Flocking

[teuneboon]

I think it can be quite useful to use a flocking(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flocking_(behavior)) algorithm on your ants so they move in groups(which are harder to kill), anyone has ideas on how to implement this?

[ebyrob]

1) assign movements to ants doing something important first.
e.g. exploring, gathering food, defending, patrolling, attacking, etc.

2) calculate distances to all assigned "leader" ant's target locations. sort remaining ants by that distance.

3) starting with closest ants to leader ants move towards the closest leader ant's target location without getting "too close" to any previously assigned ant's target location. equidistant moves should be preferred to moving away unless starting position is already too close. (add each ant to assigned movement list as it's movement is calculated)

Note: It's probably not good to flock to defenders, since that will probably cause squishing up against water and overcrowding at hills.

[RejectCode]

Adding to ebyrob's comment, you will probably want your "leader" ants to hold in their position until they have x number of ants near them. Then when the "leaders" do move the others will be close enough to flock correctly instead of just trailing behind, unless that's what you want - a trail rather than more like a box formation.

[Edit]: Here is a page from the guy who (i think) originally came up with the idea of flocking in AI, he calls the creatures boids: http://www.red3d.com/cwr/boids/