Exploring 'following' and 'attracting' behaviors

Suppose you have to guide an AI Bot from one location to another, but don't want to use a set path or ideal path based on PathNodes. The problems that can occur with having the Bot flexibly follow your position are as follows:

• The Bot can get stuck against geometry and lose its trace on you

• The Bot can block you as it encroaches on your position, in a corner especially

• The Bot may require respawning at its location and this can create a jitter

• The Bot can run out of the level trying to arrive at your location

If a level is flat, free of obstructions, and only needs a short time period, following behaviour will be easier to set up than if it involves climbing, moving obstacles and has interrupted or lengthy following times. Since there will never be a single way that will work in every case, we're going to focus on an example that provides an approach to each of the problems above. It not only requires the Bot to move to the player, but also has...