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[skatterbean]

I want to build a wandering/patrol behavior for my AI units but I'm unsure of how to build this behavior using a pathfinder. My pathfinder is a standard A* pather with underlying grid nodes. The routes need to be computed procedurally as my map is created differently everytime. My map is populated with irregularly shaped obstacles and these are represented in the underlying MapGrid shown here:

Black areas are impassable, red are partially open and white is open.

I've got some ideas but wanted to ask the community, how would you implement random patrol routes that look believable? (i.e. closed loops around large obstacles)

Also links to any resources would be appreciated. Thanks!

[st33d]

I posted a thread about making grid based lightning:

http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=10599.0

My solution was to use a greedy search with random deviations:

http://www.robotacid.com/flash/red_rogue/lightning/

You could introduce into your A* routine some forced errors. Or change it to a simpler search that A* and let the random deviation take the route around the obstacles.

I think a broken A* with some forced deviation would begin to look organic if you do it right.