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Re: JA2 AI main faults[message #101162]

Wed, 14 April 2004 03:34

KIA

Messages:92
Registered:November 2002
Location: Virginia (USA)

Well, I read a game designer who said something to the effect of "It's easy to create AI which will kill the player every time. It's much harder to create AI which operates with some errors so the player has a chance of winning." So, yes, it would be possible to create enemies who are set at specified locations with big guns who are camoflauged and on "defensive" so they can ambush your mercs and chop them into bits. It requires scripting (like Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights etc.) to make them do more complicated actions. So are we talking about implementing (or standardizing) a scripting language for the enemy or are we talking about upgrading AI for individual enemies? If that's the case, there ought to be an enemy review process along the following lines:

Enemy checks range to mercs
Enemy checks his weaponrange / percenttohit
Enemy checks for other enemies in vicinity / status and weighs same(i.e. critical or fleeing is not worth as much as strong or excellent)
Enemy calculates possible net effectiveness of Enemy attack
Enemy checks for number of mercs in sight
Enemy checks for visible armament of mercs
Enemy checks merc weaponrange / percenttohit
Enemy calculates net effectiveness of Merc attack
Enemy decides whether he can win a firefight with the visible mercs
If nowin situation, Enemy flees to safety and calls for help
If possible win, Enemy checks for cover he can use and moves to cover to improve odds
If probable win or no cover nearby Enemy opens fire

It seems to me it would be difficult to implement "collective action" in squad format for enemies unless they have a way of communicating to each other. So what you need to implement is a set of universal commands, i.e. "Rally Here" "Attack There" "Regroup over there" Question: who can make that decision? Well it needs to be made collectively based upon overall strength and position of forces (and last known positions, too). So the macro command would need to be calculated each round in a fluid fashion - but this isn't terribly realistic unless the enemy all have headsets. One alternative is to develop "characteristics" for enemies, i.e. "Leader" "Dumb Grunt" "Smart Grunt" "Coward" etc. Depending on their basic characteristic, the individual enemies could be more or less responsive to macro directions from a leader-type and more or less prone to seek cover. This also has the potential to make far more interesting patrol encounters. A patrol of "Smarts" with a couple of leaders could be very bad news as they coordinate an effective attack. A patrol of cowards without a leader would be much more prone to flee or hide individually without effective group support. Finally, picking off leader types will have a tactical effect as the enemy gets less and less effective.

One last thing. I agree that waves of enemies won't improve gameplay. But having large sectors where - get this - enemies aren't all alerted every time a pin drops, would allow some stealth missions from necessity. A six-man squad really can't hope to take out a 100-enemy stronghold. But they could, if they were careful and using silent weapons, break into the commander's office and steal some documents... So we must implement better enemy alert status. There should be multiple stages of alert, with different detection radii which drop over specific amounts of time.

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[Message index]

		JA2 AI main faults By: Yukinio on Mon, 12 April 2004 22:19
		Re: JA2 AI main faults By: xcorps on Tue, 13 April 2004 03:13
		Re: JA2 AI main faults By: Tyco on Tue, 13 April 2004 03:32
		Re: JA2 AI main faults By: Yukinio on Tue, 13 April 2004 08:11
		Re: JA2 AI main faults By: Snap on Tue, 13 April 2004 11:30
		Re: JA2 AI main faults By: Denwad on Tue, 13 April 2004 16:46
		Re: JA2 AI main faults By: Tyco on Tue, 13 April 2004 18:33
		Re: JA2 AI main faults By: Snap on Tue, 13 April 2004 19:37
		Re: JA2 AI main faults By: Harper on Tue, 13 April 2004 19:39
		Re: JA2 AI main faults By: Snap on Tue, 13 April 2004 19:41
		Re: JA2 AI main faults By: Tyco on Tue, 13 April 2004 21:15
		Re: JA2 AI main faults By: Yukinio on Tue, 13 April 2004 23:13
		Re: JA2 AI main faults By: Kurt on Tue, 13 April 2004 23:39
		Re: JA2 AI main faults By: KIA on Wed, 14 April 2004 03:34
		Re: JA2 AI main faults By: Kurt on Wed, 14 April 2004 05:26
		Re: JA2 AI main faults By: Tyco on Wed, 14 April 2004 07:10
		Re: JA2 AI main faults By: xcorps on Wed, 14 April 2004 12:55
		Re: JA2 AI main faults By: Kurt on Thu, 15 April 2004 00:03
		Re: JA2 AI main faults By: xcorps on Thu, 15 April 2004 02:25
		Re: JA2 AI main faults By: Yukinio on Thu, 15 April 2004 02:48
		Re: JA2 AI main faults By: Kurt on Thu, 15 April 2004 03:54
		Re: JA2 AI main faults By: Yukinio on Thu, 15 April 2004 04:45
		Re: JA2 AI main faults By: Snap on Thu, 15 April 2004 05:42
		Re: JA2 AI main faults By: Snap on Thu, 15 April 2004 06:11
		Re: JA2 AI main faults By: Kurt on Fri, 16 April 2004 22:28
		Re: JA2 AI main faults By: Kaerar on Sat, 17 April 2004 00:28
		Re: JA2 AI main faults By: Snap on Sat, 17 April 2004 05:10
		Re: JA2 AI main faults By: Harper on Sat, 17 April 2004 05:55
		Re: JA2 AI main faults By: Kurt on Sun, 18 April 2004 00:21
		Re: JA2 AI main faults By: Sooner on Sun, 18 April 2004 02:24
		Re: JA2 AI main faults By: Tyco on Sun, 18 April 2004 02:51
		Re: JA2 AI main faults By: chanman on Sun, 18 April 2004 13:22

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