PLEASE help me improve AI......all suggestions welcome. The more the better!

[Vaskez]

Yes two-fifee I understand......these are useful thoughts and I will surely use them. Of course we must remember that the AI code must be simple for it to run effectively and not "lag" causing the character to simply stand motionless while the script reader catches up or react late to a trigger. The difficult part in scripting AI is not the actual language, it's getting all the triggers in there and making them react to different attacks quickly. Ultimately it's always a balance between complexity and speed. :/

[Legolas]

If I'm thinking about this in a logical way, a good AI would be one that:
Makes full use of the npc's strengths
Makes full use of their openent's weaknesses
Minimises their own weaknesses, both personal and for the group
Minimises the oponnent's ability to use his strengths
Does so at all times. When the oponnent changes his tactics, the npc reacts to it.

Am I right so far?

Next you'll have to decide wether or not the NPC is active before seeing (not being seen by) the player. If the NPC is not active, the player will know what to expect. If the NPC IS active, the game will run much slower.

Give each creature a list of it's options in every situation you can think of, putting the most effective options first. Then give it a system that will let it decide what actions will not be as effective even though they are higher on the list, by letting it look at the opposition. Fire resistance will lower Fireball on the priority list as long as the resistance lasts, for example. And don't forget to add a measure of randomness to the mix.

No concrete advice from me just yet, but if you do this you should be busy for at least another week

I'll see if I can think up some more

[Vaskez]

Haha, those are very general things but they make perfect sense...I am incorporating as much of these as I can....read my first post. Of course, it will take more than a week before all the AI is done because new characters will be invented as the story develops and I will do their AI as they turn up. But I can do the individual scripts pretty quickly luckily, I've had quite a bit of practice now.....it's the testing that takes ages.....you gotta test every circumstance

[Neb]

Hey Vaskez, I just want to wish you good luck with the AI, if you can get it to work then it sounds as though it's going to become pretty cool as well as offering a bit more of a challenge than just the normal mindless "Charge Forward And Chop" enemies that have been seen so far.

[Vaskez]

Last bump. I have a bit to keep me going now.

[Memnoch]

Another bump for Uncle Vask.

[Daxziz]

Hehe, you have a good amount of stuff to work on here, mate. Luckily it´s your work... what do u mean with you just toss it over to me?? [img]tongue.gif[/img] j/k.

Anyway people, I hope you will look forward to our MOD. One thing is for sure. It´ll be wicked, and give a new angle to the Infinity Engine.


-Daxziz
Fragile Alliance Co-Lead Developer

[Zbyszek]

Bump.

One thought: mage/cleric cast area spell: cloudkill, earthquake and withdraw. Then can cast fireball if anyone still try to cross that area. (This is what I do fighting parties of NPCs).

Final AI advice (if fight goes wrong): RELOAD

[Vaskez]

quote:

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Originally posted by Zbyszek:
Bump.

One thought: mage/cleric cast area spell: cloudkill, earthquake and withdraw. Then can cast fireball if anyone still try to cross that area. (This is what I do fighting parties of NPCs).

Final AI advice (if fight goes wrong): RELOAD

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Yeah, I'll make sure that if the AI realises that it has done something wrong, it resurrects the whole of its party.

[norompanlasolas]

Hi Vaskez. I think that most of the ideas are ok. But I would be careful to NOT make the AI too good ( I see this from a pen and paper RPG point of view, since thats what I played and directed as DG for almost ten years in almost every system available).

I mean, if you fight a group of orcs or goblins you wouldnt expect them to use perfect tactics, go around retreating and healing, or coordinating attacks and such. Even a goblin shaman is usually too stupid to tell and really dont care for any other than him when it comes to it.

With golems its more of the same. They are not stupid, they are mindless (they follow the orders given to them when created and these cant be too complicated). So they will attack somebody EVEN if they are not doing any damage and they wont be using advanced tactis (beyond pouncing the pc to death, hehe).

Its certainly ok with other groups of adventurers or intelligent baddies like vampires or such. But even then I believe there should be an element of randomness to it (nobody is perfect, after all). The ideas I have seen are VERY GOOD though, and would provide a challenge from the often boring AI of the BG series. Lots of the enemies could make use of it since thats what you would expect from them in a pen and paper RPG (with a human dungeon master). I especially liked the tactics proposed for enemy mages. Having a pc magic user myself and seeing them go down so easy is a frustration even for me.

Another thing you could implement (if possible), is that when in combat and losing, the enemies become un-hostile again (in blue) and try to surrender and talk themselves out of it (of course, those who would do such a thing, like human enemies) by offering gold, or items or information.

Well, that is it I think. Hope it is useful. Bye...