DevBlog 5

🎮 DevBlog Week 5 (07/02/2025) – More AIs

 By: Dennys da Silva

This week, I worked on implementing a Flying AI into my game. Unlike the normal ground enemies that use NavMesh, the flying enemy needed a completely different movement system. Since NavMesh doesn’t work well for aerial enemies, I had to manually handle movement, pathing, and rotations, making this one of the hardest AI systems I’ve coded so far.

Flying AI Development

I started by figuring out how the Flying AI should behave. My goals were:

• The enemy should wander in the air instead of walking on the ground.
• It should detect and chase the player when they get close.
• If the player moves out of range, it should return to the wander state.
• The AI should be able to attack from the air, either diving at the player or using a ranged attack.

Because this AI doesn't use NavMesh, I had to program its movement system. Instead of relying on gravity-based navigation, I used floating movement mechanics, meaning the enemy adjusts its position without needing a ground path.

After setting this up, I got the Flying AI to wander, but there were issues with smooth movement and player detection. Sometimes, the AI jittered when transitioning between wander and chase states, so I had to tweak the rotation and movement logic to ensure a smoother system.

State Machine Implementation

 The Flying AI uses a state machine, just like my ground enemies. The AI can switch between different states depending on the situation:

• Wander State – The enemy moves within a random radius, selecting new destinations once it reaches a point.
• Chase State – The AI locks onto the player, following them while rotating smoothly.
• Attack State – When close enough, the enemy attacks the player, dealing damage.
• Die State – If the AI's health reaches zero, it disables its collider and gets destroyed after a few seconds.

One of the hardest parts was ensuring that the transitions between states felt natural. At first, the AI switched states too aggressively, instantly snapping between chase and attack instead of smoothly transitioning. I added stopping distances and cooldown timers to make the behavior more balanced.

Flying AI Model

Challenges This Week

This was by far one of the hardest AI systems I’ve worked on. Some of the main struggles were:

• Smooth Movement Without NavMesh – Since Unity’s NavMesh doesn’t work for flying enemies, I had to code movement from scratch.
• State Transitions – The AI initially switched states too fast, causing unnatural behavior. Adding timers and smooth transitions fixed this.
• Chase & Attack Balancing – At first, the AI chased too aggressively, making it impossible for the player to escape. I had to tweak its vision range, rotation speed, and attack cooldowns to make it fair.

Asset Implementation

i knew from start that I wouldn't be able to create a full environment using a 3D Moddeling software such as may or 3DS Max, the only option I had was to buy a asset pack from unity and I do not regret my decision, the pack wasn't too expensive so I took the advantage.

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/landscapes/toon-adventure-...