LithFAQ.com

Good placement of CoverNodes for the AI in your SinglePlayer or Coop Map is an important aspect of a good map. Placing a lot of them provides good cover to your AI and makes it a challenge. But there are some other things that you should know about CoverNodes which will most probably make your AI even more challenging.

Just think about it. You might have CoverNodes, but how effective do they work? Does your AI maybe provide a too big target? 10 or 20 cm can make a huge difference in firefights. If you place your CoverNodes perfectly, you will only see the gun and the head when an AI is firing around the corner, which makes it harder to hit and this is one of the key elements for good battles.

It's also important to be aware of ways to tweak CoverNodes in a way that enables you to use them in more locations to give your AI even more cover opportunities.

Now i will explain you a bit more about the different types of AICoverNodes available for the Soldiers.

Those are:

-CoverDuck
-CoverDuckStand
-CoverDuckPeek
-CoverStep
-CoverBack


CoverDuck
The Soldier will take cover behind an object and gets up a bit to shoot. However, he will be still in a somehow ducked position while firing, so you should only use this type as long as the object providing cover is 1m or lower.

CoverDuckStand
The same as CoverDuck, but your soldier will stand up COMPLETELY to shoot. So only use it behind objects that are over 1m in height.

CoverDuckPeek
The soldier ducks behind an object and peeks out to his right to shoot. You can let him peek out to the other side by clicking the Rotation button and setting Roll to 180.
This is a soldier peeking out with flipped direction:


CoverStep
The soldier stands behind an object or wall and steps out to his right to shoot. You can also switch the direction he steps out by setting Roll to 180.
Soldier stepping out with switched direction:


CoverBack
The soldier will lean his back to a wall and shoot around the corner to his left to get you. You have to click FacingOffset in properties and set Jaw to 180 for this type, else it looks awkward and doesn't work properly. Remember you can switch the direction here, too, by setting Roll to 180.
This is the standard CoverBack action (not perfectly placed but you get the point):



Placement
Generally, the CoverNodes should be placed in the place you want the AI to take cover, the edge of a CoverNode should be about 20 to 30 cm away from the wall.
Place the Peek and Step CoverNodes about 40 cm away from the edge so that only the gun and the head is visible when the AI shoots. Don't let them lean half their body out.

Also have a look at things like Fov, Radius, ThreadRadius and BoundaryRadius and change them depending on the Placement and purpose of the CoverNode.

So now place your CoverNodes wisely, and don't forget that you can switch the direction of some CoverNodeTypes to provide more opportunity for cover.
Also remember to watch the size of the objects your soldiers are taking cover behind. You don't want your soldier to stand up completely if he takes cover behind a couch and you also don't want him to shoot the reception desk he's taking cover behind instead of you.


Testing
If you are unsure about a covernode, place some AIs, go test your map in GodMode (F7) and hunt them down until they use that CoverNode.
Always try to cover every possible area in the room with CoverNodes to ensure your AI doesn't stand there without cover shooting at you. After all you care for them don't you?


There are some useful Debug Keys for testing your CoverNodes.

-F6 will show you the AI's goals, scripts and so on.

-F11 shows you AINavMesh, AIRegions and Paths.

-Shift-F11 shows you your CoverNodes. CoverNodes that are valid for your current position (i.e. that the AI would choose to shoot at you) are in yellow, so make sure that you always see enough yellow when walking through your map.
This is also useful for testing specific CoverNodes. if you want your AI to use the CoverNode, just move to a position where the Node turns yellow and wait for the AI to use it.
Examples:



I hope this tutorial was useful for some people. [/quote]

Nice, very useful mate.

this whole forum is like the most helpful thing i've ever used.

It was designed to be useful, primarily helping with just about any Lithtech game!

Grate post man :), have anymore knowledge to share? One question though. Does the sdk compile in VS2k8 Express? And if yes are the dll's useful?

Ok. Almost got it compiling :D just have to get afxres.h (downloading windows sdk now) and will see if this thing boots up. I just wonder though, if the .exe was linked against libs from vs7.1 and the sdk dll's that I am building will be linked against vs9.0 will there be any stability issues. Well no matter, never F.E.A.R. I'll write about it here ;)

Every thing compiled nicely but there is a small problem. The dll's I got in debug configuration give me a "Out of memoty" msg box and the game exits. It happens right after the resolution change. Will try to investigate this issue later.

The "Release" configuration seems to be fine.