No more classes in Skyrim? Only 18 skills? No spears, crossbows and throwing weapons? Sure, I can live with what...

No more Expansions, only DLC's instead? Skyrim will need Steam? I don't like this but i understand. It's the future of PC games, i think, so i can live with that.

I can't see my legs in 1st person? It's annoying but i can live with what...

Fast Travel and Quest Compass is present again? Sure, I rarely use it anyway, but i prefer a clean compass with only N, W, S and E.

Will we start in prison again? Sure, i like that, it's a TES tradition!

In Skyrim will we have CTD from time to time? I hope not,I sincerely doubt that will not happen, but it's kind a tradition "thing" as well in TES games anyway


But what about COMBAT AI?

We'll see in Skyrim human(oid)s enemies FINALLY cure themselves more than 1,2 maybe 3 times?

I don't rebember lose any 1x1 battle in Oblivion! Why? I have almost ALL ADVANTAGES:
Leveling enemy (i think this is more a "gameplay kill", sorry if i disagree of most people), human Int., potions, spells, pause and so on... And if all that fails i can run away and escape...

So... If better AI is the future like T.Howard said (and i totally agree) and a better AI may set a line between good games / excelent games / epic games... What about AI in battles in a RPG game?

I wonder what is your opinion on this matter and if you have suggestions to improve the AI in battle, thanks.

(Excuse me any errors, english is not my native language)

I did lose a few battles in Oblivion from time to time. On the highest difficulty slider it happened a lot. On normal it only happened a couple times (damn you grey prince!)

The point is that there's a huge difference between combat AI and combat difficulty. You can make the game more "challenging" by just cranking up the difficulty slider.

However, there is something more interesting, or more entertaining, about fighting an opponent that is clever, and not just strong. If it seems clear that I have the upper hand and the opponent runs away and starts draining health and shield potions, well then now we have a fight on our hands. Why? Because that's what I would do.

I would love to see some more creativity by the combat opponents in Skyrim. Not because it's more of a challenge, but because it's more fascinating to play. It always seems to me like these things could be done with simple routines, but I don't know for sure. Must be that the AI is much harder to program.

I always thought simple things like:

• No path to the player. -Run away.
  
• Doing less damage/sec than recieving, heal/buff.
  
• Doing no damage -Run away

seemed simple. I hope they are.

mods went a long way to improve combat behavior. wish Beth looked at more of them. wish even more they hired Duke Patrick/spookyfx to handle it.

this AI issue is something that i hated in OB and would hate to see in skyrim

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1169886-climb-a-rock-and-shoot-everything-in-sight-abuse/

In oblivion, I just put the difficulty sliders to maximum, this allowed the enemies to use more than one regen, but even then i gained mulitiple advantages, I hope skyrim will make me think about how to win:)

I hope that wolf side stepping was a reaction to the PC drawing his bow. Path finding before was just a beeline to their target and it was really bad getting NPCs stuck behind fences and things.

More excitingly, I'm wondering how the dragon intelligence will carry out like. It could work either horrible, or very very well.

Good point! And if they have a language, they can speek...They have shouts, right? So... They have magic to? They cure themselves? They run away (Of course they can, but will do so if necessary)?

(Doubts, doubts, so many doubts...)

However, I fear that if the Combat A.I. will be "just O.K" in TES V, than Skyrim will not be no1 !! ...

I allways do that, but is not enough for me (in 1x1 battles)...
I think that "leveling enemies" is one of the real problems in battles...

This. Along with Duke's mods, there is Deadly Reflex. Also, Beth didn't hire Duke, but they are using one of his ideas. They put in a feature based on Duke's archery mod.

I hope the enemies will finally have some brains to give up or even don't attack me if they are obviously weaker. I hate how every single bandit in the entire province is coward enough to not fight the daedra and the Oblivion gates, but they will fight me to death because I didn't pay 10 septims. I want realistic combat moves, of course, but I also want realistic AI behaviour in combat. I want to be able to walk through a bandit camp and noone say a word, let alone ask me questions, as long as I'm in full daedric and they are petty thieves with empty stomach. Also, during the fight, they should realize how pathetic is to say "i'll crush you like a worm" when my health bar is full and theirs is almost gone. And I hope they will know how to use the environment to help them in fight, to use scrolls and potions, to call for help, to jump on a horse back and try to flee, to be I don't know...less brainless kamikaze.

I don't care as much about the advantages/disadvantages that NPC's get as much as I care that they don't act like idiots. ESPECIALLY the ones who are your companions.

