Is game A.I. getting better?

RTS games stopped improving in 2002.

FPS games stopped improving in 1998, when Half-Life came out.

Okay, so I overexaggerate, but honestly the computers haven't gotten a whole lot smarter in the last five years.

It's a step forward with STALKER, FEAR, and BIOSHOCK, but a step back with GRAW2, CRYSIS, and Corridor shooters

So I guess it will always stay the same with some quality AI and bad AI. But overall, the absolute quality of the best AI in games are getting better

I'm really curious about Company of Heroes(next on the list!); I've read a lot of threads about how difficult the game is,but is that because of the better A.I or some other aspect?Ken1a

Half-Life still holds the title in my book.It's the only game I've ever played in which I've actively noticed how great the AI is.

I still rememeber one time I played through Surface Tension: I got to the part where they shoot you down out of the ventilation shaft into a car maintanence garage, and I ran over to the nearest cover I could find, which happened to be a pole. In the heat of battle I didn't think of what the pole might be, I was just desperate for something that might block some of the bullets. To my surprise and amazement, I saw the nearest soldier stop firing, run up to a switch hanging from the ceiling, and kick it. I realized that the pole was part of a vehicle lift, and I was standing under an SUV right as said SUV dropped on my head, killing me instantly. To this day that moment sticks out in my mind as the coolest death I've ever experienced in a game, and it makes me realize that Half-Life's AI really is designed with one goal in mind: to kill you in the most efficient way possible.

Well, if you compare the AI in FEAR and Half-Life 2, you will notice improvement. That being said, it depends on the game.firefly026

The smarter the AI becomes, the more they'll stand out when they gltich/bug up, Oblivion is a prime example of this.

Anyways, it's very slowly becoming better, but only in games where the developer actually goes about and makes the title *need* the AI to be better than average to make the game experience better.

For me, Halo has the crown. For enemies anyway. I can't remember a game with a more enjoyable A.I. It really made believe the enemies were thinking.

I don't think it'll be long until we see consistently superb A.I.

AI is considered by most to be the most difficult part of developing, so it makes sense that few games really nail it. In memory, only Far Cry and FEAR had particularly impressive AI, and all they really did different was flank and call in reinforcements. I'm just not sure what the next step is: We've got better aim, better tactics, what's left? Really, I want opinions.YourOldFriend

Lol "better aim"? All a dev has to do is just switch the AI to hit 100% of the time. That's easy. But in most games devs program them to hit around 80% of the time to make it fair to the player.

[QUOTE="YourOldFriend"]AI is considered by most to be the most difficult part of developing, so it makes sense that few games really nail it. In memory, only Far Cry and FEAR had particularly impressive AI, and all they really did different was flank and call in reinforcements. I'm just not sure what the next step is: We've got better aim, better tactics, what's left? Really, I want opinions.DarkRecruit

Lol "better aim"? All a dev has to do is just switch the AI to hit 100% of the time. That's easy. But in most games devs program them to hit around 80% of the time to make it fair to the player.

Better doesn't necessarily mean hits more, but can mean is simply a better representation of intelligence: Hits more realistically.

The main thing game developers need to get around too in video games is actually having them interact and use the environment at their own will, not use them because they were pre-scripted locations they're able to park at and wait to ambush you for, which is pretty much how 90% of the FPS games out there operate.

FEAR was mighty fine I must admit though, AI would do things you wouldn't expect, such as jumping through glass windows, hide properly behind objects, and gang-up in groups and take you out that way.

STALKER on the other hand, AI really wasn't that smart aside from grouping tactics, only thing that made them hard was the fact the game didn't save their current thought process, so they'd always take a different path to get to you upon reloading that save, which actually helps keep the intensity factor going since you can't get it all down to an ace.

tbh i think the halo games have the best enemy aiinyourface_12

It might seem odd, but I agree the ai was quite smart. The ai now days is lacking... FEAR's ai is astonishngly smart, I played graw2 the otehr day they were as dumb as shiot, so was stalker's the enemies lined up in a line this one time, and were in right in front of me , so I killed them all... anyways ai in ut2003-2004 was great so so was quake 3 team arena.

