving towards Barney with quite some speed. As he reaches his target he enters phase 2. He shoots out of the ground while shooting some icky goo around him. If Grubby hits Barney on his way up Barney will take a lot of damage. If the goo hits Barney or the player run over it, he will take damage but not as much. In phase 2 the player can shoot at Grubby to lower his life before he digs into the ground and starts chasing Barney again.