LE Improved combat AI

[rptb1]

Hi everyone. I love to have some improvements and variety to the combat AI of enemies. My biggest complaint about Skyrim is that it's too easy, and that's mainly because once you've figured out how the enemies behave you can very easily outsmart them and control any fight.

 

I'd like to know if improvements are even going to be possible, or if it's all part of the core engine and can't be touched. Does anyone know?

 

I think things could be improved by more variety in the tactics used by NPCs, even if they weren't any smarter as such. RIght now they all act in an aggressive, fight-to-the-death manner.

 

Here are few improvements I'd like to see. Perhaps we could use this thread to brainstorm more.

 

Please note that although I'm sometimes arguing from a point of realism, my goal is to make the game more fun, difficulty, and interesting to play, not more "realistic". Realism isn't a goal, fun is the goal.

 

1. Fix

:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHbF9ynGZV0

If you damage an enemy from sneak, they should be on alert for a long time, and they should alert other people that there's a sneaker around, so that they all begin to search. There's no way they should simply return to standing around waiting to be shot or stabbed. This will force the player to make better use of their first opportunity, and make clean kills from sneak harder. Perhaps this could be counteracted with the "calm" spell or similar, making the illusion spells more significant. At the moment, sneak has a magical effect on the brains of enemies. There needs to be better modelling of the idea that there's an enemy around somewhere.

 

2. Reaction to dead bodies. Right now it's "I'm going to get whoever did this" and then return to doing nothing. A body of a dead comrade should cause a full alert. . If an NPC encounters a dead body, they should start searching, or go to report it to the boss, or shout for help (and have their shout answered) etc. This will make it necessary to hide bodies or make kills considering who will see them, or force the player to kill or distract someone who's about to discover their handiwork.

 

3. Stuck enemies. Any time that an NPC is unable to move and unable to do damage to you, it should change tactics. Waaaaay too often I end up beating a boss whose just got stuck on some landscape or furniture and can't hurt me (dragon priests are the worst for this). Only the dumbest of dumb animals should stand on the spot while I shoot it.

 

4. Enemies who care about their own lives. When you're fighting you're comparing health bars. If yours is dropping faster than theirs, then you're losing the fight, and you change what you're doing (possibly backing off or running away). The combat AI should do something similar. If an NPC is losing a fight, it shouldn't just keep on keeping on, waiting to die. It should back off, go get help, heal itself, make a desperate move, *something*. Again, it's a question of changing tactics and having more variety of tactics. The survival instinct should be *very strong* for everyone, (except daedra for whom banishment is a minor inconvenience.)

 

5. Factions. There's no way an enemy should be able to magically detect your faction through walls. Say you're in a bandit camp. The bandits will say "is somebody there?" and go on alert if you're nearby, but they ignore each other. How come they're so jumpy? If the sound of footsteps puts them on alert, then they'd be putting each other on alert all the time. They'd have to see you and realize you're not one of them, or react to your behaviour (such as noticing that you're sneaking or have your weapons drawn). What if I wander into Forsworn camp wearing Forsworn gear? Why don't the Stormcloaks or Imperials react to my uniform? Similarly, guards would have to see my face to know I'm a criminal, not just hear my footsteps. These kind of improvements require some modelling of NPC *belief* about what faction you are. There could be a lot of gameplay in that.

 

So, is any of this kind of thing feasible with the kinds of modifications that Skyrim allows?

Edited February 2, 2012 by rptb1