NPC Behaviour

[Mistery14]

I think I've talked about this before, but hell, it's the steam community, there's a lot of posts that ressemble eachother.
I'll make it short;
What would you guys think about a more dynamic NPC AI ?

For example, the NPCs in Conan Exiles (right now, as in Oct 2020) Are pretty much behaving all the same, whether it is human or animal NPCs, if they are chasing you and if you climb a small rock/grip onto a surface, they'll either abandon the chase or shoot you with a bow and arrow if they have it, which, I don't think animal NPCs are able to use. Same with water, no NPC can swim, currently, which is a shame. I understand the game isn't complete yet.

How about this, in terms of human AI, for example?
A change where NPCs actively seek to outsmart you, if you climb up a tree, they could perhaps start to chop the tree you're on or try to destroy it. If you climb up a large rock, or if they cannot reach you, they could either climb to get to you, or start picking up rocks to throw at you? (similar to the Assassin's creed series, it worked well and was immersive).
Perhaps a dynamic system where small camps are nomadic, or more interactive with the environments, growing bigger overtime, even hunter-gatherer groups, NPCs gathering resources (could just be animations) or anything of the sort. Something pretty immersive for players, basically, instead of it being a mere NPC spawn that provides the player with loot and a mild annoyance from time to time.

I understand this might not appeal to everyone and this is purely subjective, but, it was just a random little thought.

What do you guys think the devs could add to the game, a feature to make the NPCs behave a little better, to your taste?

___________________________________________________________________________


TL;DR: Game NPC AI is a little bland and too less interactive to my taste even though it's still in developpement, just thought of sharing what I think the devs could bring to the game in terms of AI. What would you think they could add/change?

[Twister]

No doubt the game def needs better AI, its so easy to cheese the NPC's and was one of the main reasons why I left the game, it was just too easy..

[Shadex]

I have always gotten a chuckle out of the fact that you can escape an alligator by jumping into the WATER. Why? Why even put them into the game. It would be as if they filled the game with birds that never left the ground... oh wait. *facepalm*

[Ajita Songo]

Every game I've played needs better AI, especially this one. Would be nice for the NPCs to be a real challenge.

[Scourn]

ark has 168 dinosaurs. All said dinos cannot get around trees and constantly get stuck unless they are big enough to break them. T-Rex and carnos spin in circles while eating dinos they kill allowing you to shot them dead with a bow without being hit. All dinos you can stand on any rock they cannot climb and they will sit under you while you bola/bow/gun them to death without being hit. Ark's AI is considered one of the better games on unreal engine 4.
Morale of the story - I think its pretty safe to say this is a engine limitation and not the game itself sadly.

[kevink27]

I always wanted a thrall to open and close gates or drawbridges, but honestly, I just want them to let the base game alone. They have screwed it up for me just about every time they change things. As for the AI, I wish the fighting attacks were more varied in melee. After you kill your first 20,000 or so it gets repetitive.

[Dread Swoop]

Originally posted by kevink27:

As for the AI, I wish the fighting attacks were more varied in melee. After you kill your first 20,000 or so it gets repetitive.

The system Funcom currently has in place for mapping out NPC combos appears relatively simple to work with, so it's possible that there would be an update at some point. Especially given that Funcom restructured the combo system with the Siptah update.

EDIT: spelling

[kevink27]

that sounds great if they don't make it too tough, Dread. Games hard enough for me now playing without a thrall.

[old.school]

Originally posted by Scourn:

ark has 168 dinosaurs. All said dinos cannot get around trees and constantly get stuck unless they are big enough to break them. T-Rex and carnos spin in circles while eating dinos they kill allowing you to shot them dead with a bow without being hit. All dinos you can stand on any rock they cannot climb and they will sit under you while you bola/bow/gun them to death without being hit. Ark's AI is considered one of the better games on unreal engine 4.
Morale of the story - I think its pretty safe to say this is a engine limitation and not the game itself sadly.

I think Conan got around that limitation by allowing mobs to teleport right?

I prefer Conan for the setting, combat which is slightly better, graphics, and boobies. But i prefer the way AI acts in ARK vs Conan. Fishes that swim around and i think you can even ride? croc-dinos and turtles that can go in both water and on land. Klepto-Birds and Pterodactyls that can fly, land and also move a bit when on ground. I also like how AI has a much wider pat range. I've seen a Bronto come into view like 300feet away from my base slooooowly making its way closer until it was stomping on my base until i had to evac. That was actually a fun/funny experience. I think also tamed dinos can wander around a bit if you set their behavior to the right setting.

Its just seeing all that in ARK then coming to Conan and truncheon-ing a mob and watching its ragdoll flip the eff out as i drag it to my base and then after the wheel putting it on guard duty to barely watching it move is kinda depressing. I built a base close to a three skull rhino and got it into a fight with 5 of my thrall fighters but it just turned into an evade-bugged clip-through-terrain fest. I had another base in Nord country but of my 6 defenders only 3 will reliably engage wolves that get nearby while the others just stand there.

[SaltyBalls]

Originally posted by Mistery14:

I think I've talked about this before, but hell, it's the steam community, there's a lot of posts that ressemble eachother.
I'll make it short;
What would you guys think about a more dynamic NPC AI ?

For example, the NPCs in Conan Exiles (right now, as in Oct 2020) Are pretty much behaving all the same, whether it is human or animal NPCs, if they are chasing you and if you climb a small rock/grip onto a surface, they'll either abandon the chase or shoot you with a bow and arrow if they have it, which, I don't think animal NPCs are able to use. Same with water, no NPC can swim, currently, which is a shame. I understand the game isn't complete yet.

