A comment on a article about Halo Infinite got me thinking;  why is enemy AI in video games still often so crappy?

To give a good example, in shooters it is common that an enemy will take cover behind a structure. But, they will then pop out from behind that structure into the exact same position on an exact schedule, say every 10 seconds. So, it is common for the player to simply stand in one place. Wait for the enemy to pop out from behind the thing and take a shot. If you miss, just wait another 10 seconds and try again.

In any real life situation, if you were hiding behind a box and knew that someone was trying to snipe you, maybe because a bullet just hit the box right next to you, you certainly wouldn't come out from behind that cover completely revealing yourself, on a set schedule, just waiting for the person to kill you.

And yeah, sure, enemies will often run from one piece of cover to another. But, then they go right back to the first one, back to the second one, back to the first one, back to the second one.

Anyway, I'd like to hear thoughts on why things are done this way. Is it because gamers want this? I can see where that might be the case. We know for sure that we will eventually get to kill that guy if we just stand here long enough and keep trying to hit him when he pops out from behind the box.

Is better AI is too expensive, in terms of system resources?  Is there some other reason I can't think of?

I think that AI in general is a little better than it was a couple of generations ago,  and some games do it better than others. But I can't think of a single example of a game that I would say has truly great enemy movement. The advances in AI definitely have not been anywhere near what they've been in other areas of gaming.   Physics continue to improve, graphics have improved big time, but the enemies are still dumb as rocks.....

I can be totally wrong, but I feel and think like the following:

If the AI is too good, it will be frustrating for the players. I guess most players want to feel like kind of "heroes" with their character (e.g. in a Shooter). If the enemy AI is too good and basically each single enemy could kill you, then there never will be the feeling like beating dozens or even hundreds enemies all alone. The enemy characters need to be ridiciously weak compared to the player character then, so that you can achieve that.
Of course there can be different difficulty levels, but when they really massively change the AI behaviour and not only like the damage dealt or the hitpoints (or some numeric values in general), then the effort for AI-making would be massive for some genres, I guess.

Yeah, I can see that. You're basically saying that the AI is this way because gamers want it this way.  

The only quibble I have with that explanation is that it would seem like there's a place in the market for some games to have more realistic AI, even if most games would continue to have stupid enemies like we have now.  And, while they're certainly are games that do it better than others, I can't think of a single example of a game where the enemies behave even remotely realisticly. 

Good AI is frustrating to play against. My favorite Metal Gear Solid game is the first one and the fact the enemies are dumb as fuck plays a big role in that.

Yep, any game with stealth is just horrific to play if enemies aren't as dumb as a plank. A lot of games just don't work well if AI actually have brains and a pair of ears.

You should play Max Payne 3 then as it does the opposite of what you're describing.

Enemies rarely pop out of cover on their own. However, they will always do it when you expose yourself.
Also they will try to flank you if you let them.

I recently completed it that's why my memory is still quite fresh. Played it on medium difficulty btw.

Realistic AI sounds annoying. Deathloop would have been too hard with real AI.

Halo has pretty good AI but AI is one of the elements of gaming I think has taken a big step back these last couple of gens to make way for graphics. Manhunt on PS2/Xbox is the most impressive stealth game I have ever played, fucking amazing AI. Fast forward to today and stealth sections in games like Last of Us or Ass Creed are complete jokes.

Even shooters like Halo, that same gen we had Halo and Halo 2 which had very good AI. And the next gen we got FEAR which had amazing AI. But now shooters are mostly linear and set piece oriented with heavily scripted encounters, so there’s no reason to have great AI.

It’s one reason Infinite is such a great change of pace in the genre. Speaking of genres, I think maybe racing games have evolved the most in terms of AI and that’s because of things like Drivatars where they try to incorporate real player data to make the AI more realistic.

Now that we're talking about AI, I miss games with good bots. So many old multiplayer games can still be played today thanks to bots, and even when nowadays every game has a multiplayer side to it, we don't see good bots anymore. Then again, maybe that's the thing, companies focus so much in online multiplayes, why bother with long term longevity when what you want is people jumping from game to game once support dries out?

Gamers aint shit, so enemy AI is gotta be shittier. Just take this forum as example, a couple of users here still think games like Dark Souls are legit incredibly hard and people who enjoy them like to torture themselves. If thats the standard, then yes, gamers are shit, and AI has to be shit.