BRAINS - Brighter Radiant AI for NPCs by Syclonix (working title)

Progress: 25% complete
Release Date: When it's done.

Description:
There are a lot of great mods that add new creatures and enemies to Oblivion like http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=15256and http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2518, and there are also really great mods that add new combat systems to Oblivion like http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=24936, http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=8273, and http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=20163. BRAINS aims to achieve something completely different, but complementary to these mods by endowing NPCs (and creatures) with intelligence to think for themselves in battle (although it works perfectly fine without these mods).

Tired of townsfolk thinking they can take on Daedra with their bare hands? Tired of guards picking fights with mudcrabs when there are bigger threats in front of them? Tired of suicidal rats still attacking you? Tire no more. This mod aims to breath new life into the same old fights by giving every NPC (and creature) you encounter BRAINS. Instead of NPCs attacking the first thing they see, they will observe their surroundings, work together, and assess the combat situations they are in. Here are some planned features for the mod:

Features:

• NPCs will now become aware of who their allies are as well as their opponents. They will not be stupid enough to get themselves into situations where they will be killed.
  
• NPCS will instinctlivey know whether they will win or lose a battle. They will take into account their opponent's weapons, armor, magic abilities, etc. before deciding to engage them in combat.
  
• NPCs can switch targets and will decide who to attack based on different combat strategies.
  
• Allies will work together to execute different combat strategies.
  
• NPCs will take into account their opponent's combat styles (melee, ranged, magic)
  
• Unarmed/disarmed NPCs will try to find a weapon, unless they are more proficient in hand to hand combat
  
• When outmatched, some NPCs will call out for help and flee into the walls of a city.
  
• When outmatched, some NPCs will flee to their homes or shops and lock the doors so their pursuers cannot get to them.

Screenshots:

• http://idreamdesign.com/misc/oblivion/BRAINS-screenshot-01.jpg
  
• http://idreamdesign.com/misc/oblivion/BRAINS-screenshot-02.jpg
  
• http://idreamdesign.com/misc/oblivion/BRAINS-screenshot-03.jpg

Comments / Suggestions:
Please give me your input for this mod! It is in the early development stages now so it will be much easier to add/change features now than later.
Also, I need help determining what factors / formula determines how one NPC matches up to another. In particular I would like help measuring the damage per second for NPCs who switch between spells and melee, or spells and ranged.

EDIT: BIG Thanks to all the gurus on the TESCS forums for answering my endless questions, esp. shadeMe

Good idea, we could totally use something like this in Oblivion! How about T.H.I.N.K.? Tactical Help for Intelligent NPC Kombat? I just thought of that and felt like it down in a comment
INSTNCTS sounds better as a name than BRAIN, in my opinion. Good luck with this!

CC

How about a feature to prevent the whole guard company from attack a single lvl4 target ? Like the name and the idea. A few points :

Unarmed/disarmed NPCs will try to find a weapon, unless they are more proficient in hand to hand combat : It think this feature is present in the vanilla game
> When outmatched, some NPCs will call out for help and flee into the walls of a city - Low confidence NPCs do this, only they look for the nearest guard. Tis could be exploited to some extent.
> When outmatched, some NPCs will flee to their homes or shops and lock the doors so their pursuers cannot get to them. - Not really effective when the pursueers are NPCs, as actors can use locked doors AFAIK.

Lots of luck - I hope this turns out to as good at you say it is.

Oh god, I hope this becomes everything it could be. This would be awesome.

I voted for INSTNCTS, btw. The problem with BRAINS is that the idea of an acronym is at least partially to make it easy to search for the mod - but the word "brains" probably will come up in threads unrelated to this mod. "INSTNCTS", most likely, will not.

@DragoonWraith: Thanks! I hope so too.



lol she was level 19 ..but I'll add that to the to-do list.


Funny, I've never seen NPCs try to pick their weapons back up when I disarm them?maybe because I kill them too fast hehe
Also, does the NPC looking for a guard happen outside the city as well? They always seem to just run around in circles and cower when I hit them.
And I didn't know NPCs can travel through locked doors they don't own?well so much for that. At least the player will be locked out.

I really want to see this finished. The stupid AI always drove me insane. Like really why would they send 15 gaurds after a lowly lvl 2 just because he accidentally hit a guard by shotting an air straight up in the air. (Happened a long time ago, I shot an arrow randomly in Bravil and a few minutes later a guard comes running over with an arrow in his chest. Then a whole bunch of his buddies came, I died.

Fair enough A generalized form of that feature would be : Whenever NPCs enter combat, they evaluate if their combat target is already engaged in combat. If yes, check if the number of actors that are engaged in combat with the target, would be sufficent to finish the job. If yes, stopCombat; else, enter combat.


. NPCs pickup any disarmed equipment right after they are disarmed. If an NPC finds him/her self without a weapon, and has a skill set that prefers the use of one, he/she will pick up the nearest weapon. Note that this ( AFAIK ) happens only while in combat.
. Dunno about that but I think it should, if the NPC is able to acquire a guard reference within the acquire distance
. Well, I know for a fact that atleast guards do.


:rofl: Yet another thing that can happen with RAI !