How about this, in terms of human AI, for example?
A change where NPCs actively seek to outsmart you, if you climb up a tree, they could perhaps start to chop the tree you're on or try to destroy it. If you climb up a large rock, or if they cannot reach you, they could either climb to get to you, or start picking up rocks to throw at you? (similar to the Assassin's creed series, it worked well and was immersive).
Perhaps a dynamic system where small camps are nomadic, or more interactive with the environments, growing bigger overtime, even hunter-gatherer groups, NPCs gathering resources (could just be animations) or anything of the sort. Something pretty immersive for players, basically, instead of it being a mere NPC spawn that provides the player with loot and a mild annoyance from time to time.

I understand this might not appeal to everyone and this is purely subjective, but, it was just a random little thought.

What do you guys think the devs could add to the game, a feature to make the NPCs behave a little better, to your taste?

___________________________________________________________________________


TL;DR: Game NPC AI is a little bland and too less interactive to my taste even though it's still in developpement, just thought of sharing what I think the devs could bring to the game in terms of AI. What would you think they could add/change?

Sorry Bro its a nice thought but that would mean they would have to rework stuff and funcom never gonna do that there AI has always been bad people just keep buying it so why should they change

[Mistery14]

Originally posted by The Apache Kid:

Sorry Bro its a nice thought but that would mean they would have to rework stuff and funcom never gonna do that there AI has always been bad people just keep buying it so why should they change

Good point. I guess we'll see, man, who knows, not that I'm optimistic about it but yeah would be a pleasant surprise wouldn't it?

Also, what the hell lol, I thought no one would ever reply to this thread ever lmao. I'm glad people are interested though.

[Raven]

Honestly, my oppenion, dont think they give a ♥♥♥♥.

[Scourn]

Originally posted by old.school:

Originally posted by Scourn:

ark has 168 dinosaurs. All said dinos cannot get around trees and constantly get stuck unless they are big enough to break them. T-Rex and carnos spin in circles while eating dinos they kill allowing you to shot them dead with a bow without being hit. All dinos you can stand on any rock they cannot climb and they will sit under you while you bola/bow/gun them to death without being hit. Ark's AI is considered one of the better games on unreal engine 4.
Morale of the story - I think its pretty safe to say this is a engine limitation and not the game itself sadly.

I think Conan got around that limitation by allowing mobs to teleport right?

I prefer Conan for the setting, combat which is slightly better, graphics, and boobies. But i prefer the way AI acts in ARK vs Conan. Fishes that swim around and i think you can even ride? croc-dinos and turtles that can go in both water and on land. Klepto-Birds and Pterodactyls that can fly, land and also move a bit when on ground. I also like how AI has a much wider pat range. I've seen a Bronto come into view like 300feet away from my base slooooowly making its way closer until it was stomping on my base until i had to evac. That was actually a fun/funny experience. I think also tamed dinos can wander around a bit if you set their behavior to the right setting.

Its just seeing all that in ARK then coming to Conan and truncheon-ing a mob and watching its ragdoll flip the eff out as i drag it to my base and then after the wheel putting it on guard duty to barely watching it move is kinda depressing. I built a base close to a three skull rhino and got it into a fight with 5 of my thrall fighters but it just turned into an evade-bugged clip-through-terrain fest. I had another base in Nord country but of my 6 defenders only 3 will reliably engage wolves that get nearby while the others just stand there.

arks AI is derpy also , the only saving grace is mechanics attached to mobs. But the actual AI is simplistic. I agree that ark has the better of the two for AI and the leveling system in Ark for pets/mounts is leagues better than anything funcom could do because they are honestly just lazy period and you can tell in their dev streams as they make excuses and only take soft ball questions. But Ark does miss one thing that conan has and thats the combat system in general. NPC's use combos so you have to think more on your feet. Same with Conan having much better combat and skill/feat systems in place. I have 1700 hours in Ark and almost 1000 here in conan I enjoy both games for different reasons but just my opinion.

[BondageSpider]

Having follower AI in the style of Dwarf Fortress or RimWorld would be really interesting, but it would also be nigh impossible to implement and would make this an entirely different game.

For example, it would be neat if I could just order thralls to check the fish traps every morning, take the fish to the cook, take the cooked fish to the thrall pots and feeding boxes, etc. However, aside from needing AI orders of magnitude more complex than what the game has now, it would leave the player with much less to do: Twiddling around with base management is the good part for players who find it relaxing, so automating it would take some of the fun out of base building.

The AI troubles have been more noticable lately for solo players because various nerfs to player abilities have made relying on thralls to fight your battles standard procedure. If your thrall makes mistakes, it costs you more now than it did back when you didn't need their help that much.

[Knight of Slaanesh]

Originally posted by Mistery14:

Originally posted by The Apache Kid:

Sorry Bro its a nice thought but that would mean they would have to rework stuff and funcom never gonna do that there AI has always been bad people just keep buying it so why should they change

Good point. I guess we'll see, man, who knows, not that I'm optimistic about it but yeah would be a pleasant surprise wouldn't it?

Also, what the hell lol, I thought no one would ever reply to this thread ever lmao. I'm glad people are interested though.

they dont give a ♥♥♥♥, believe us.

[Scourn]

Originally posted by Knight of Slaanesh:

Originally posted by Mistery14:

Good point. I guess we'll see, man, who knows, not that I'm optimistic about it but yeah would be a pleasant surprise wouldn't it?

Also, what the hell lol, I thought no one would ever reply to this thread ever lmao. I'm glad people are interested though.

they dont give a ♥♥♥♥, believe us.

this 1000% they have had since 2015 to address player concerns and instead of doing so they have blanket nerfed or changed things constantly the community never wanted. All you have to do is look at age of conan and the secret world to know how funcom cares about their community input.