Ai

[Crash]

From the interviews that were given about the artificial dumbne^Wintelligence in TQ I expected to be in for quite a treat.. however I just came upon something which reminded me of the AI level back in the early 90ies..

Problem:
- you're trying to beat the centaur chieftain
- you're playing with a level 6 hunter.. which basically means you're playing a baby that can at best spit a little at its enemies.
- you don't want to spend a lot of potions in that fight

Solution:
- Abuse the primitive AI:

As most players will know by now you can lure the centaur chieftain away from his fellow centaurs and go 1-on-1 with him. Now just lure him away a bit further. At some point he will turn back and let you go. With a bit of experimenting you can find the exact line where he will turn back and equipped with a little bow you can now play the following mini-game:

- shoot an arrow at the chieftain
- walk over the magic line which makes his brain go off and he forgets being angry about you and your arrows and goes back
- walk over the line again to switch his brain back on

Repeating this gives you a flawless victory against the 'boss' as long as you can deal him a bit of damage with an arrow.. I assume that this 'magic line' is the borderline of two maps which were connected there.. nevertheless this is not something I expect from a 2006 game !

[SteelPoet]

Agreed. The AI could use a little bit of a brain boost. They should try to flank me or healing themselves or something. They seem to lack all self-preservation.


Here's what I'd like to see. You're stronger than the enemy. The enemy detects that and flees to grab more of his buddies to help try and bring me down.

I face a baddie that's equal my strength or stronger. He says screw it and trys to take me on himself.

[unreal_az]

So what happens if you lure him all the way to the encampment?
I think this depends how everybody plays the game.
I also webbed him atacked him from distance with my hunter.
I think they implemented a range as in warcraft so you wouldn't lure him to far away.
By the way try that with an archer boss.

[Nezerv]

I dont agree that the AI sucks. ALL Games have hit and run tactics, nwn, d2, TES4: Oblivion, TES3: Morrowind, etc etc etc. It's a thing that you can't really 'balance' out or make smoother. The AI in this game could be awhole lot let worse then what it is at the moment.

[SteelPoet]

I'd like to see the enemies show some self-preservation. Run when they know I could slaughter them.

At the very least the enemy who carry weapons should block.

[Majpain]

Eh my hunter is alright.Could have made him better.I mean I can only do about 35+ damg with him which sucks.I need a bow thats part of the problem.I used about 5 pots when I first killed the chief.

[Crash]

Originally Posted by SteelPoet

I'd like to see the enemies show some self-preservation. Run when they know I could slaughter them.

At the very least the enemy who carry weapons should block.

Considering you can beat every single one of them they all run away into the last corner of the map where you have to battle hundreds of them? Intelligent behavior is more than just reactions.

As for luring the chieftain back to the camp I wouldn't consider that a good AI either. I don't say make him follow you everywhere, but make him intelligent. If you had an army at your disposal would you walk into the enemy's encampment?

Basically I have to say that I did not yet witness intelligent behavior. I remember the devs talking about how the enemies behave different every time they spawn due to various circumstances. However all I found them doing is attacking depending on their weapons. If it's a bow they'll stand there and shoot, if it's not they run at you and die.

There are very few events when they will not run at you, which look very scripted to me. The first centaur camp in Helos for example. When you walk there for the first time a bunch of satyrs runs back to their camp. Ok good.. they saw me.. they went back and gathered there for my attack.. oh wait.. the scripting is done.. let's lure them out of the camp again in bunchs of two or three.

Don't get me wrong. I'm still all fond of the game and will buy the full version too. I just expected a bit more.. maybe it gets better in later parts of the game, but then again the AI definitely isn't that important to a game like TQ.

[SteelPoet]

On the top of bow enemies.
When you melee a bowman...they should put away their bow and take out some sort of melee weapon. No bowman with any brains would keep trying to hit you with a bow at close range.

[Tjukkie]

guess they don't have a melee weapon with them, only a ranged one

[Aron]

I like to see the player who constantly switches from bow to melee weapon if enemies come to close.