I started playing oblivion for the fun of it.

And a lone bandit attacks be.

As allways he get destroyed.

So In the future game of skyrim I would be nice not to see such dumb bandits and see stuff smarter like.

Walking along and you here a girl scream Help! You wonder off and find the girl and end up being encircled by bandits (get ready for a fight)

Walking along the forest or road and a group of bandits (High Lvl Ones) Find you, and Demand you to pay a sum or hand over your loot and you will be spared.

Its night out and a shadow runs across the road chasing after it as it runs in a cave that end up being full of vampires.

And many, many, many more ideas to come just so the player does not get bored of the same things over again.

What are your bandit-vampire-creature run in ideas? Let me know.

Even if they actually attempted an ambush, instead of charging at me, in plain sight, over a long distance.

That would be much more Immersive

And?

That would be great. The bandit leader makes the demand and motions to his group. Dozens of bandits peer out from behind the trees, bows drawn, arrows trained on you. One false move and you become a pincushion.

At least, that's how I envision smart bandits operating.

As yuo walk by a cliff, they come out of the bushes atop the outcropping aim bows at you, demand you leave everything you have on the ground in front of you and when you leave they go down and pick it up.

yes this is sooo much better than random bandit attacks!
with radiant AI they could probably put in a whole bunch of these senarios.

Yups! I want a scene to be like this...

-Bandit walks out behind a tree-
Pay the sum of money, or else we will slit your throat!
Chose no: Around 20 Bandits come out of the bushes aimed at you with a Magic Cast in one hand and a Dagger in the other.
Choose yes: The bandits in the bushes come out and walk off with the Leader.

And when you kill the Leader Bandit, he/she should have a letter of his orders to attack, unless they are an unorganized bandit group.

I always felt the bandits in Oblivion were lame... you're right, it was always just -one- bandit, and he/she didn't even bother to hide! no! instead they just stood there in the middle of the road and attacked on site!
Bandits aren't always there for the kill, heck, most of the times they will ask your gold and goods OR ELSE they will attack, they aren't assassins...

Anyway, a great scenary would be to walk on the main road and you see a caravan that's missing a wheel or is stuck, and you can stop and try to help or you can just continue, if you'll continue nothing will happen to you, but if you try to help then and manage to fix the caravan using your skill (If you have it) with woods that you chop along the forest, the caravan continues and you carry on, only to discover that you've been robbed and you lost a sum of gold and some items.

(Bet you didn't see that coming? )

Remember that pair of bandits outside Gnisis, in Morrowind? One had about 90% chameleon, the other played damsel and asked you to grab her ring from the bottom of a pond. Once you pick up the ring, it's on!

That was cool.

Or those Orcs in the North Island of Morrowind, near Dagon Fel? It's more hand-crafted encounters that we want.

.

How about a crooked guide you pay to lead you somewhere but he is in cohoots with a band of bandits( Is a band the right group plural for bandits? I think it fits.) Hes lead you out into the wilderness into their lair and now your thinking.....I just paid this guy to rob me.

I see, that's a good point, very deep...

I totally and completely agree with the OP, but he needs to learn how to use paragraphs... badly.

I duno there should always be at least a few blithering nitwits around.. A world without nitwits would be a tad fake... and besides they are soo fun to kill.

Oh I'm all for smarter bandits, tougher fights and more involving and dramatic encounters with enemies. Especially enemies that will bait you and play off of your desire to explore or to rescue/help/'do the right thing'.



Yes! I like it.

YOU, IN RESPONSE TO DEMANDS: "No good sir. I shall not meet your demands" :nono:
BANDIT LEADER: Then pay with your blood! :stare: (begins to motion to his men)
YOU: *cue flamethrower spell* :flamethrower: burn bandit leader to a crisp
BANDIT LEADER: screams in agony as he dissolves into a pile of bone, ash and charred flesh :flamed:
BANDIT ARCHERS: One vomits at the sight :sick: , others shudder in shock and disgust hmy: . Another trembling in fear releases his bowstring :cold: , the arrow whistles past your ear. Suddenly they all come to their senses and fire.
YOU: Arrows speeding in from all sides. *cue teleport dragonshout* With a menacing roar and an imploding wisp of smoke you vanish from sight, :bolt: reappearing instantly in the woods behind one group of archers. You spend the next half hour gruesomely killing the group to the very last man. :celebration:

I would love to get sniped by a group of archers on a hill, with me sprinting and trying to dodge them (or die) before ultimately coming behind them and taking them out...one by one..

That would be good.

As your walking by a cliff a random bandit runs up to you when you think hes a good person and says

"Pay up and drop your good"

And if you dont the bandit says

"Looks like we got another easy kill boys" And next thing you know you look up and the cliff above you has archers ready to unleash hell on you.

I do recall that, it was neat.

Radiant AI has been improved so NPCs (hostile or not) will evaluate the player and approach him/her differently.

In Oblivion, I kind of felt like they were halfway there, in that a lot of bandit encounters would be coded to occur at specific bottlenecks, such as bridges or when the road passed through an old fort. The bandits themselves just never took advantage of it, is all.

That is true but now from reading your reply, I do remember there being 1 bandit standing on a bridge and he did ask too pay up or die.

But I do agree if they could take it that one step forward that would make the game much more fun.

Really this was because most of the time, an AI Bandit is more likely to spot you than visa-versa. This would be all well and good and, ambush-like, if they weren't so idiotic to squander their element of surprise and make a dashing charge in your direction.

All they need to do is tweak the AI a bit so that when Bandits spot you, they aren't so hasty to go for the full-frontal attack, especially when there is considerable distance to cover. You could script an AI that tries to block line of sight between you and them, and also to look geographically at the paths on the map, and move to a position down the road that is nearby to the player.

It would feel a hell of a lot more tense if you knew that AI were capable of spotting you, and holding off their attack. The tension as you walked down a path, wondering if you heard someone, or if they are going to jump out in front of you would be immense.

Great ideas here, though I don't think devs for this or almost any game will go for random NPCs stealing items from the PC. Maybe some gold or generic items like healing potions, but actually taking a dagger or a ring...don't see it happening - to many people would get pissed. I would enjoy the devs making a very talented theif try stealing one of your best items, which then initiates a quest to get it back (maybe seeking out contact with the thieves guild) where you could get the item back, but I still doubt it.

The archers on a hill ambush would be good, but variety would make it great. Other locations could just be generic dead end alleys in a major town; a steep sided river bed, and natural choke points (as mentioned above). But additionally, I think crafty use of magic and traps would be a way smarter bandits would work. The idea of baiting you to picking up cursed items that encumber you, silence you, or blind you. Using log roll traps, or burning oil, or a disorienting gas to weaken you just before they pounce.

Most of these elements were in the last 2 games, but not employed by enemies, instead they were just placed in dark places, and after you got hit - you healed up and moved on. So place these together with the bandits or other baddies and use them to maximum effect.