An Endlessly Adaptive World in Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem

Before Kythera, something as simple as opening a gate presented a full-blown AI programming task. But Wolcen's developers pictured a truly interactive open world – and they wanted to deliver it without extensive, time-consuming scripting. With Kythera’s automatic behavior trees and dynamic navigation, they found the tool they needed to bring their vision to life.

At the heart of Kythera is its dynamic navigation mesh system, which defines the surfaces that players and NPCs can walk on. Design changes to the level instantly redraw the navmesh, with no configuration or pre-processing required, allowing more complex procedurally generated levels to work smoothly. With immediate visual feedback right there in the editor, it couldn’t be simpler to sculpt a fully-functioning world.

Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem  takes on-the-fly design to the next level, with the introduction of procedurally generated worlds. Watch this video to see a generated level take shape – and notice how Kythera seamlessly fills in the navmesh, ready for both players and AIs to move around.

But the benefits don’t end when the level begins, because Wolcen's dynamic navmesh updates even during play. As this drawbridge falls, watch Kythera unleash a host of zombies – completely automatically, with absolutely no scripting required. It adds up to a world of believable, responsive NPCs, seamlessly and effortlessly reacting to changes around them.

That’s not the only complex navigational problem Kythera solves. Thanks to its dynamic obstacle avoidance, NPCs dodge moving roadblocks as naturally as static ones. And when Wolcen's characters approach each other, they each step to the side – whether the scenario is as simple as two sentries crossing paths, or as complex as a warrior finding their way through a jostling pack of foes.