The Neutral Area

This section explains the concept of the Neutral Area, as it may be confusing to some users. The system is used by the AI to determine the area where it can perform idle tasks.

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What is the Neutral Area?

The AI uses a concept, which we named the "neutral area". Whenever the player is not moving, there is a certain radius placed at the players location, representing the neutral area. The neutral area is a place used by the AI to perform idle tasks like interacting with the environment or wandering around.

When is the Neutral Area placed?

The neutral area is placed at the beginning of the game. Whenever the player moves to far away from the neutral area center, the neutral area is removed. When the player is moving, the neutral area stays removed until the player stops moving again. When the player stops moving, the new neutral area center is placed at the player’s position. Short: Every time the player leaves the area it is removed and when the player stops moving it is replaced.

What can the AI do in the Neutral Area?

The AI comes with multiple ways to interact with the environment. When inside of the neutral area, the AI will perform different idle tasks, as long as you have them activated. Here is a list what the AI can do exactly in the neutral area:

Wandering

Wandering is the AI´s basic idle task that will be performed as long as nothing more important comes up. The AI will randomly generate locations inside of the Neutral Area, using Unreal Engines built-in Environment Query System (EQS).

Interacting with interactables

The AI can also interact with interactable objects as long as it finds them while wandering around or when you command it to interact with an interactable. Interactable objects are defined by adding the interactable ident component to any type of blueprint.

Interacting with points of interest (POI)

Interacting with POI´s is always the first thing the AI does as long as there are POI´s in the neutral area. The AI will get all points of interest in the Neutral Area and select a random one. It will then move to that selected POI and perform the corresponding interaction logic, stored in the POI´s Ident component. After interactin with the POI the AI will perform the other idle behaviors.

Points of interest can be all sorts of things, for example a fishing spot, where the AI will play some fishing animations, a bank to sit on for a while or a bed to sleep in.

Interacting with a POI

Interacting with an Interactable

AI Wandering

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