When creating AI for video games, one of the most important aspects is its placement. As we discovered previously, the position of the AI character can completely change his behavior and future decisions. In this chapter, we'll be exploring how the environment of the game can influence our AI and how he should be using it properly, in-depth. This will cover a wide range of game genres with different map structures such as open world, arcade, and racing.

As a player, we like to have a vivid world to explore, with many things to do, and interact with. As a game developer or game designer, that generally means a lot of work because everything that the player is able to interact with has to be carefully planned and executed the right way, to avoid bugs or any other unfortunate distractions from the gameplay. The same goes for the AI characters that we are creating. If we allow the character to interact with the environment, that requires a lot of work, thought, planning...