The title and the description pretty much say it all. I know the AI will be better, but will it be drastically better?

I was just playing OB and doing the "Corruption and Consience" quest ( the one where you deal with Ulrich Leland charging fines in Cheydinhal.) and I ran into something that was hilarious and worked out for me, but it still shouldn't have happened.

When the time came to decide on how to deal with Ulrich I chose to attack him in the streets. ( My char's a Nord who fights with glory and honour! Sneaking around to find evidence to bring him down? Ha! My axe will bring him down quicker than any document! Huzzah! :wink_smile: )

After attacking him it became apparent that I couldn't kill him before the guards overpowered me (I'm level 8), so I surrendered to the guards. After I yielded Ulrich struck me before the dialogue between me and the guard started, so the Guard considered this an attack on me since the last fight had stopped for him. So then he drew his sword and attacked Ulrich, and very soon the entire town guard was trying to kill him.

But wait it get's worse..... After Ulrich died the guards all turned on each other and a nearby Orc. Apparently there had been some friendly fire so the enitre town guard eradicated each other, and I only got charged with assault for the massacre I caused :tongue:.

While this made my laugh hysterically it was pretty stupid, and this has happened to me before.

So, for the sake of immersion, I'm hoping that the AI in Skyrim gets a major update. And I haven't heard much about the AI, how much better will they be? Will they do ridiculous things that make us :facepalm:? Or will they actually be able engage in combat without slaughtering an entire town?

Well, we've been told that we'll get mage duels western style in towns if our magic is strong enough. The ai will probably be more forgiving/understanding. The gi had a few pharagraphs on ai, and it sounded like things will be getting better. Ai's slowly getting better, so even if gi is exagerating things, the ai will be an improvement over the past instalment.

Haha, nice story. I thought Oblivion's AI was genius. And to improve that AI would work miracles.

Skyrim is going to be on an entirely new engine which means the AI will be different.

/thread

Damn, I really wish you had been recording that with FRAPS or something so you could upload it to youtube.... hahahaha... that sounds awesome, even if it was totally stupid ......

The one load guard from that town must have come to you like "Uh, sir, I'm ... like ... the only living guard left in this town and I'm lower level than you, so um ... you're free to go. But uhhm, don't let us.. erh, I mean ... um ME... catch you around these parts again, or I'll be forced to erm.. Let you go ... AGAIN. Ya got me?"

Hahahaa. :rofl:

This is priceless.

Programming and setting up AI routines for npc's has little to do with a rendering engine

I sort of stood off to the side and just watched, and it was pretty funny lol. Afterwards the last guard alive pulled out his sword to go slaughter some civilian that had got tangled up in the fight than ran away lol! I got away with it, but after selling the 2k worth of equipment I looted from the bodies I figured I met as well pay the 60 septims to clear my name :biggrin: .

Yeah there were a lot of encounters like this, quite sad really.
But in Oblivions defense, it was way better than Morrowinds lack of an AI.

It would be nice if the AI was a little more intelligent.
Maybe something like the videos of "Radiant AI" they showed before Oblivion.

You gotta admit, the Bugs In Oblivion never get old. to this day I find lulz in the games workings since 05, i hope Skyrim has some equivilant..made the game stand out quite a bit.

Don't get me wrong, OB's AI was impressive for it's time, but it wouldn't impress me in Skyrim. I wouldn't be upset if it was still like this, but it's 2011 and if they could pull this off in 2006 then in 2011 they should be able to really "wow" me.

Edit: I failed at what I was trying to say.

Oh yah. That reminds me when I stole the Bust from the chapel in cheydinhal for the thieves guild the guard down there chased me out and I escaped because the guards killed her for striking me in public lol

Focus on the pathing. Bethesda isn't much good at AI and it is really freaking hard without much payoff. Just prevent people in combat from getting stuck. If we are standing somewhere out of reach shooting arrows, make them give up an take a defensive position. Make sure they know how to use their repertoire of spells logically. Rather than aiming for intelligence and cunning, force believable behavior by citizens and animals. Script the rest.

it will be much better :thumbsup:

including wolfs will act as real wolfs, the will only search food if they have not managed to catch anything in the day

the towns can react as real people under a dragon attack, some guards will run to fight dragons but most npcs will cry and run searching for cover

this will be a revolution in artificial intelligence

One should a take a game's age into consideration when criticising technical aspects. Skyrim, a game that will be nearly six years newer, will, without a doubt, have better AI than Oblivion.

My hope is that companions won't rush into battles like berserkers this time.

Some changes is confirmed, friendly npc does not become hostile if you take an aple but they get angry if you take lots of or expensive stuff.
People get angry if you make a mess; no more fireballs on tables or bookshelf's. Not sure if they will attack or just shout like in Fallout.
Hope they have reduced the chance of friendly fire incidents.

I would want a better combat AI. That includes that weak npc stays out of combat.

Hmm, a similar thing happened to me. It was in chedninhal, long story short the town guard killed like half the town's residents then started fighting each other. I actually recorded it, I forgot about the video and didn't upload it. Thanks for reminding me

You know how come stuff like that never happened to me when I played Oblivion?

I sure hope it does, it would be stupid if an entire town was wiped out because a dragon flew over it, threw a fireball there and a stupid mage misfired his spell into a guard...

I'm playing Nehrim for TES IV and it's awesome. I was in one town the other day and someone besides ME cast a spell and rang the tower bells (magic is forbidden in some cities) and all of the sudden all the guards I was next to started running in a group all the way around the city chasing some rogue magic user. It was the firm time I saw an "event" like that happening randomly in a city and I laughed.

Gotta love these uber-cool Mod makers.

Very true, but i do recall Bethesda citing the Gamesbryo Overall Engine as limiting, to the point where they had to dumb down Oblivion's AI before release.

As I said in a earlier response, Oblivion AI was impressive for it's time. I'm just hoping that the issues with the AI in OB have been resolved in Skyrim, which I assume they will be.

Yeah, and keep in mind, the programmers who developed the A.I. have no doubt become smarter based on the work they did in creating Oblivion and later Fallout 3. So the A.I. they can build now will be substantially more A.I.-ish than what they were capable of 6 years ago. Plus,with their larger budget, there are no doubt MORE OF them. hahaha.

No I love the bugs in past games, AI related bugs too. Always give me a good laugh. :celebration:

No way man. Nobody's complained about the AI in Oblivion, and it's only been 5 years...

/sarcasm

Honestly, I'm not the least bit concerned. Bethesda got "chewed out" by all the die-hard Morrowwind fans.