Is there a Mod that Improves the AI or even re-implements Behavior originally featured but cut from Oblivion? Is it even possible?

This is an area of the game which is crying out for improvement; alas there are precious few (if any) mods that improve the AI globally. Rather, piecemeal (no offense intended) solutions are provided by way of mods that address the AI within a certain area of activity, e.g. combat, or guard behaviour.

BRAINS (or INSTNCTS) by Syclonix was an attempt to address AI in combat, however he had to abandon it due to RL pressures. There are a few others which I can’t think of off the top of my head, but will post them if/when I do….

Here is a summary of SOME of the mods that address, more or less, the AI:

http://www.oblivionmodwiki.com/index.php/Category:AI

Edit:

http://www.gamesas.com/?showtopic=1005791 is Syclonix's WIPz thread for BRAINS/INSTNCTS

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1060697-wipz-npc-ace-npc-advanced-control-engine/page__hl__instincts is Qquix's NPC ACE - an advanced NPC control engine - more a modders' resource, I think(?).

Edit 2:

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1084200-any-mods-with-interesting-ai/page__p__15798063__hl__advanced%20control%20engine__fromsearch__1&#entry15798063 is a previous thread on the same subject which garnered a grand total of two replies; one from yours truly & one from phoenix1213 who I see is currently reading this thread. Unfortunately, I think most modders put AI into the 'too hard basket' as I believe it is highly scripting intensive and difficult/time consuming to debug and balance.

Thats what I hear. If I knew a lick about scripting and how AI works, I'd have tried.

Thank you for the response and links!

I think deadly reflex adjust combat AI mildly. I have seen some peculiar new tactics in my NPCs I fight.

My own mod, Balzu, is going to do a lot to overhaul the AI from the ground up (persuasion, disguises, combat, crime, companions, romance, etc.) but it won't translate directly to vanilla OB. Once I get the features worked out and working properly I might try and port them over, but that's way, way down the road. You can read about some of the features I'm working on in that thread, but I won't link it here so I'm not hijacking anyone.

AI is hard, script-intensive, and a total resource hog, so a lot of people won't even try it, but there are lots of mods that help out in their own way: Reneer's guard overhaul, kuertee's clothing matters, and diplomacy and mercy spring to mind. Companion share and recruit and CM partners overhaul companion AI. I'm sure there are dozens of others, but you have to piece them together yourself.

I've often wondered at the 'doability' of creating an AI overhaul project, which is overseen by one or two people who set the overarching goals and aims (e.g. recreate balanced Radiant AI), and coordinate the activities of various modders who each create part of the code/scripting, and other 'consulting' modders who offer their wisdom in how to most effectively achieve the aims of the project. This method of development is used widely in open source applications and usually works well.

Yes, but getting modders to perform a project like that is about as feasible as herding cats. Needless to say it's been tried before and hasn't had much success.

And yes, I've seen the YouTube video.

Which one? The RAI one? Haven't we all.....

Herding cats is easy when you have an open can of catfood....

or better yet, catnip!