By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Microsoft Discussion - Peter Molyneux promises advanced AI

ArtofAngels on 19 February 2008
mrstickball said:
ArtofAngels -

How long have you been playing video games for? Do you remember when 10 years ago, 3d pathfinding for enemies was so stupid, they would merely "lock on" to your character, and attempt to attack. In games such as Tomb Raider, if you were on a higher elevation than melee enemies, they were automatically dead, since they couldn't pathfind to your location.

Now, that's never, ever the case. AI is much better - not only do they have excellent pathfinding, but can stalk, flank, and outmaneuver your characters - all thanks to the faster CPUs allowing for more AI abilities.

Go look at Radiant AI from Oblivion - NPCs have their own work schedules, and can preform various economic functions, work at jobs, have fairly decent pathfinding abilities, and a host of other things. Did last-gen games have that level of AI complexity? No. Heck, half of the reason Oblivion was delayed from November 2005 to March 2006 was because the AI was "too complex" and would steal from the player character, hide it away, and grow too wealthy, taking over entire towns because the AI was "too smart".

That's why AI is very important - the better the AI, the more NPCs, enemies, squadmates, and various characters will have in games, and the more onscreen can complete important, complex tasks, making games "more real".

Because maybe you like it, but I prefer offline games with squadmates that don't act stupid - its real easy to play many FPS/TPS games in co-op with a real live player because they rarely make stupid mistakes that AI squadmates do. With better AI, this dissapears.


As for Peter's comment - I have very little faith in him. Fable 1 was supposed to have all kinds of revolutionary content, but it didn't.

To answer your question, I have never played video games in my life, who's Mario?

Yes I remember when AI was horrible, but back then, I was happy with it.

Also, fair enough you are using the past as an example, but fast forward to todays date, and that's when I asked my question.

One example you did use that I agree on completely, and I thank you for bringing it up, is yes, RTS, they still today can be so fucking stupid.



Around the Network
HappySqurriel on 19 February 2008

After his insane promises with both Fable and Black and White, any promise Peter Molyneux makes should be taken with a boulder of salt.



Kyros on 19 February 2008

"Read the link Kyros, Ubisoft reckons PS3 exclusivity wouldnt alter it's AI limitations."

", but they also state they doubt they would be able to achieve what they're doing with the game on the 360 on the ps3 even if it was ps3 exclusive."

Nobody said anything about AI in this section. Unless you have the original article somewhere. Besides developers of 360 exclusive games speak favorably of the system they develop for. News at Nine.



starcraft on 19 February 2008

lol. true.

Nonetheless, Fable was excellent, and I think Microsoft is wary of letting him promise anything that Lionhead cannot deliver.



starcraft - Playing Games = FUN, Talking about Games = SERIOUS

twesterm on 19 February 2008

Ugh every time Molyneux talks a little part of me dies a little on the inside. I've seriously learned to just ignore this guy as he always promises the world and always fails to deliver.



 

Around the Network
rocketpig on 19 February 2008

If I listen to Molyneux, I will always be disappointed in his games.

If I ignore him and just play the game when it releases, I'm usually pretty happy with the experience.




Or check out my new webcomic: http://selfcentent.com/

okr on 19 February 2008

Molyneux and his promises...the game whisperer, always promising old wine in new skins.

He should have rather called the 1st Fable "Thee Olde Hyrule Albion". Still a nice game, though, and he at least admitted having borrowed "some elements" from Zelda.

I'll always have fond memories of his excellent earlier works - especially Dungeon Keeper, Syndicate & Magic Carpet.



libellule on 19 February 2008

Syndicate was from Molyneux ???

hum, Populous was from Molyneux
Populous was Bullfrog
then Molyneux = Bullfrog
then Syndicate was from Molyneux too ... then Powermonger was Molyneux too

interesting ...



Time to Work !

FilaBrasileiro on 19 February 2008
starcraft said:
libellule said:
I dont care of Splinter Cell Conviction lol.
It is not about the game, it is about the developpers. So far only Ubisoft have stated this. Nobody else.

In fact,

Is ur thread about Advanced IA on a new Peter's project ????? (see ur title)

or

is it another way to bash the PS3 ????? (limited IA on PS3)

Then I can bring u other poor past attempts :

EGM/1up : worst IA : Killzone2, so good to judge a not released game
best IA: Halo3, judging how poor is the Ally IA in Halo3 ...

or even people commenting the MGS4 demo IA that was volontary set on "easy" ...

Finally, it is funny that people making FarCry2 (Ubisoft again) just recently praised the PS3 developement saying there was no problem with the black box possibility ...

Actually about half an hour ago I started a thread about the red ring of death, so that theory just flew out the window.

The ally AI in HAlo 3 is fine, but the enemy AI is FANTASTIC.

As for FarCry 2. In my OP i noted that eventually the PS3 is likely to have a marginal graphical advantage over the Xbox 360, but in the FarCry2 comments there was nothing said about AI from memory, only about streaming large environments.

And given you state that you know nothing of the possibilities of both these consoles, why do you doubt the people that do? 


The ally AI in Halo 3 sucks a lot of ass.

Kasz216 on 19 February 2008
mrstickball said:


Go look at Radiant AI from Oblivion - NPCs have their own work schedules, and can preform various economic functions, work at jobs, have fairly decent pathfinding abilities, and a host of other things. Did last-gen games have that level of AI complexity? No. Heck, half of the reason Oblivion was delayed from November 2005 to March 2006 was because the AI was "too complex" and would steal from the player character, hide it away, and grow too wealthy, taking over entire towns because the AI was "too smart".


That actually sounds awesome.

I'm still looking for the game where you are just a person in the world. Instead of some sort of amazing demigod who is ten times smarter then everyone else and can shoot lightining bolts out of your ass.

Games where the world changes around you without you doing anything, like for example you are an RPG during war times and the RPG changes differently each time because you never know how the two AI's are going to clash vs each other. 

Or games where you just have to survive... or have to work real hard to change things while the Ai's do most of the work.  Then again I am a fan of Ai's as i often like to set the computer against itself.  My favorite memories of Age of Empires 2 is collecting different AI's and facing them vs each other.

I'd really like to see an AI competition i guess.