History Main / TheAllSeeingAI

* In [[CompanyOfHeroes]] the Computer AI can see through the fog, this means that AT Guns and Mortars are able to attack your units as long as you are in range.

* In STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl, once you blow your stealth, all nearby enemies will know exactly where you are. They can see through walls and bushes, they have infinite ammo, and are not affected by radiation. Fortunately, they suffer from the same [[ATeamFiring incredibly bad aim]] you do.

* Notable in {{Hitman}} 2, which being a StealthBasedGame is generally pretty good in this respect, is the snow pass level: the developers apparently forgot that a blizzard, ''at night'' ought to have some effect on the ninjas' ability to spot you; they're also preset to realise your papers are fake and open fire after a five-second animation - even if you walk away and are well out of sight by the time they're done reading them.

** It's similar in ''StarCraft'', with the Terran AI always placing their Comsat Scans at the ''exact'' location of your invisible units. To be fair, though, it doesn't exploit its knowledge until you give it a reason to "notice" the unit, so it's not ''that'' unfair.

Understandably, this doesn't make for a particularly fun playing experience, so most programmers try to make the AI act like it ''doesn't'' actually know everything. Unfortunately, most programmers don't really know all that much about human decision making processes (being programmers instead of psychologists), so what you usually get is a rough approximation of how a human player should be behaving at a certain point in the game. When they forget, or simply don't do a good enough job, you get an [[TheAllSeeingAI all-seeing AI]]. Against the all-seeing AI, all stealth is useless, no surprises are possible and it will never miss any shot. At all.

* Non-Video Game example. During the games on ReBoot Bob is able to use [DoAnythingRobot Glitch]] to scan the game and tell him what they are playing, what level he is on, where the User is, how many lives it has left, where the powerups are, et cetera.

*** More annoying than this is the ability for the AI to send subterranian APCs full of engineers or other troops right into the middle of your base, * even if the AI has never seen your base* . When you have control over the same APCs, you can't send them anywhere that you haven't already been.

* Averted in ''MarioKart Wii'', with the view-obscuring Blooper Ink interface screw. For regular players, it makes it hard to see what's up ahead of you, but certainly not hard to see where the track is. For computer-controlled players, however, expect to see extreme amounts of off-course racing when it happens!

** Also in the recently released ''Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing''(With Banjo-Kazooie), the Pocket Rainbow, which works like the Banana Peel of Mario Kart, but instead, acts like a Gooper Blooper. This is also Averted by the Shooting Star, which makes the player's screen upside-down.

* ''Advance Wars'' AI is often unaffected by Fog of War.

This, however, has the consequence that computer players get an unfair advantage over human players in situations where the latter's view of the game world is obscured. Since the AI doesn't need to look at a screen, it isn't bothered by darkness. Since it is effectively everywhere at once, it doesn't care about walls. Since it doesn't have to use an interface, it's performance won't be inhibited by {{Interface Screw}}s. And since it is part of the same engine that keeps track of where your units are, it will never be bothered by the FogOfWar. The AI is the narrator of the story and if you win, it's only because it told you so.

** Judging by [[http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=1597 certain experimental results]], it would appear that the AI also watches for groups that the human player marks with a hotkey for mass attacks.

*** On the other hand, playing against a human in StarCraft, you can hide tech buildings in a random corner of the map where no sane player would look until he/she noticed the buildings not in your base (Which in of itself, it easily preventable); on the other hand, there's no point in hiding tech buildings from the computer. You're better off putting your entire tech tree in the back of your main base, behind your army and possible stationary defenses, ironically enough, a tactic that doesn't work against humans. (Humans just simply fly over your army and defenses and go straight for important buildings, the computer attacks the first thing it comes across.)
*** Also, like the Warcraft example below, the computer will always go for your least defended base without seeming to even know where it is before the attack.

* A lot of the {{Yu-Gi-Oh}} games before the DS's release have done this. While this was perfectly justified for Pegasus, who actually had this ability in the series, it doesn't excuse the other opponents. Of course, the reason for this before the DS could have been programming restraints.

* FarCry 2 averts this, if the player quickly runs away from a gunfight and slips off in another direction, the AI will presume he's is still in the last known location and maintain suppressing fire.

* FarCry 2 averts this, if the player quickly runs away from a gunfight slips off in another direction the AI will presume the he is still in the last known location and maintain suppressing fire.
** Also played straight in that once one bad guy has spotted you, every goon in the area ''instantly'' knows exactly where you are, and can hit you with pinpoint accuracy even when you're crouching in thick grass above your head, despite the fact you can't see them through said grass. Darkness also seems little hindrance.

* FarCry 2 Averts this, if the player quickly runs away from a gunfight slips off in another direction the AI will presume the he is still in the last known location and maintain suppressing fire.