Fear is a perfect example of how you can trick people into thinking it was all super hardcore fantastic AI at work, when in fact most of it was scripted events with a bunch of animations. That and the fact that there are tons of premade path lines the AI can follow. Far Cry still has the most impressive AI I've seen as they are designed to work in a sandbox environment where there are no premade paths, scripted events or boxes that tells them "this is a cover point" etc.BounceDK

I can't agree with you there, I palyed farcry the other day, and sometimes when I was shooting at them they didn't even know where I was. The ai in that game is smart when they are not near you but when your at their face their pretty dumb.

my oppinion is that game ai is just falling behind. they need someone to work on it abit cause i hate when you increase the difficulty in a game all you get is the enemy using the same tactic they just can take more damage.

what i want is an ai that get better not more god like. one that uses cover and can only see where there eyes are pointing.

game developpers always try to improve A.I but it doesnt always work

half-life is just for multiplayers thats wats fun abt it

Generals is a f**kin great RTS game andthe opponentsur playin against (cpu users) are really good

ive been playin generals for 5-6 months and im barely winning against 3 hard opponnents

so yea i guess the A.I are getting better

Your all talking about F.E.A.R having great A.I ? half of it is scripted and i trounced the enemy using stop and go play style. (hide & peek until they run at u like idiots and die then move on). Now that doesn't say alot about me as a player but if i can get away with that for a large amount of the game then that isn't much of an improvement is it?

HL2 had touted uber a.i but the gameplay itself didn't really allow me to see that.

FArCry had a nice thing going with the troops using minor formations and hiding behind rocks and stuff but once you are in a bush those tactics soon come to an end.

and you'd think boosting the difficulty makes the a.i smarter but all it does is increase the hitscan% and reactions of the a.i. although they still act the same.

So i'm gonna say that Doom has the best a.i to this day because i'd bet that most of you didn't even notice it when you first got your hands on the game.

RTS games stopped improving in 2002.

FPS games stopped improving in 1998, when Half-Life came out.

Okay, so I overexaggerate, but honestly the computers haven't gotten a whole lot smarter in the last five years.

gbarules2999

You didn't exagerate, your talking non sense. Your on a PC Game forum telling everyone computers havn't improved in the last five years. hmm, heres a list of just a few improvements in the last 5 years..

Company of Heroes

Supreme Commander

Battlefield series

Counterstrike: Source

Half Life 2

Steam

DirectX 10

Vista

30" widescreen monitors

Dual Core Processers

SLi

Quad Core

500 gig hard drives

FEAR

Morrowind (and Oblivion)

I could go on and on. Things have improved imensly within the last five years. It's amazing just how far things have improved in the last year alone. Graphics cards have been coming out constantly and the choice to pick which one is right for you is harder now than it ever has been. Not to mention other pc hardware. Advancements in AI, if you were Australian id tell you to check out PC Powerplay as they had an article a few months back about AI from where is began to now and all the different types of AI which games use.

lol, its amusing to see people say stuffl like 'someone should work on it some more'. Ai programming is insanely hard. Its not like theyre not trying to make it better, its just often not feasible to really increase it by much for each game. Thats why they make harder difficulties have more powerful enemies(or they cheat), but this can be hard to balance properly. RTS games are the worst, i believe. In supcom, for example, they didnt try to hard with the ai, i think the reason given was simply that its just too difficult to make a good ai for such a large scale rts game.

The 'uber' games coming out this year (bioshock, crysis, halo 3, etc etc) will hopefully all make some good progress with ai.

The thing is tho, is that ai will most likely never be perfect. It can be proved (using logic, ironically) that logic that is capable of describing incredibly complex situations and actions (like thought processes) cannot be proven itself. Thus, a truly sentient ai program is impossible, with what we are capable of creating at this point in time. You never know, we may discover something, perhaps by studying the human mind, but until that day, ai will be limited to reactions to the player and the environment. They may use complex algorithms and may react in all sorts of different ways, to a large number of triggers, but its still just reaction.

Best AL ever was and it's F.E.A.R. Al.......no game has or it's near the Al of F.E.A.R.

Many Games tried but it was a desaster......stupid producers =\

Maybe Bioshock and Crysis will have smart Al.

Best AL ever was and it's F.E.A.R. Al.......no game has or it's near the Al of F.E.A.R.

Many Games tried but it was a desaster......stupid producers =\

Maybe Bioshock and Crysis will have smart Al.

xsqmko

Keep in mind that Fear is a linear game. Much tougher to program ai in a sandbox game like Stalker. As far as linear games go I say Gears of War beats Fear. They take cover better and pop out for shots in multiple positions.

I'm waiting on a game that actually makes good use of paths, cover, group tactics and individual AI behavior.

Paths: Gives AI many areas they can travel to, in order to track/hunt you, avoid you or just to get a better angle on you.

Cover: The ability to use anything that'll provide good protection from your gunfire.

Group Tactics: The group to work together; several split from the group to flank you from several directions while a few of them keep within your view, trying to keep you occupied while you're being flanked. If you can move freely throughout the level your playing in, the AI should have the same advantage and be able to work in groups on flanking you or driving you out from your coverage.

