Need help making enemies that roam freely.

[surreal mulch]

so I'm extremely new to the Godot engine and game development in general. I've followed two tutorials by the youtuber Brackeys, and since then I've been trying to learn the engine.

but anyways, I'm trying to make a 3D survival horror game. Right now I have a Whitebox level and a player character (prototype controller by Brackeys), next I wanna make a prototype enemy that will roam the level and chase the player when spotted. I've followed a tutorial using the NavigationRegion3D and NavigationAgent3D nodes, but with no success. how would I program a free roaming enemy that chases the player?

[merry nebula]

State machine?

State machine would help you with everything I suppose

[azure agate]

What does "no success" mean? Does the enemy not even move?

[surreal mulch]

What is a state machine?

[surreal mulch]

Yeah, It just doesn't move. I'm still new to programing, so I couldn't understand what the problem was or even how to fix it.

[merry nebula]

I would recommend to watch so state machine videos and tutorials, these are industry standards for npcs and characters

[azure agate]

You don't need to think about state machines if it won't even move.

[merry nebula]

Good thing that moving will also be talked about when following a tutorial on state machines 🙂

[azure agate]

Add a NavigationRegion3D with a nav mesh
Add a child MeshInstance3D. Set it as a large plane at walk height.
Click NavigationRegion3D and in the 3D window, click the bake button.

Give a RigidBody3D a NavigationAgentChild. Attach the following script to the RigidBody:

var speed = 5.0
var target =  Vector3(50, 0, -50) :
    set(value):
        target = value
        $NavigationAgent3D.target_position = value
func _ready():
    $NavigationAgent3D.target_position = target

func _physics_process(_delta):
    var pos : Vector3 = $NavigationAgent3D.get_next_path_position()
    linear_velocity = global_position.direction_to(pos) * speed

Then you just change the target var to change where the rigidbody is walking to. Spotting a player is a little more complicated, so make sure you can do this first.

[surreal mulch]

Change the target var to where it's walking to?

So like change the X, Y, Z axis in the vector3 code?

[surreal mulch]

I implement the code but I'm getting an error stating "no constructor of vector3 matches the signature". I haven't used vector3 in my project anywhere so it has no reference.

I assume

OH

I see

Yes it's working now

[surreal mulch]

Okay so it's working, so how would I make the player the target? Because it would just go to the coordinates coded into it right?

[merry nebula]

Change the target value to the players location whenever in body range?

[surreal mulch]

I've done that, but it won't follow the player because the player is placed at the world origin, which it can't because the Navmesh doesn't map the center (purposely). Right now i just have it walk to a different point of the map.

[azure agate]

target = PlayerNode.global_position in _physics_process. PlayerNode needs to be a reference to the player node, for testing you can just drag the actual node from the left window into the code. It'd look something like target = $"../CharacterBody3D".global_position

When not following the player, you don't need to update target too often.

[surreal mulch]

Like this?

[azure agate]

No. $"." is itself, the node you are currently writing a script for. You want the player body. You can put @export var player : Node above var speed, and then at the top of the inspector window, there will be a new option to assign the player node.
Then you just do var target = player.global_position

[grizzled brook]

What if you give the enemy a random point to go and make an area if the player enters that area the enemy follows him

You need to learn navigation agent and navigation region