@firedrakes said:
its hard to make smart enemy ai and also very resource hog
Yeah it probably can be if taken to a certain level. But I think the real "issue" is on how big of an undertaking it is for designers and programmers to push that aspect forward. And the more complex behavior you introduce, the more things can go wrong. End up with unintentionally comical scenarios or instances that just make your game look broken. Of course we already have that with lots of games, just assuming the issues would become more frequent and severe. Not to say it's an impossible undertaking to bring game AI to a new level, but that there's an exponential curve to it. The more complexity you introduce, the more you have to trouble shoot and tweak and it becomes a development time/money pit. And that's just to get consistency in the enemy/npc behavior you think you want, still might not translate to an enjoyable play experience when tested.
Ironically, it might be tools based on real AI that help iron out the design/development process for better game AI in the coming years lol.
-
That being said, not like smart or realistic game AI is something to be desired in a lot of cases. Imo the best game AI is AI that properly facilitates the designers goal and the players enjoyment. And that can be relatively simple, or at least far from smart/realistic. Like two of the mentions in this thread, MGSV and Doom Eternal. Far from anything you would consider intelligent. But MGSVs AI services the stealth/action sandbox very well, providing direct tension and challenge when needed, but also flexible enough to allow for unintended scenarios to crop up and room for players to experiment. Doom Eternal, much more simple, but achieves its goals even better. Forcing the player to master their mobility, prioritize targets on the fly, and to a lesser degree (more on the enemy design itself), make split second decisions on the best tool for the job. And most importantly to keep it moving at all times.
I'd personally look to both of those as some very good AI this gen, but it's more about their design and how they fit into the bigger picture than it is about them being highly sophisticated "realistic" systems.
Not to say some genres/games wouldn't greatly benefit from massive improvements in AI, there are some that absolutely could. Just think that for most it's not necessary, and that proper design overrides having a complicated technical back end.
Shit, this was meant to be a short post lol.
Log in to comment