So Ive been going through the editor, working my ass off on my map, and now Im at a stand still. I got units, I got zombies, I got triggers and I got terrain. But my zombies arent doing anything. What is the most efficient way to order them to attack anything thats still alive?

Implement an aggro system? Have a "aggro" variable for each small area of the map, and each time a player shoots a weapon or kill a zombie, increase the aggro variable of the location and change the spawn speed + order zombies from nearby areas to swarm the location depending on its aggro? And only attract zombies to aggro'd areas when there are players in them?

Not aiming for that level of complexity in this map.

It depends on how you want the zombies to behave. Do you want them to know where the players are and hunt them down, or wander aimlessly and only target when they are nearby players?

If the former, just have a trigger that picks each zombie and order it to attack/move in the vicinity of a random player.

If the latter, pick each zombie and if they are within X range of a player, have them attack/move towards that player. Otherwise, wander aimlessly.

You'll have to elaborate more on how you want the zombies to behave for more detailed implementations.

Good ol' center-location-on-ppls-then-mass-order-attack?

Basically I want them to know where the players are at all times. I also want them to attack any player next to them, and in their vicinity.

I think I may have something thought. I added all the zombies to a unit group, and all the player units to a unit group, and ordered the Zombie unit group to attack to the Player unit group. So far it works single player, Im wondering what it'll look like in Multiplayer.

This system will have to do for now, it looks like it corrects itself even when the player moves, without having to reissue the command. Ill be needing some testers to help out with this.

I learned something interesting from this movie, thanks payne. Topic is solved

Payne you fucking love OneTwo too much. Sort it out.

It wouldn't buffer for me and his voice annoys the shit out of me so I didn't watch it.

But it's basically as Roy put it, how do you want the Zombies to behave?

You can make quite an intelligent and elaborate system using the Wander behaviour and the Sight Radius/Call for Help fields in the Data Editor. Couple this with Scan Range on the zombies weapons and they're already semi-intelligent (for zombies at least). I would say this is the bare minimum to implement for an AI. What your triggers and higher-up events do will have a greater effect on the difficulty and game play. The more 'intelligent' you want the zombies to be, the more work you have to put in.

The simplest way is just spawn a unitgroup (wave) and attack move to position of random player unit - updated occasionally (since the player will move).

More complex, you could use specific regions in your map to highlight areas such as choke-points, high-ground, narrow-paths etc (designated with invisible neutral structures). Then you can call different unit types of zombies to rally to these areas when a threat (player unit) has been detected. So, the Infested Marine Zombies will move to the High Ground as long as a player-unit is in range of the High Ground - if not, they will attack the player with the rest of the zombies. You could even implement 'trip-wire' systems when a player crosses a certain threshold, you spawn an ambush around the area scaled to the number of player units who have set the trip off. Or force the players to flee in a certain direction and have zombies spawn ahead of them causing them to decide whether to fight back the way (through the numerous weak speed-zombies, which caused them to run) or to try and kite-past the stronger, more deadly zombies which spawned as the trap.

You can make things even more complex by causing the Zombies to fight each other also .

I just want the zombies to seek out targets at all times, and no players able to sneak around. Its already done as shown in my map topic.

But thanks for the help anyway ;o