What are the odds we can get a decent combat AI overhaul?

[CAKEPWNER]

I was never a raging fan of the combat AI in either FNV or Fallout 3. The AI combat reaction range is abysmally short, their chase/search range is abysmally short, they seem to have a thing for standing in the open when in combat, and they're just not very impressive overall. I'm not saying the combat AI is totally broken because it's not, but it's what I would call "functional". It works, and that's about where it ends.

 

There have been attempts to address this so it's not like modifying the combat AI is impossible, see Enhanced NPC Awareness and Combat Enhancer for examples. However, both of those have notable shortcomings, glitches, and neither reached a finished state.

 

What I'm wondering here is what does the community think the possibility is of herding a couple modders into such a project long enough to see it through to a finished, polished state? This is the one area that was never adequately addressed by the mod community and thus left one of the most impactful areas of the game falling short compared to all the glitch fixes, content add-ons, and graphical overhauls. You can completely redo essentially every aspect of both FNV and Fallout 3 except the lackluster combat AI.

 

Honestly I'd do it myself if it weren't for the fact that I hate the GECK. I've tried making mods before and I'll admit that even trying to implement something seemingly simple can turn into a headache, but I'm failing to see why experienced modders couldn't pull this off given that others have already shown that changes can be made in this area.

[Radioactivelad]

Bethesda's engine is actually terrible for making open-world games; there's not much you can do to improve their ability to look for or engage an enemy at great (or even moderate) distances without some heavy scripting. I think the infamous B42 project was attempting to do that.

 

As for why various Combat Style and "Combat AI" mods never truly help; the fact of the matter is they're only addressing part of the problem.

To my knowledge, no Combat mod has ever modified the Navmesh of any cells, which contains information that tells npcs where cover is and how they should use any given instance of cover.

[CAKEPWNER]

Bethesda's engine is actually terrible for making open-world games; there's not much you can do to improve their ability to look for or engage an enemy at great (or even moderate) distances without some heavy scripting. I think the infamous B42 project was attempting to do that.

 

As for why various Combat Style and "Combat AI" mods never truly help; the fact of the matter is they're only addressing part of the problem.

To my knowledge, no Combat mod has ever modified the Navmesh of any cells, which contains information that tells npcs where cover is and how they should use any given instance of cover.

 

Yeah, I'm consistently surprised by some of the choices Beth made with their game engines. For being a AAA studio with loads of professional talent they sure have a habit of making absolutely mind-boggling design choices.

 

Good point on the navmeshing, that would likely need some work. It's amazing how much of this game is still broken all these years later.

 

Regardless, this still doesn't appear impossible but I could be wrong. It would certainly require scripting but I don't see where that stops anything from happening. Hexef claims he could fix up his mod with some scripting and that there's nothing stopping him besides not wanting to bother.

 

Just a wonder that there hasn't at least been a fleshed out light-weight AI improvement mod. I don't think a deep, ground up overhaul is necessary, some tweaks to just make the AI a little less dim feeling would be great.