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For me, the interesting problem, as mentioned in the article, is that developers still need to make the AI opponents suck. We want FPS games where the enemies '

For me, the interesting problem, as mentioned in the article, is that developers still need to make the AI opponents suck. We want FPS games where the enemies 'feel' real, but we can't make them too clever. Most shooter games put you in control of a lone fighter battling against countless foes. If the enemies were clever, then you'd have absolutely no chance of surviving! You could improve the AI so that your opponents do smarter things (flanking you, working as a team, etc) and less dumb things (repeatedly popping up out of cover, for instance), but then the game would be immensely harder. To balance that out, you'd have to handicap the enemies in other ways, like make them even worse at aiming, or giving them weaker weapons, but that might make the game less fun. Perhaps improved AI may lead to different gaming styles? Fewer 'you vs an entire army' scenarios, instead more nuanced challenges with lower numbers of bad guys...

barrkel 9y ago
Generally the only way I enjoy playing FPS games is using a stealth approach, or failing that, a plan involving mines, distractions, sniping, etc. If an enemy spots me and starts attacking, it's a bit of a failure. If I get hit, it's a total failure. Think base takeovers in the more recent Far Cry series games. All time favourite was the Thief series; Dishonoured didn't quite do it for me. Games that require or force a Rambo situation with enemies on all sides are just ridiculous. I like to observe, plan and execute, in that order. Randomness can't be controlled; you're just lucky, or your enemy has been hobbled and it's not a fair fight, otherwise.
- joosters 9y ago
  Me too - thief was a fantastic game and stealth is an entertaining way to play. But even here, the AI is dumb and deliberately so. If the guards in Far Cry were more realistic, they'd spot you far more easily, or would notice things like half their buddies have gone missing, perhaps they should investigate?
- nine_k 9y ago
  Deus Ex (released 18 years ago) was great in this regard. You could try to fight an army (well, a regiment) in open combat and have a chance to survive. You could build a tank out of yourself for that. Or you could stealth your way through without killing anyone, or even being seen by anyone, being physically feeble but fast and good at hacking things. The game did not force you to use any particular approach; it just put you into a situation to tackle. Regarding shooting. the game had the best difficulty level menu I've ever seen: * Easy * Medium * Hard * Realistic
stale2002 9y ago
Well, it depends on the game genre. For example, In real time strategy games, AI is unbelievablely horrible. AI is so horrible, that even though it could play starcraft with a million actions per second, it STILL sucks. I agree that an AI auto headshotting you in an FPS wouldn't be fun. But we arent even close on the RTS front to get anything passable.
- joosters 9y ago
  It's not really a 'AI headshot' problem - computer opponents can have 100% shooting accuracy right now, and everyone can see that it would make games no fun. It's more that improved AI would make the enemies cleverer. In a realistic world, you stand no chance of taking on an army single handed. You could try to even out the balance by making the enemies even worse shots, but that might also be no fun. An army of ineffectual storm troopers who can't hit anything wouldn't be much of a threat :)
- plorkyeran 9y ago
  Brood War AIs aren't beating pros yet, but they are putting up a credible fight and can reliably beat decent human players. The one built in to the game are a joke, but that's a result of zero time being spent on it and not because the problem is intractable.
  - falcolas 9y ago
    Not zero - but not the years dedicated to AIs. As always, there's a cost/benefit analysis: Is a smarter (and efficient - remember the quality of computers when it came out) AI, one which will only be noticeable to a small fraction of the audience, worth delaying the game for another handful of years?
jacobwilliamroy 9y ago
F.E.A.R. is a great case study in this respect, because the enemy AI is absurdly simple. Enemies only have 3 states, plus a plan. The neat trick was that instead of embedding the logic for changing state and setting parameters into the states themselves, they built a planning system which declares goals for the AI, and then allows the AI to procedurally generate the sequence of states it needs go through in order to be at that goal. To this day F.E.A.R.'s enemy AI is praised for being extremely deadly and realistic. Here's Jeff Orkin's GDC paper about it: http://alumni.media.mit.edu/%7Ejorkin/gdc2006_orkin_jeff_fear.pdf http://alumni.media.mit.edu/%7Ejorkin/gdc2006_orkin_jeff_fea...

barrkel 9y ago

Generally the only way I enjoy playing FPS games is using a stealth approach, or failing that, a plan involving mines, distractions, sniping, etc. If an enemy spots me and starts attacking, it's a bit of a failure. If I get hit, it's a total failure. Think base takeovers in the more recent Far Cry series games. All time favourite was the Thief series; Dishonoured didn't quite do it for me. Games that require or force a Rambo situation with enemies on all sides are just ridiculous. I like to observe, plan and execute, in that order. Randomness can't be controlled; you're just lucky, or your enemy has been hobbled and it's not a fair fight, otherwise.

joosters 9y ago
Me too - thief was a fantastic game and stealth is an entertaining way to play. But even here, the AI is dumb and deliberately so. If the guards in Far Cry were more realistic, they'd spot you far more easily, or would notice things like half their buddies have gone missing, perhaps they should investigate?
nine_k 9y ago
Deus Ex (released 18 years ago) was great in this regard. You could try to fight an army (well, a regiment) in open combat and have a chance to survive. You could build a tank out of yourself for that. Or you could stealth your way through without killing anyone, or even being seen by anyone, being physically feeble but fast and good at hacking things. The game did not force you to use any particular approach; it just put you into a situation to tackle. Regarding shooting. the game had the best difficulty level menu I've ever seen: * Easy * Medium * Hard * Realistic

stale2002 9y ago

Well, it depends on the game genre. For example, In real time strategy games, AI is unbelievablely horrible. AI is so horrible, that even though it could play starcraft with a million actions per second, it STILL sucks. I agree that an AI auto headshotting you in an FPS wouldn't be fun. But we arent even close on the RTS front to get anything passable.

joosters 9y ago
It's not really a 'AI headshot' problem - computer opponents can have 100% shooting accuracy right now, and everyone can see that it would make games no fun. It's more that improved AI would make the enemies cleverer. In a realistic world, you stand no chance of taking on an army single handed. You could try to even out the balance by making the enemies even worse shots, but that might also be no fun. An army of ineffectual storm troopers who can't hit anything wouldn't be much of a threat :)
plorkyeran 9y ago
Brood War AIs aren't beating pros yet, but they are putting up a credible fight and can reliably beat decent human players. The one built in to the game are a joke, but that's a result of zero time being spent on it and not because the problem is intractable.
- falcolas 9y ago
  Not zero - but not the years dedicated to AIs. As always, there's a cost/benefit analysis: Is a smarter (and efficient - remember the quality of computers when it came out) AI, one which will only be noticeable to a small fraction of the audience, worth delaying the game for another handful of years?

jacobwilliamroy 9y ago

F.E.A.R. is a great case study in this respect, because the enemy AI is absurdly simple. Enemies only have 3 states, plus a plan. The neat trick was that instead of embedding the logic for changing state and setting parameters into the states themselves, they built a planning system which declares goals for the AI, and then allows the AI to procedurally generate the sequence of states it needs go through in order to be at that goal. To this day F.E.A.R.'s enemy AI is praised for being extremely deadly and realistic. Here's Jeff Orkin's GDC paper about it: http://alumni.media.mit.edu/%7Ejorkin/gdc2006_orkin_jeff_fear.pdf http://alumni.media.mit.edu/%7Ejorkin/gdc2006_orkin_jeff_fea...