There shouldn't be any need for this mod because gamesas should have done it right the first time. So I appreciate you taking the time to correct one of their many mistakes and add to a collection of great mods, as this is sure to be.

And I chose BRAINS because it sounds mushy.

It'd be cool if you could reduce friendly fire with bows, and how NPCs react to it. It's way too easy to pick a fight with some guards, have one that's hanging back shoot the one right in the back that's on you with a sword, and having all the guards suddenly turn on each other . One time I saw a guard chasing a rat all over town firing his bow at the tiny target and missing again and again, occasionally hitting random NPCs and eventually having the whole district out to kill him.

Seconded.


I was about to suggest "Intelligent NPC Selective Targeting Including Nifty Combat Tactics" to make it properly INSTINCTS, but poor spelling as a search facilitator is a compelling argument.

BRAINS really is a pretty fluid and clever name, but I'd like B.R.A.I.N. - "Better Radiant AI for NPCs" more.

Very good idea. I hope you can make it a reality.

This sounds like a good idea, although Radiant AI does bring NPC schedules into the game, when in combat, it still is not anything close to as good as people hoped, a mod like this will make it more satisfactory.

One thing I would like to see is, if NPCs attempt to flee from combat, instead of just leading you across Cyrodiil (or the particular structure your in if your in an interior.) I'd like to see them go looking for help, for example if you're exploring a dungeon, fighting bandits and one of them isn't strong enough to have a chance at survival, instead of just running away, that character should go looking for other bandit, and either take refuge where they are, or come back to your last known location with help.

Also, if NPCs attempt to flee from combat, I'd like to see combat end there, in other mods where enemies can attempt to flee if they're losing, the combat music often still continues to play and actions that can't be performed in combat are still impossible to do, this annoys e, and hopefully, it can be avoided in this mod.

this looks awesome. I always get tired of the stupid vintner in skingrad fighting to the death (his) with roaming bears in his vineyard - you are not up the task go find some guards they have weapons, armour and training.
Good luck!
Pacific Morrowind

Finally, about time they got some neuro-organs.
It's preposterous that every npc you attack or gets attacked will fight it's opponent.
And wh?n they flee, they just run blankly into some objects.(therefor,'running into the city walls gave me a laugh...').

Will this somehow be able to fix the vanilla guard massacres?
e.a. A couple of guards attacks a thief, one shoots the other in the butt, the other kills the one for it, and so other guards rush on in to start an endless cycle.

Good luck on this, it's needed!

Of the two names at the top, I'd go with INSTINCTS because it is more descriptive to me. I simply don't know what Radiant AI means.

Then again, I'm not a fan of long acronyms for names either, but I admit that I'm a very dull person.

I'm really really looking forward to this even more than I look forward to UV.

A few ideas
allies utilize equipment from the dead based upon their stats. (A mage wouldn't be using heavy armor)
allies heal each other.
More intelligent usage of spells( maybe not using a one with a 25 foot area damage amongst allies),

I voted for B.R.A.I.N.S, cause that?s what missing most in OB right now. You can only use so much armors, weapons, landscapes and other eye-candy; having actors react at least a bit like intelligent beings would be so refreshing! So, very much looking forward to see this come true. :goodjob:

Imo, what BRAINS stands for seems too much like a Radiant AI overhaul, which this really isn't.
INSTNCTS would therefore do better as combat-orientated-mod-name (IMO once again).

Instincts sounds like a winner to me too.

Another feature I wouldn't mind seeing, if NPC's in dungeons calling out for help if they get into a fight they think they cannot win. Or, if the fight is going badly for them...... Should they choose to run away, they should be sure to tell their buddies along the way that the big bad Man is coming, and they should help him kill them.... If you can figure the number of opponents involved..

This looks truly awesome, and I am definitely going to get this on release.

I voted for BRAINS because INSTNCTS was not spelled properly... maybe go with tejon's suggestion or keep your acronym but add a little i, INSTiNCTS...

But no matter what you call it, god I hope it works, and soon! :bowdown:

[edit, typos in a comment about spelling :facepalm:]

Or an apostrophe! INST'NCTS is two four-letter searches, still good.

This is something I encountered a couple days ago in pure vanilla OB. I was doing the Anvil mage's guild initiation quest. (if you don't know, what it is, two battle mages follow you just off the sides of the road, an NPC tries to ambush you from off the side of the road, and the two battle mages jump the NPC.) Well, I was doing that, and the NPC jumped at me, the two battle mages jumped that NPC, and then a passing mounted guard jumped off and proceeded to kill the two battlemages. This happened like 4 times over and over as I kept reloading 'cause I felt bad since they were dying and the soldier was an idiot. Would this make the soldier smart enough to not kill them?

I voted brains 'cause I didn't like "instncts" being spelled wrong, but after reading tejon's post and see that as an alternative you should definitely go with INSTiNCTS

I would just kill the soldier and do Natural Selection a favor.

Great idea, as any thing that makes the NPCs behave in a more believable way is a natural 20 for me.

I love this idea. If I go into a city with full Deadric and start swinging, people should be hauling ass out'a there, not rushing at me with a kitchen knife.