Oblivion AI

[billypnats]

Oblivion boasts its Advanced Radiant AI, which all of you should know what it is.

 

but is it a bit too much, so good that its stupid?

 

So far the only good I've seen is that the NPCs do things like drink, eat, sleep, talk, etc. But that's it. And The AI can significantly reduced performance.

 

So what do you think about it?

[Resonance50]

It really bugs me that even though you can get poison apples your lucky if anyone eats them and if they do it can take days. >:(

[billypnats]

I think Bethesada went overboard with AIs, too complex, too bugged.

[DirTek]

I am ok with the AI...altough it needs much more improvement to be a proper Radiant AI. Also...the combat AI is kinda edgy...needs more improvement here!

 

Cheers :thumbsup:

 

Maafiaman

[Vagrant0]

Actually, the AI we have is a more toned down version of the Radiant AI. It was toned down to prevent NPCs from accidentally killing themselves (stealing from others), and to make certain aspects of the game, like those which were quest related, play out more reliably. The reason why AI might seem so bugged, or take up more resources than it should may be because of this limiting. The actions can't be done, but the processing that was behind it may still be taking place.

 

From a modding and playing standpoint, the AI is an improvement in many respects over the Morrowind one, it's much easier to control where NPCs go, and what they do. And that makes it easier to create small towns and cities that don't look quite so static. This was one of the major let downs of Morrowind, that people rarely moved from where they were, never sat down, never ate/drank. rarely talked to eachother. Having the AI as it is, just makes the game a bit more interesting.

 

That said, the addition of more idle animations might make things a bit better. But as far as that goes, people seem to be more concerned about sexual positions than anything more normal, like chopping wood, washing clothers, cooking, sharpening a weapon, ect. SI came through in some aspects here, but makes any mod which might make use of them within a city, require SI.

[DirTek]

people seem to be more concerned about sexual positions

 

Noticed that too...and...nvm :P

 

anything more normal, like chopping wood, washing clothers, cooking, sharpening a weapon, ect.

 

And that would certainly lead to an improvement. A touch of realism can never hurt Oblivion ;)

 

Cheers :thumbsup:

 

Maafiaman

[Sharkull]

It's OK, not in comparison to real life, but considering that it is a game AI running on a limited level of technology. Sure, combat can become predictable, but as machines become more powerful I expect that more tactical complexity will be developed into games. Yes, more variety in activities would be appreciated (lots of aimless wandering around the cities is odd) but the way things are is certainly enough to provide an adequately immersive environment.

 

For TES:V however, I would expect some significant steps forward: cooking, emptying chamber-pots, fletching, smithing, leather tanning, milling... Basically, the stuff that makes city life possible needs to be done somehow. Add more random NPC travel patterns too (eg. fetch some water when needed, go to the market when you need some food then buy a couple day's supply, wash clothes in the river when they get dirty (timing depends on activities)...). I'd also like to see a slower game clock (not 2 min = 1 hour... make it closer to real time speed).

 

Note: For performance, I find that the AI isn't a bottleneck at all, the video rendering is.

[nosisab]

Hey animation guys, you saw the hints :)

Indeed the standard AI is poor as the scripting is too. Otherwise this opens a broad avenue to modding. Although some ones will refrain using OBSE for requesting the last patches and can't be used with D2D version, this is a hard compromise. Beyond the afore mentioned restrictions nothing prevents using OBSE, and that whom not install OBSE when it can be installed are just limiting themselves.

Since the poll don't says about "standard AI" I can say the game is good to be played as designed, but much more important, it gives the modding community a flexibility beyond anything else I ever saw in another one. For it allows not just creating things for the engine, but allows enhancing the engine itself.

 

PS edit: This is valid even to Morrowind, where MWSE played the same role as OBSE in Oblivion. Just look at what was accomplished with some mods, ranging from children, through rats and cats until masterpieces like the companions mods. A feat someway more amazing the similar here given the really poor vanilla resources there.

 

PS edit 2: Although Morrowind gave more flexibility allowing inter mods communication, this proved being misused, by purpose or not and so Oblivion made this hermetic and while this was good in some ways, 'prevented' that mods integration some modders loath. Even this is about to be past. OBSE is coming with the answers to this in the newer betas and we may expect will be fully implemented in it's core soon. Indeed this could be accomplished since sometime ago with obse plugins like pluggy as example.

 

PS edit 3: Just a 'hint' to think about the possibilities of making mods that includes 'hooks' to planned future ones. Interactions between then, quests can be started depending the presence of others mods and reference then almost so easy as it was from the same mod. In minor scale that integration can be accomplished even between mods where one isn't aware the referencing. The bad news became so just about authoring issues, but I think the community mature enough to do the right thing.

 

Morrowind itself give us a hint of this possibility. Anyone that whenever played the "Big three" as a like name the "Constance - Laura Croft - Morgana" companion mods knows. The girls interacts one with each other depending just the respective mod being present. Most of times in funny ways (Constance is a real troublemaker :) ). It's not coincidence each of those companions being more complex and 'alive' with the "grow" of MWSE as the main supporter.

[Stradian]

I Don't care, I got a god-like pc

 

Nivida Quadro fx 4500

Amd Opteron Processor 252 (2x)

16 Gigs of Ram

 

All in an Ibm Intellistation Apro Case.

 

Yes I officially don't care.

 

(PS Now About the AI. Its all right and all, but the Homing radar Feature of the NPCs has got to go)

[Vagrant0]

Sure, combat can become predictable,

Actually, this is more because Bethsoft didn't really spend the time polishing things off, or make use of standard scripting to change combat styles, or spell lists based on what was happening. The vanilla combat systems can become quite unpredictable, or atleast more challenging if done right. For the most part, as long as an NPC or creature used spells, arrows, or blocked, the AI was good enough for Bethsoft.

 

And as far as normally melee creatures go, you'd be suprised how much just giving them a lesser power which causes damage or some other effect can change how to deal with them. The old "block and wait for an opening" tends to be much less effective since the cast touch animation looks just like the attack animation. And hit, run, circle tactics are always harder to predict.