I read an article today about how bethesda did the npc ai in oblivian and was wondering if they did the same with skyrim.

I described how every npc has needs and if you interupt those needs they will try to fufill it themselves.

Example: If you steal all of their food, they will go to a store and purchase more. I never played oblivian but it seemed very cool.

Do npcs work that way in skyrim?

Edit: I thought I was posting in discussion forum, sorry.

Not really, amd they didn't work like that in Oblivion either.

You may have read something reference the original plan for the radiant AI, which was scaled back immensely due to issues with those NPCs stealing the food to replace the food you stole, getting attacked by guards, other towns people responded and joined in, followed by more guards and half the town gets wiped out.

The article is at cracked.com. It is the article about amazing details that were put in games, second page.

cracked

there's your problem.

Wasn't it just hype?

I mean I really know nothing, but hey, just speculating.

It could be, I never played oblivian. If there are theives out there they should loot some npc's house of food and wait to see what happens.

It was called radiant AI and it was a disaster that wasn't in the release because it was causing all sorts of unwanted behavior from AIs and they never finished/fixed it. What we got in the release version was NPCs meandering about in a limited area talking complete gibberish to eachother occasionally, nothing remotely comparable to what they had planned. Skyrim doesn't have this feature either.

It was a cool idea but it never really happened.

It did sound like a good idea, too bad it was not used. Maybe the next game.

Radiant AI is in Oblivion. It was merely scaled down before release.

Sounds like a good move.If it could be perfected.

The NPC do have some unique aspects, such as responding when you drop something on the ground or they see a dead body, but I'm not sure about that specific effect.

Off topic: I would like to point out that I miss that they took away the speechcraft mini-game in Oblivion. The one where you have to tell Jokes, Admire, Intimidate, or Boast to someone to get them to like you more and if you messed up, they liked you even less. It was pretty easy and highly amusing.

I wish I could play oblivion but skyrims graphics are so much better i don't think I can do it.

the only intelligence (if you can call it that) from AI is that they will randomly talk to someone within a certain distance of them. AI follows a set path and reacts with the Player character (sort of). Counter strike bots back in the day did as much. I wonder if we'll ever have real AI.

I danced on the putrid, rotting grave of the Speechcraft mini-game when Bethesda removed that abomination from the series. That was the best thing they ever did, in my opinion. Oblivion's Speechcraft mini-game was idiotic and unimmersive. It made no roleplaying sense whatsoever.

Myself, I thought Speechcraft was handled pretty well in Morrowind. But regardless, I would like some kind reputation/speech checks to come back into the series. Yes, Speechcraft checks were almost pointless in Oblivion. But at least they existed, which is more than they do in Skyrim.

They also react to dead people, and in Skyrim at least, to things you do like dropping items, rummaging through barrels, and bumping into people/things. It's not real AI, but it's a better simulaton of behavior than what's come before. No matter how good they make it, it will never be a true AI, just a behavioral simulation.