the other day i just notice a really big problem, in oblivion, as everyone speaks with you and the game is fully voiced, a npc speaked to me about how he really hated the other npc, but guess what, that other npc was less then a feet way from me, meaning that he could hear everything!! then i stoped the conversation and they started to talk about goblins, like if nothing happened! this is not a topic about "how i want the AI to be better" , i want the npcs to care, if the npcs they want to talk about is on their side, they shouldn't talk about them! he should tell me to talk to him latter or somenthing, its just stupid, maybe because we freezed the time when talking to npcs in oblivion, i hope bethesda remenber about this at least


SORRY FOR MY BAD INGLISH ! :spotted owl:

So in other words, you want better AI

Concidering conversations no longer freeze the game, other NPC's might take offence to an NPC's comments.

Yeah it was pretty bad, I think Bethesda was just not ready to deal with it at this time, perhaps even still it may be a bit too hard to implement but I think we will have it by TES VI at least

there's not much known about the new AI yet but conversations will be in real time and NPC should react to things you do (like fight about stuff you drop) so we can just hope for the best!! but I'm looking forward to better conversations..

And I hope they recognise partners as well as friends and backstabbers - why would you tell your husband about where to buy potions?! He already knows because he lives in the same place as you! :banghead: Grrrr....

lol yea
but not in the generic " duh i want ai to be good" , thats somenthing specific, that would make a diference and that no ones talk about!

I would like any one to name a game where the ai allowed npcs to react dynamicly based on what they hear others say when they are near or not. thats hardly an issue with TES games, rather just an issue with rpg npc's in general.

Pretty much what it sounds like. I'm not certain whether NPCs will react to other NPCs talking about them or not, but it does leave open the possibility for more logical reactions. And this wouldn't be the first time Oblivion has been criticized for the AI not handling conversations very well, though mostly NPC conversations. It was a nice idea to have NPCs have conversations with each other, but in practice, the execution could at times produce very ridiculous conversations.



I can't name any. Obviously, there are prescripted conversations like this, but I've never seen it handled dynamically before, so perhaps a better solution would be to have the game detect whether an NPC in question is within a certain distance during the conversation, and prevent any dialog speaking ill of that person being mentioned if he is entirely. Of course, if conversations don't pause time, this doesn't prevent the NPC from walking over and coming within earshot when the line has already started.

how do you know?
maybe he forgot

but I think they should specific more personal conversations, maybe not when you're there, but if you're unseen, maybe they can talk about how bad the girl's sammich making skills are

if they stablish i radius around the npc, and the topic they want to talk about is only enabled when the npc is out of this radius, i seriously doubt thats impossible to be done.. maybe they don't care, or don't think about it, or forget that issue, the only problem with that, is if the npcs moves alot in and out of the radius , then, they should make that npc static, or get him busy, at least for the time we talk about him with the other npc, if we talk to him about that topic while the other npc is on that radious, then he will ask to talk latter.

not saying that its a bad idea. i was just pointing out that its not fair to say that the quality of npc's was pore based on this information, when there isn't any other game that has npc's that behave better in that situation.

It can be much worse, far worse. http://193.213.26.182/vbftplk/ScreenShot24.jpg.
Probably one of the most surreal scenes in a computer game,

because in most rpgs they never talk bad things about npcs in their side, they talk bad things about people that are tied to a house(can't leave or don't leave at all) meaning that he is far way from the conversation, oblivion probaly is the only game i saw with this problem

Ive played a few that had a situation just as described, there was no reaction. there are no rpgs that do any thing to adress the situation that was described.

yea. your right.... until now....

? why. there hasn't been enough information released about skyrim ai to make that judgement yet. (if your suggesting that skyrim will solve the problem with npc's)

I'm not sure whether it was in the podcast or in another interview with TH I read, but I'm pretty sure it was mentioned that npc's can overhear and react to others conversations. I'm not sure if this only applies to conversations that you're involved in, or if it means an npc can eavesdrop on two other npc's convos in real time. Anyone know?

well.. im not suggesting anything, i said till now there is no came without that issue right? im not saying skyrim will solve that problem, im just saying that, till today, your right, who knows what will happen tomorrow.. everything is unpredictable

Apathy is death.

I was going to mention the comical "dead body laying in the street and barely getting any attention" behavior.

Hey.. that happens in real life. Maybe he didn't see the other guy at first, then quickly tried to change the subject to goblins to avoid an awkward moment. Or, he knew the other guy pretty well and was just joking around. Maybe the AI is smarter than you think.

The guards say, may he rest in peace and check for pulses, but that's about it (the hunters also check for a pulse on a dear and say "by the god's, he's dead" which is weird though) Todd said that Radiant AI has been 'fixed' so hopefully we will see more realistic interactions

When Oblivion was released, the consoles were new, and there wasnt a lot of time for the developers to know what they had to work with.
This is why the AI wasnt all that it was said it would be.

I read this rather amusing article where it was explained one of the reasons they had to tone AI down.
It had to do with the player getting into a fight with a peaceful NPC. The NPC left the room. Only to return a short while later to attack the player. What had happened was that the AI 'knew' there was a good weapon in a nearby location, and it had gone to get it.
If I could remember where I read it I would link, but I dont. It was in an interview and the question was something along the lines of: What amuses you when you have to solve bugs/ odd AI.

But Skyrim is developed for the same generation of consoles, and that technology is understood much better now.
Because the level of AI in oblivion was under what they would have liked even at that time, I have no doubt that its one of the main issues they adressed for the next installment.

I think Skyrim AI is going to be revolutionary and introduce a new game standard.

Ahhh, TES VI..... I will die a happy person if it is set in Summerset Isle.

Question, would you guys who play Morrowind like to see text messages at the bottom of the screen for in-game dialogue? Not the ones that you click on, but the gentle ones. The game is still going while this is happening. I'm thinking of using that for modding. It allows time to still go and you would just have to make it clear who is talking in the text message.

I have this wondrous inability to not care about the feelings of NPC's ingame. I can't for the life of me, become emotionally invested in beings which exist only as pixellated representations of a fantasy world.