Actually, rapid curing will make battles more painful rather than challenging.



Oh, but you don't understand.
You don't have to use all the advantages, no one is forcing you to.
Leave it to us who want to use them... blah, blah, blah...

OK, enough with the sarcasm.
Anyway, you're right.
In Morrowind and Oblivion, you could become so strong that it's not even fun anymore.
No more challenge at all.
And the problem is that you reach that point very quick.
I remember that way inferior game called Fable TLC.
It's bad compared to TES, but at least it tried to make it a challenge latter, unlike TES.

Also, now when I've mentioned Fable.
You know what TES needs.
You vs bunch of monsters fights in witch you can win without you running backwards all the time and/or constantly heal yourself as a heal potion junkie.

I'd like it if they made enemies backpedal slower too. Don't you hate having to chase down an enemy that's shooting arrows, spells, (or guns in Fallout) at you while you charge them and they backpedal at the same if not faster speed. That's bull poo.

I like most of the above suggestions. I would like to see a lot more self preservation from humanoid AI. I would also like to see variable AI. Some should run when it is going against them. Others might stand and fight to the end. Certainly and cleverness that can be incorporated should be. When facing multiple opponents the man being attacked by the player can defend while the rest attack the player. Lots of improvements are there to be had. Hope there is a significant effort to think things through.

I think this (combat A.I.) is the weakest "feature" in TES games, but they are single players, so i can understand somehow this weakness.

What i can′t understand is why most of the enemies are leveling with your character, if they A.I. is poor... And we are in 2011, sure BGS is able to do better 5 years after Oblivion, but I afraid that in Skyrim will not see a TRUE realistic AI behaviour in combat yet (maybe I wrong, I REALLY HOPE SO!)

Good point for the companions behaviour too, i don't use them many times in Oblivion precisely because A.I., but I can see some improvements in companions in FO3, so lets hope they are better in TES V also.

You know, I think Skyrim will be the best RPG ever, but there is always room to improve, right?

[Off-topic, sorry] The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Official Trailer in Youtube has almost 1 000 000 views !!!! :clap: :celebration: :clap:

I like too... They still have time to change combat A.I. ?

More suggestions, kind people? Thanks.

I would like combat to be more unexpected until you can begin to learn the system, and then as you advance, I would like there to be some new surprises in stall for you along the way. Enemies can be dumb when I'm 1st level, heck, they are just learning what to do themselves. But as we progress, the enemies should have more experience, and have a few extra tricks up their sleeves. A good A.I. engine is only good until you know the system and all the tricks. So that really isn't "good" in my definition. To be good, it should evolve the longer you play. Some of the cool tricks should not be shown or used by anyone early in the game, but saved for later. That would keep combat more and more surprising as time went on.

In addition, I would like to see the enemies mutter some more curses at you, taunt you (rarely, but occasionally), or act hurt by howling in pain, or begging you to stop, that you're "killing" them... Good A.I. is more than just body motions in combat, but the psychology of combat, with intimidations, taunts, laughter at your mistakes or at your pain to enrage you, and various other emotions that could be expressed by your enemies to make them feel smarter.

I mean even a savage dog should, if you hit it hard enough, howl in pain, throw its nose down and high-tail it out of combat in fear for its life if you hit it too hard all at once. And some of the evil races such as Goblins, Orcs, if any such beings are in, they would have some stupid things to say that would be the opposite of A.I.: artificial stupidity. Hahahaha.

I love it when games from time to time make us laugh at how stupid our enemies are. One game that did this well was Arx Fatalis, whose parent company is now owned by Bethesda. They had the coolest, most awesome, goblins of any RPG yet, in my opinion, because while they were pretty tough to kill, they were so stupid they made me laugh until I snorted milk out of my nose. And that's funny, because I wasn't drinking any milk that day.

I hope Bethesda can bring in those goblins for Skyrim because it could add a lot of flavor to some otherwise dull and lifeless enemies of this kind in previous games.

Haha yes, I remember they were so funny and they were calling me stupid! I also remember Arx Fatalis for the greatest prison atmosphere I've seen in games, the squeaky sounds, the blood, the screaming, the echo, the dirt.

Defending when the player is attacking while the others pile the player?

As long as it's not going to end up Dynasty Warriors style "I'll block every attack you send my way until you attack someone else. Then he/she will block and you'll have to switch again. Good luck not getting killed" The AI needs to know when it's going too far.

AC style AI intelligence = good

DW style AI intelligence = AI practically cheats (literally, it can switch from defending to attacking quicker than you and can hit you mid swing while you can't do that to them)