I hope skyrim offers smarter NPC's who know when to fight and how to fight. For instance. In OB at waters edge a Will of the Wisp killed about four guards walking by and two of the residents. It was stupid. Guards just kept coming trying to kill it but they don't have silver swords so they couldn't do anything.. At one point three guards were attacking it.. I watched.. It killed all three guards plus two of the horses plus two residents.. It was rediculous. I hope NPC's know about how to kill certain creatures or some weaknesses for enemies. For instance a Mage npc should use lighting or ice magic not fire against a dark elf.. In Skyrim I know there is radiant story but I hope that the NPC's are like really smart or at least some of them are...How awesome would it be if a couple of bandits led you to a trap where you had to fight for your life instead of just charge you like an idiot swinging a giant axe and yet never hitting you next

I worded it wierd. Yes I know radiant story isn't an AI system.. I was just saying that bethesda added that so I hope they also added this. I know they are separate things sorry for the confusion

I know what you mean and agree, but comon. Will O' The Wisps are the toughest creatures that aren't very high level.

Will O' The Wisps were actually fairly B.A.... But, I would love to see some more efficient A.I. in Skyrim....

I could take on 3 Xivali at once in Oblivion, but I could barely kill ONE Will-o-the-wisp. They were waaay Op imo.
edit: Grammar

i love will-ohs

That would be awesome.

One thing though, from the way your talking about it you're describing radiant story as an AI system. It isn't. At all. Just making sure you know that.

Yea, the NPCS (especially guards) need to be able to tell when they are in way over their heads, or that they aren't doing any damage. Will-Ohs were definitely the most powerful AI killers in Oblivion. Perhaps the guards need to recognize when to call a battlemage, or give them the ability to bind a weapon to fight the Will-Ohs.

That has nothing to do with Radiant Story, though, which controls NPC schedules and some quest behavior as well, but not the AI generally. Certainly not the combat AI.

I am a bit confused,dont all guards have silver weapons?

I thinks that's only the legion guards, he may have been talking about town guards. on topic I agree with you it would be grate to see intelligent emirs who can flank and actually do something other than charge at you like idiots.

right exactly In OB i only encountered one smart attack from bandits and it was on accident. One bandit charged me with an axe while the other got stuck in a rock so he just fired arrows at me from a distance. IT was smart but completely on accident. I want to chase what I think is an easy kill to a dangerous gauntlet where I have a good chance of dying. I think skyrim woul be the perfect place for that

I think they will be alot smarter than they were in Oblivion.Not perfect but alot better. Thats will be good enough for me. All in all i think this game will be a huge improvement over previous TES games.

Do you mean that NPCs should have brains?

Nope, it's all guards, I would like to see bandits using tactics like ambushing and swarming.

Nope, AI, like in Age of Empires and Civilization.

Bingo. Notable improvements of absurdities for every next title is the long hard path to perfection.

Civilazation is a great example of smart AI.. I can't believe I didn't think of that I played it yesterday

Another thing about the AI. I hope they at least considered making your allied AI a bit more intelligent about where the lethal zone is in front of you. I can't tell you how many times there have been friendly fire bounties put up for my head all because braindead legion gaurd A decided that it would be a great tactic to reposition himself in front of me while I'm wailing on the enemy with my claymore.

Now that's something that they really need to fix. I find myself bashing companions far too frequently and having to hit the "yield" button a lot. They should make allies who follow you impervious to damage until you tell them to stop following. Also, neutral characters like guards who get attacked by hostile creatures and you wind up fighting with them could be fixed by simply not hurting them during the fighting sessions until the baddies they fight are dead and their swords are sheathed.

Yea, it got to a point where, I simply wait for the guard to fall before I start fighting. If that option is not available, I will be just healing him and let him finish off the monster.

The Radiant story is the AI to an extent. Because what you've done to a particular NPC (tracked by RadStory) changes how they react to you which I would completely categorize as AI. If you do good things for an NPC and they react amiably to you when you barge into their home at 1 AM. That's a substantial AI improvement of Oblivion, and it's all tracked with radiant story.

The other example was the "WTF does an NPC do with your sword when you drop it spiel".

But those are general reactions to things that can be tracked at a slower pace. Whether or not a companion jumps in front of your fireball spell or saves an enemy from your Claymore is something that takes more immediate "thinking" on the NPC's part. Maybe with the whole, staggering back and forth combat mechanic, the NPC's will better recognize their window of opportunity. Complete speculation, but possible.

That was prety dumb, hopefully that wont be too hard to get right on the new game.

Haven't they already fixed that with 'magnetism'? It's supposed to be like a soft lock-on that helps keeps your attacks focused on one target.