Working on my game, trying to create some interesting tactical AI, pic related.
What game AI has impressed you the most?
What was it that made a lasting impression on you, and how, do you think, it accomplished this?
>>330456868
Supposedly good video game AI people often cite (HECU in Half-Life or FEAR grunts) is generally just smokes and mirrors: scripting mixed with them spelling out everything they do. It looks and feels cool, sure, but it's not exactly good AI per se.
The game that actually impressed me was RtCW. Enemies there did some clever stuff like hiding when reloading, attacking you while you're reloading and throwing back your grenades; though I guess a lot of it is scripting too. Max Payne 3 and its dynamic AI (the more defensive you play, the more aggressive AI gets) was nice too.
Honestly, the most impressive AI is not the one that has the most variables, but rather the one that acts the most sensible.
>What game AI has impressed you the most?
AlphaGo
>>330457317
OP here, I agree about the smoke and mirrors type pre-scripted AI (especially when it comes to visually impressive AI tricks) being the biggest wow factor.
I'm making a strategy game, however, so actual tactical nuance to AI is more interesting to me now. I've been looking at XCOM2's AI, and though I love the game, it is shamefully simple and predictable.
I want my enemies to be scary because they thoroughly outmaneuver you, not just move to the best position and take the best shot.
Still looking too shitty for webms, but at the moment a Strategic AI does a hell of a job kiting the player, breaking los after attacking, and trying to draw the player towards traps or reinforcements.
>>330458160
Oh, I see. If you want to put emphasis on flanking, why not borrow a couple of ideas from Hard West? It did dynamic (yes, even though the game is turn-based) and lethal combat with positioning being vital really well.
>>330458319
I'll take a look! Thanks.
It is closer to FFT than XCOM (grossly oversimplifying) in that flanking and cover aren't the end-all be-alls of combat. The briefly mentioned area cover provides a bonus to anyone standing in it, but slows movement and sometimes opens you up to things like your tall grass being lit on fire.
Linear cover is closer to "traditional" cover, like you see in XCOM, but the bonus scales with both shooter and target distance to the cover (the closer you are to the chest-high wall the more bonus you get, and the less bonus enemies on the other side get, so that two people standing opposite a short fence aren't really penalized in their attacks)
I'm not planning on going crazy with the cover though, I don't want to have to fill my world with suspiciously perfect short walls
>>330459115
>>330456868
Sorry, bud. Good AI just isn't that important.
>>330456868
Sil
Ranged guys are dicks and it's not as easy to bottleneck them if they're not dumb animals
I like a good AI but it bothers the fuck out of me when in RTS games enemy units sit just outside visible or firing range by like 1 pixel. Also when AI is allowed to cheat, or starts with more resources and shit.
http://aigamedev.com/open/review/fear-ai/
meh, this seems somewhat relevant to thread
>>330459115
Honestly, often in games like FFT, having good AI is not actually preferable. Players tend to find it much more fun to be able to learn about odd tendencies the AI tends to have, and predicting their moves even subconsciously. With actually good AI this wouldn't be possible.
Personally, I'm working on a mechanic that has your armor's looks play into how the enemy will react to you, giving the player another variable to play with in their strategies. Imposing-looking armor could be weaker but cause enemies to prioritize attacking other units out of fear, and so on.
>>330456868
I remember that the guy who made the AI for Xenonauts wrote some fairly detailed posts about it, so maybe you could hunt those down.
>>330461831
I agree. I don't want the AI to 'game the system' like knowing exactly how far players can see, or shit like that.
In my case, the enemies are mostly totally different from the players, so putting them on equal footing isn't an option, but I definitely want a boss-fight or tough enemy to be a 'monster-party' that is similar in makeup to the player's current party.
>>330461313
Thank you, looking it up.
>>330462436
Found them, actually.
http://codepoke.net/author/gijs-jan/
What game AI has impressed you the most?
Dying Light.
What was it that made a lasting impression on you, and how, do you think, it accomplished this?
They attack simultaneously. And they dodge cleverly.
>>330462396
I like your mechanic, and you are right, however, I have faith that good players will still be able to pick up on idiosyncrasies of the AI and exploit them. In some cases, smarter DOES mean more predictable, for instance, placing a trap in a particularly juicy position.
One thing I want to do is make the AI only act on what it knows, that is, it won't magically detect party members it hasn't seen, so you can post up a guy with an axe next to a doorway, put a single character in view through the door, and lop off the head of a smart AI who normally would have avoided triggering a reaction.
>>330462246
>>330462974
Thank you!
>>330463039
What makes a dodge clever? (as opposed to dodging not-cleverly, I mean)
>>330463350
I've never really tried it, but technically it shouldn't be particularly hard, should it? Just keep track of which units have been discovered and which haven't, and disregard the ones that haven't in your AI calculations.
>>330456868
I think the Halo games have good ai. FEAR seems like it has good ai, but I think that was mostly them tailoring the maps to the ai so it seemed smart.
>>330463604
>What makes a dodge clever? (as opposed to dodging not-cleverly, I mean)
I dunno. I can't explain it. I just know that the AI often do exactly what I don't want it to do. You can dodge in many direction, but it often chose the worst (for me).
>>330463762
I guess I wasn't clear. It isn't a challenge, it is just something that was important to incorporate in my design, and I already have.
>>330462974
Huh, this is very interesting!
It's also making me feel good because he seems to have a lot of the same ideas about AI that I have!
>>330463796
No, far from good AI to be honest.
Halo has nice gameplay mechanics, that tricked you into thinking it was smart.
For example if you killed the strongest guy in the group first, the others would flee to a specific place and regroup there.