Individual: The ability to be able to run and gun, use cover to their advantage. If you pin down an enemy, s/he should be able to lob a granade your way to make you duck and cover, then take advantage of the situation and move positions around the corner, inside a building, etc... the best way to think of this is for anyone that plays CS:S. That's how people help move positions - throw a granade to distract and then move your butt to keep your opponent thinking.

A good mixture of all of these would make one hell of a FPS. I'm thinking, you get a mixture of STALKER, FEAR, FarCry and HalfLife 2 and you're off to a good start.

AI will improve, it'll just take time.

As technology improves AI will inevitably get better, take chess computers for example. I think there are two barriers to getting better AI, technology and money. To get a better AI in games you can simply increase the number of alogrithims per second, but the problem is that it takes a huge chunk of processing speed. When I was playing Galactic Civilizations II (great AI), by changing the difficulty of the game you can actually notice the difference between the load times after each turn.

Also, not everyone is really interested in the AI as much as other components of the game like graphics, multiplayer, storyline. Most people spend more time playing the multiplayer version, so AI would not be as useful as spending time and money on the gameplay and graphics. I mean how many people finishes the campaign before starting multiplayer?

P.S: Didn't "Brothers in Arms" had AI whichtakes cover, and uses supporting fire?

There will be no such thing as good AI for a while. That stuff is some hard programming making sure there are no flaws, but there always will be flaws. So I just stick with online gaming.SoberWarock

It's impossible to have "no flaws" not eve humans. :D

Well, if you compare the AI in FEAR and Half-Life 2, you will notice improvement. That being said, it depends on the game.firefly026

Anyways, just my 2 cents.

FEAR

Brothers in Arms

Far Cry

Republic Commando got some great AI

Overall do you see real improvements in A I over the last 5 years or so?F.E.A.R is sure an improvement,but do you see many RTS(or FPS) games with better tactics etc..? I v'e been playing mostly RTS games from several years back-so I'm curious.Ken1a

F.E.A.R. is improvement? lol you haven't played S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

ai? wazzat? :p

*ish dazzled by all the pretty graphics* lol

I'm really curious about Company of Heroes(next on the list!); I've read a lot of threads about how difficult the game is,but is that because of the better A.I or some other aspect?Ken1a

Overall do you see real improvements in A I over the last 5 years or so?F.E.A.R is sure an improvement,but do you see many RTS(or FPS) games with better tactics etc..? I v'e been playing mostly RTS games from several years back-so I'm curious.Ken1a

There are only 3 action/adventure/FPS games that have anything even vaguely representing AI:

1. Half-Life 1

2. FEAR

3. Far Cry

No other games I've played (note; that I've played) have anything taht can be called "AI". Unless "running head-on a t a bad-a$$ machine-gun wieleding marine who just wasted hundreds of your brethren without breaking a sweat" intelligent. Stupid HL:2, stupid Bioshock, stupid everything.

I should note that STALKER may have good AI, but until a patch is released, I won't really know.

Half-Life still holds the title in my book.It's the only game I've ever played in which I've actively noticed how great the AI is.

I still rememeber one time I played through Surface Tension: I got to the part where they shoot you down out of the ventilation shaft into a car maintanence garage, and I ran over to the nearest cover I could find, which happened to be a pole. In the heat of battle I didn't think of what the pole might be, I was just desperate for something that might block some of the bullets. To my surprise and amazement, I saw the nearest soldier stop firing, run up to a switch hanging from the ceiling, and kick it. I realized that the pole was part of a vehicle lift, and I was standing under an SUV right as said SUV dropped on my head, killing me instantly. To this day that moment sticks out in my mind as the coolest death I've ever experienced in a game, and it makes me realize that Half-Life's AI really is designed with one goal in mind: to kill you in the most efficient way possible.

Mediocre_man90

Absolutely. I was scared $hitless the first time through HL:1 back in the 90's; those bada$$ military types wee fierce and smart!

[QUOTE="Ken1a"]Overall do you see real improvements in A I over the last 5 years or so?F.E.A.R is sure an improvement,but do you see many RTS(or FPS) games with better tactics etc..? I v'e been playing mostly RTS games from several years back-so I'm curious.Jack_Summersby

There are only 3 action/adventure/FPS games that have anything even vaguely representing AI:

1. Half-Life 1

2. FEAR

3. Far Cry

No other games I've played (note; that I've played) have anything taht can be called "AI". Unless "running head-on a t a bad-a$$ machine-gun wieleding marine who just wasted hundreds of your brethren without breaking a sweat" intelligent. Stupid HL:2, stupid Bioshock, stupid everything.

I should note that STALKER may have good AI, but until a patch is released, I won't really know.

lol Jack despite the fact that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is buggy you must admit that it has pretty damn good AI