grmblf Posted November 13, 2009 Share Posted November 13, 2009 Doesn't it bother you that every 'bad guy' in Oblivion is actualy a total psycho and suicidal that always will attempt to attack you on sight and that won't care for their own lives until they're are heavily damaged, and maybe not even then? It does bothers me, it makes me feel what I already know: they are completely stupid. As far as I know the only changes that has been made to the AI are either combat moves or guards packages, hence this post. To give you an idea of what I think would be a smarter AI that's what I mean: - a bandit or a necromancer in the entrance of a cave will run inside when he/she spots you to alert his/her mates that you're there, instead of trying to fight you on his own hoping that the others will hear him/you.- a group of bandits attack you, you're injured and then they ask you to pay for your life. They should take from you your most valuable items and not only 100 gold, all your weapons and armor, well, all what they could carry (f you surrender of course).- also giving the AI the oportunity to surrender. You should also be able to ask him whatever you want from him for his life, all his clothing, gold, etc. If you're benevolent and let him go maybe his disposition towards you increases and next time you meet he'll try to convince their mates to leave you in peace. Some others will laught at your face and keep fighting you.- if you approach to a bandits encampment instead of attacking you they ask you rudely to leave and perhaps shot an arrow or two. If you refuse then they take their weapons off and order you to shelter your weapon, drop 100 gold and go away. A little dialogue would be nice. They could halt you 'to talk'. The boss might approach walking slowly to you while the other bandits position themselves behind you. The bandit boss then starts to talk to you and ask you gently to leave all your possessions there and they won't attack you. Of course 99.99% of times you'll fight them but at least it gives some reason for fighting.- enemies surrending on their own, they ask you to not killing them and might offer something. If they don't offer you gold or some valuable object they'll think you're stupid and will attack you next time. If you injuried them well enought then perhaps they'll run away from you on sight, etc.- also the ability to surrender for the player. Some NPCs might be satisfied with a few bottles of wine, some might ask you your soul or all your gold, maybe you could use it as a trick to attack them on their back when they leave with your gold.- make the AI considers the player level. If you're too strong why should a bandit want to die attempting to steal your fortune if he knows beforehand he has nothing to do? they're damn psycho!- make the AI considers your deeds. If you're a high rank in the thieves guild maybe some bandits might show respect to you, the same with the DB, even completing quests from the main quest might scary some apprentice necromancer.- give the player also the ability to halt hostile people to talk to them. If they draw their weapon and say 'ok, come' better be prepared, or maybe they stand there, proving they're not scared of you. If you approach them with your weapon drawn and they spaeks to you with trembling voice to shelter your weapon you might guess they're weak, but perhaps that's only a trick! If they draw their weapons too perhaps they will attack you when you're close enought or maybe they just want to make sure you don't try so, etc. All this could be made with generic dialogues, it would be really nice if you could be friends and chat with them but that's not necessary, assuming the maximum degree of friendship you could achieve with them is being non-hostile and not more is ok. As you can see I don't want NPC's AI to be re-made, this are just a few tweaks to actualy give them an aparent reason to act as psychos, and make them not so suicidal. I know all this is possible, but is something of this feasible? I guess this could be done making some trick with factions and altering some routine packages the AI uses but these are two things I only know the basics about (or maybe even less) so that's why I'm asking here, to know if someone has tried it, if there's a mod covering some of this features, if someone wish to cooperate making this mod or throwing in some tips and clues about techincal procedures, to know if it's even possible, etc, etc, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pronam Posted November 13, 2009 Share Posted November 13, 2009 It will be difficult to adapt that to all. You could take a look at Reneers Guard overhaul, it's somehow similar to what you want to achieve...but just with guards. Half of it would probably have to be done that way. I don't think you'll suffice with 'a few' tweaks though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCP768 Posted November 13, 2009 Share Posted November 13, 2009 Syclonix was working on a "BRAINS" mod which would improve NPC AI. Unfortunately he stopped working on it and released the source code for his work... it'd be great if someone took up the project. As for all of the "surrendering" things. Picador and Kuertee got that part covered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grmblf Posted November 14, 2009 Author Share Posted November 14, 2009 I forgot to mention I'm already using kuertee's NPCs Yield but I didn't know about Picador's Vows and Covenants, that looks amazing! Thanks for the links mate! So now with this both I think the post-combat part is already covered, now the only thing remaining would be actualy make they think twice before attacking you, make they plan their attack on you with some trick and give them some dialogues. But really the silly thing is that even if they would surrender at first chance they will always first attack you. I'll move to their respectives posts because I'm not planning to do it myself, right now I have enought work on the table. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
documn Posted November 14, 2009 Share Posted November 14, 2009 Ha ha, I was about to reply with BRAINS and vows and covanants and NPCs yield, but it looks like everybody is faster than me. I didn't know Syclonix stopped his BRAINS though. I'm interested in seeing how he did it. He also released SHOUT, which I guess was only one small part of the project. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vagrant0 Posted November 14, 2009 Share Posted November 14, 2009 As far as bandits and aggressive NPCs go, yeah, it's possible, it's just not feasible. It's not feasible for two reasons. First, to change anything related to AI, packaging or scripts, you would need to change the actors used in ways that would both conflict with every level overhaul mod that works with NPCs as well making more scripts processed and recorded by the game which might cause minor bloating. Second, to have NPCs who get help from others, you would either need to specifically script that behavior or set it up manually for each dungeon; even when working, it would likely cause many more NPCs to enter combat with the player than the player is capable of handling at once. So, it would end up causing conflicts with mods that most people use, and create a situation that most people not using those mods would not be able to deal with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts