Artificial Intelligence In Video Games

Artificial Intelligence. This is a term you will hear a lot in Video Games, but I wonder if people really understand what it means.

For example, I get this one magazine titled PC Gamer. A common complaint it lists with the video games it reviews is poor AI. In fact, in one review, it goes into Deadpan Snarker mode with showing AI dos and don'ts, and showing that the dos are stupid, and the don'ts are smart.

Personally, I want to contact them and give them a Big "SHUT UP!"! I spent years learning about AI in post-secondary education. I can tell you that when you try to mimic human behaviour, you have to allow for some flaws. If the opponent behaved perfectly every time, wouldn't it just bore you?

I'm just saying that critics at least need to understand what they're talking about, and have a good idea of what they want. Otherwise, it's just empty complaining.

Please elaborate. I don't get why would having natural reactions from characters supposed to be natural would be boring.

There's a difference between an AI character that behaves perfectly all the time, and one that gets hung up on a corner, and can't figure out how to get around it.

This stuff does matter, though. Left 4 Dead is most often played with other people, because relying on bots to carry you through can prove disastrous, as they won't think of everything a human might do in a dangerous situation. It's kinda the same with Counter Strike: Global Offensive, where bots take a bit too long to react to seeing a player before shooting at them, from what I've seen.

Good game AI sometimes relies on putting in a lot of map nodes for them to follow, flags to tell them what to do, and so on. It's different when you have an AI player that's supposed to behave like a player instead of being an NPC.

edited 9th Sep '12 1:03:26 PM by RocketDude

Hmm... No AI system is perfect. First Encounter Assault Recon had the AI as a major selling point, and it was damned good when all it had to deal with was a player. One thing the AI in that game couldn't do was fight itself, for example.

Of course different people believe "Good AI" means different things. There's people that believe Good AI just means they should be effective at killing the player, people that believe good AI means they need to behave like another player, people that believe good AI means they should act as realistic as possible...

And the latter two are ridiculously unrealistic expectations at this point.

Dead Or Alive players know how unbelievably frustrating AI can be when it's too good.

Combine with SNK Boss and you have this.◊