I think NPCs in Oblivion had an "isDead" variable or method. They could use that, and they probably will.

Didn't one of the sites mention that the second NPC charged the player?

The problem is going to be minimized with the new "Alerted" feature.

Unfortunately he doesn't.

Well pretty much everything you just said is wrong but ok.

Yes things are technical but that is game development. It isn't a matter of making the AI "conceptualize", it's a matter of registering the NPC as dead and then the other NPC registering this in his 'line/area of sight' then having a 'Array' of phrases to say which don't involve stupid things. Not too tech man.

If you bump into someone in say GTA4 they will register this then choose at random a phrase from their predetermined 'someone bumped into me' word array.

NPC IN CASUAL MODE> NPC REGISTERES DEAD BODY > NPC GOES INTO ALERT MODE > NPC CHOSES RANDOM PHRASE FROM CASUAL TO ALERT ARRAY DUE TO DEAD NPC > NPC VOICES PHRASE > NPC SEARCHES FOR PLAYER

NPC's do have a tag and can recognize dead body tags that is how they search them for goodies.

In summary different phrases for different needs. Don't put stupid ones in.

I think the best we can hope for is that Beth hasn't recorded all the speech yet and this was placeholder.

Yeah that's a little off, but perhaps they misheard her and what she actually said was, "I knew I heard something!" in reaction to her companion collapsing. As if to imply that she thought she had heard something before he got shot, and now the fact that he's dead confirms it.

Unlikely, I know.

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

You guys all gotta remember Bethesda is a bit infamous for talking about improvements and hyping people up on it only to slightly deliver. They talked about improving the 3rd person view in every game they came out with but it always looks horrible, just slightly less horrible than the previous game. Bethesda has a hard time learning from their mistakes. don't get me wrong.. I love TES and I support it and Bethesda.. I just hope that they pull through this time and we can see a clear difference in what they promise to improve.

As a marksman player, I groaned when I read this. Truly destroys immersion when two bandits are together and one gets picked off and the other one acts like they heard something scurrying about. They should be on high alert if one of their partners gets picked off. Or, perhaps they should take cover or start investigating. Maybe even running away to avoid the same fate. But to stand there and be picked off like fish in a barrel is stupid.

Like most things, the truth likely falls somewhere in the middle. The AI will be improved, but not to the point that they will simulate this world perfectly or lack flaws. Its going to be good, but not so good it makes you cry or something.

Most likely what happened, and the explanation I agree with the most, is the dialogue doesn't really work for that level of "alertness". What happened is the player fired their bow, and the NPC reacted by saying "I thought I heard something", which activated BEFORE the arrow strikes her ally. It was just unfortunate that the trigger was such a short time before the arrow slaying her ally, making it seem like what she heard was her ally dying, when it was most likely the firing of the bow that she was alerted to.

Perhaps they can iron that out with more appropriate dialogue.

Yeah the arrow trigger had crossed mind too. A swear word would be perfect for these occasions and maybe a forced phrase when seeing a dead body, just short four letter ones with a few longer ones thrown in, otherwise it would get annoying. This should happen even if they have just said something else. Keep it short and sweet Beth. If you are scared to use english four letter words make one up in another language.

I.e Holy Kaarn (crap i know)

Would be quite cool actually

Ugh... Not again.

I loved Oblivion's AI and I especially love it when it went a bit erratic. I got a lot of chuckles out of some of it.

twas interesting spawned many a youtube video . but alas i think now that the camera no longer zooms in on the face when you talk to an npc those amusing youtube videos will be few and far between for skyrim

Jeez-us calm down people, it was only 1 remark about only 1 instance and it is also followed by the guard in question turning and attacking so dont judge too much from this simple statement YET, I personnally am hopeful because it sounds to me like they have taken some ideas about sneaking from Thief the game, (an eye that opens closes when sneaking, and I hope for some of the dialog from that series used to laugh my ass off at, "all I want is to be able to go eat me supper" or something like that) so I dont think all is lost, lets wait a bit and see yes ?

Aha! Thanks to this article i know when i get the game i should NOT help Arvel from the spider web

That's actually pretty much how I feel too, NPCs occasionally getting crazy is just a part of the fun world for me.

Yeah we all did. I think this issue is different though. The "damn rats" thing when their buddy had just been shot was just stupid imo




Yes true but it all seems very familiar. Emil Pagliarulo who worked for Looking Glass Studios on the Thief series, is on the Beth team and has been since Oblivion. He did the DB quests and was the lead designer on Fallout 3.