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smarter enemies?


stars2heaven

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I wasnt even sure how to go about looking for this to see if its already been done since I dont know what it would be called other than the obvious. Anyways, I hate it how some npc's behave during a fight. Best to give examples.

 

1. when you are on a high rock/place where nothing can reach you and you start shooting arrows or spells at your opponent it would seem like any normal person would try to find cover, or atleast back off until he could reach you again.

 

2. In a cave FULL of bandit/raiders/wizards or whatever it seems strange that NONE of them notice when their friends slowly start to go missing (if you are the sneaky type). And those patrolers? They walk right past their dead friends and never raise an alarm...

 

3. A group of fighters should always try to surround you. Or atleast the one(s) you arent focusing on at the moment should try to get behind you. It's just good tactics. (This usually ends up happening anyways.)

 

4. I never see any npc's using ranged attacks while running backwards. They usually just run away until they are at a safe distance and shoot again. But I can do it, so why dont they? It might be interesting to see an npc try to slow my movement rate and then kite me.

 

5. I usually try to fight without companions and I rarely summon, but if I do, it would be interesting to see an enemy who is suddenly outnumbered try the same things I would to minimize damage. (Backing up against a wall, or moving into a narrow space so that fewer enemies could reach, or employing calm spells, or other spells that deal with crowd control)

 

I bet I could come up with more if I took the time. Oh, and i certainly realize that some of these things would require a level of AI that is probably well beyond what Oblivion is capable of. Though it would still be nice to have some smarter enemies!

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Maybe in TES V. The AI just can't handle most of this. Unfortunately scripting wouldn't solve much either as once combat starts the AI just uses a combat style to determine movements and will ignore almost everything else. As far as combat styles go, although it looks complicated, most of the changes don't really amount to much other than triggering an attack, block, move to side, move to new range, or approach target action.

 

However, some of these things can be done, they just have to exist within very specific and coordinated encounters. My Halloween mod features some semblance of this as the boss will switch from a melee posture to a ranged posture if the player climbs up on any of the platforms. But yeah, it's very limited.

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You are right, and I think Ive given myself some ideas that I may be able to incorporated into my mod Im working on.

 

I can imagine an npc with a limited number of spells, spells that slow or hault your movement, who uses ranged attacks exclusively. If he tries to keep a distance from you for a time, while regularly casting those spells, it could simulate an npc trying to kite you.

 

Somewhat more complex (alot more complex), but I can also imagine a dungeon full of npcs with scripts that trigger certain variables in a script upon death. If certain conditions are met within that script, hiding could become much more difficult. For example: If Bandit A is dead when Bandit B reaches a certain x marker or point (he could be a patrol or a gaurd replacement running his AI script) then certain results from the script could play out.

 

More torches could be lit by the npcs as a result, more guards and patrols put on, npcs could become a little tougher since they make themselves better equiped for a fight. Guards/patrols start going in pairs instead of by themselves, etc.

 

So yeah, some of these probably can be done in specific instances. Would be cool to see them done. I may actually find a use for these myself.

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