Poll of the Day > Did you know the concept of Shadow Link was in the first zelda game?

(+) Yeah! (+)

It's true.

The AI for aggressive enemies can choose one of two targets to go after, Link and Anti-Link (or Shadow if you will) which occupies the opposite position in the room Link is in. This means if you stay near the outside of a room aggressive enemies will either chase you or run away, but if you are near the middle of the room they all pile on you.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/1/0/AAFUswAADa_y.jpg

Metalsonic66 posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/1/0/AAFUswAADa_y.jpg

I sorta explained why, but I guess I could go deeper.

It's so that the aggresive AI types behave dynamically to your movement without having to, well, think - basically every few grid alignments they have a 50/50 chance to go for Link or Anti-Link while also creating the illusion that if you go to the middle of a room that the monsters are intentionally swarming/surrounding you

I didn't notice that when I played it on the NES last century.

That's a clever way of programming a limited AI, I suppose

I think I do remember that if you avoid the middle of the room it seems easier and that if you go to the middle it all of a sudden feels impossible. though couldn't that just be because the edge of the room is safe, so there's less danger around you at the edges and corners? like it already should work that way, with or without strange AI behaviour.

Sahuagin posted...

I think I do remember that if you avoid the middle of the room it seems easier and that if you go to the middle it all of a sudden feels impossible. though couldn't that just be because the edge of the room is safe, so there's less danger around you at the edges and corners? like it already should work that way, with or without strange AI behaviour.

Yeah if you're hugging a wall that's one side of you that's guarded. Corner that's two sides.

Sahuagin posted...

I think I do remember that if you avoid the middle of the room it seems easier and that if you go to the middle it all of a sudden feels impossible. though couldn't that just be because the edge of the room is safe, so there's less danger around you at the edges and corners? like it already should work that way, with or without strange AI behaviour.

You can hide in the doorways just before it'd trigger scrolling to another screen and no enemy can damage you too.

Metalsonic66 posted...

That's a clever way of programming a limited AI, I suppose

Pacman does the same thing

I thought all the ghosts in Pac-Man had specific "patterns"

Metalsonic66 posted...

I thought all the ghosts in Pac-Man had specific "patterns"

they do.

The 4 ghosts have either chase or scatter mode. In scatter mode each ghost heads to their corner, This is the upper right for red, upper left for pink, bottom right for blue and bottom left for orange. In chase mode they move towards their target; Red goes for Pacman directly, Pink targets a spot 4 tiles ahead of pacman (except when pacman is moving upwards cuz of a glitch, he targets a spot 4 up AND 4 left), the blue ghost is the one that uses shadow movement - he looks 2 tiles ahead of pacman (which just like pink is glitched and he looks 2 up and 2 left when pacman is moving up) and then takes the position of the red ghost and mirrors it along that target point. ... Orange is weird, he has the same AI as Red (chase pacman) unless you are within 8 spaces of him then he uses his Scatter AI which is head towards the bottom left corner

Clyde is a carefree kind of guy

Remember when we were kids and the final battle with Shadow Link and that type of last enemy would always end up with us super focusing and winning the first time? Then we got older and it was harder. Wtf?

I beat so many things the first time or do very well at them, but don't let me practice. I'll get worse. Before I get better.