I am amateur Programmer looking to develop a game. I've decided to use Python and pygame. (I know, there are better options out there, but I really don't know C++ or java that well.) The issue I'm having is that I really have no idea how to create a decent AI. I'm talking about the sort of AI that has monsters move this way at this point, use a bow and arrow at that point, and use a long-range magic attack at another point (yes, its a top-down 2-d fantasy game). I really don't understand how it makes those decisions and how you program it to make those decisions. I've looked around everywhere, and either the resource gets so technical that I can't understand it at all, or it gives me no information whatsoever. I'm hoping someone here can give me some clear suggestions, or at least point me to some decent resources. Right now my bots just sort of wander randomly around the screen...
This is a great book about the topic. It has many examples included which are also explained in the book. The code is C++ but it's pretty straightforward to understand.
Here's a short description about the book taken from Amazon:
"Programming Game AI by Example" provides a comprehensive and practical introduction to the bread and butter AI techniques used by the game development industry, leading the reader through the process of designing, programming, and implementing intelligent agents for action games using the C++ programming language. Techniques covered include state- and goal-based behavior, inter-agent communication, individual and group steering behaviors, team AI, graph theory, search, path planning and optimization, triggers, scripting, scripted finite state machines, perceptual modeling, goal evaluation, goal arbitration, and fuzzy logic.