What AI asset should I use?

I've looked around for a few weeks at different AI asset systems on the unity asset store. There are so many different ones to choose from, and the ones that may look promising just lack the presentation to sell to me (and likely many).

I have an open world map and would like enemies to patrol in areas. When the player enters into the danger zone where they can sense him, I want the enemies to shoot in place mostly, probably run to something to hide behind and start shooting, with probably one enemy pursuing.

I'm trying to figure out what I need that works with: Third Person Controller: by Opsive, Dialogue System for Unity, I also have Playmaker but have yet to actually use it.

But, AMONG ALL THE CHOICES, the real reason I'm here is to get peoples' input on the best designed AI system. AI systems that have great ui design, easy to use and set up etc.

 

Here's a few I was checking out:

$40.00 Easy AI Steering https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/40529
$15.00 SILVER: Advanced AI Combat Engine https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/50833
$25.00 Advanced Battle AI https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/31067
Free RAIN AI for Unity https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/23569
$95.00 AI Behavior https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/3442
$4.00 Easy AI - System https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/7422
$50.00 Tactical Shooter AI https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/47248
$30.00 Competitive Combat AI https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/22364
$75.00 Bahavior Designer https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/15277
$75.00 NodeCanvas https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/14914

 

Hopefully, someone who has tried these assets for AI will provide some guidance. You're quite right of course the problem with having too many items on a marketplace is it makes it more difficult to choose which to buy.

I encountered the same kind of problem 2 to 3 months ago when I was trying to decide which level building asset(s) to buy. I ended up buying multiple items so I could compare firsthand. Which means ultimately some of them are just sitting on my hard drive a waste of money and time other than being a necessary part of the decision making progress in the current environment.

Too many options is not a good thing when you have no way of knowing which is the best until after you buy them all and test each one. I imagine this causes at least some people to not buy anything because they simply do not know which to spend the money on!

Anyway, for what it is worth, based on my firsthand comparisons I decided on ProTile Map Editor 2 and ProGrids 2 for building levels. You may already have your areas built but wanted to share that anyway. Of course, this combination works the best for me but others may have different preferences. Many folks like ProBuilder. I tested it too but it didn't click for me. Seemed a bit too tedious for my liking but maybe I just didn't spend enough time with it.

I suppose one good thing that could come out of there being so many assets is that we may see someone set up a review site or video channel comparing all of these assets. Sure would be beneficial. Anyway good luck!

Oh and this is not the right forum for this post. This forum is focused on game design not on implementation.

 

Add this one to your list: PandaBehaviour Its pretty light weight, and does the job I need quite well.

The only one of your list I've tried to use is RAIN AI. Can't say I was impressed. The workflow is quite different to everything else in Unity, so it really feels like you are trying to use a different tool.

 

Well, I went with Behavior Designer because it integrates with my 3rd person controller and dialogue system, and the support is great already. I feel like without the integration, it would just be a bigger headache trying to use what could be easier to set up (another asset), and more difficult to get it to all work together.

I'll let you guys know my thoughts after I set this up!

 

I'm late but I would say Behavior Designer is the best especially for a Playmaker user- I'm an avid user of both and I have actually created a Behavior Designer tutorial course you can get at %50 off with this link on the Opsive forums http://opsive.com/forum/index.php/topic,1612.0.html

Also the Behavior Designer Movement Pack is essential to get up and running fast with BD https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/16853

 

@supadupa64
In my biased opinion, Panda BT is the best Behaviour Tree system on the Asset Store. It's a script-based Behaviour Tree engine.

On the integration side, Panda BT can virtually integrate with any other asset. This is possible because a task is simply a C# method, which allows to easily create custom tasks and to reuse existing code from a behaviour tree.

The Panda BT package contains several examples including a third person shooter game which implements similar behaviour as you are describing. You can have a look there for inspiration.

Also, you can consult the website for more details:

http://www.pandabehaviour.com

This is a rather new package, so if you have suggestion about improve it or any question, you're welcome on this thread:

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/ai-scripting-panda-bt-behaviour-tree-scripting.388429/

 

EDIT: RAIN is dead, not supported anymore. Has little tutorials and wiki is not too good. It is still usable at the moment but I have struggeled and I will try other asset.

"What cought my eye is Free RAIN AI for Unity https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/23569. Not only its free, but it is fully operational. It seems that it has large documentation(decent wiki ), demo scenes and very nice system including: sensors, behaviour trees on top of large set of pathfinding options. I have read opinions as old as from 2013 and already people were happy with it. I will give it a try for sure."

 

Reaction AI with A* supports both combat AI as well as pathfinding which can be used to patrolling or avatar follow by setting the target

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/95744

 

I've been able to get some pretty good progress with Behavior Designer (and the Movement Pack addon) and custom code for attacking and anything else I need. You could use Playmaker also to cut down on how much code you'd have to write.

The Movement Pack addon for BD is really good. It has a node for Patrolling and also one for whether another character has been seen or heard.

 

My advice is use Youtube and look for AI videos from guys like Brakys and Burgzurg. I learned so much from those guys. The real upside is that AI is only as complex as you need it, so in my opinion it is better to build your own from scratch and scale it as difficult as you need it. When you download some of these major AI packs, they are very compliccated and you will spend more time learning their system than it would take you to make your system from scratch.

 

Someone did a try to Node AI 3? https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/31459 Looks scalable.