Jump to content

AI Observations and Whiteout Easter Egg


Tarvin

Recommended Posts

I did another round of just observing how the AI does things and noticed a few different things.

On Whiteout the AI does not go into the tunnels. I had my character stand in a tunnel while I was doing other things and nothing happened. No AI ever showed up but preferred to go up and over.

AI also do not recognize the mannable turrets.

Apparently, the AI can get bored as well. I went into the AF tower and stood in the part where the elevator once was (please bring this back by the way) and a marksman came around the corner and understandably started shooting and dancing around me as I was on GDI. I noticed and started shooting back with a pistol but after a bit the marksman ran off. Maybe it realized I was using God Mode and it was futile but if that was the case, it was the first time this has happened.

GDI likes to play bumper cars. I grabbed an Orca and just loitered in the air after donating a huge amount of money to the AI team just to see what would happen. It took a little while but they all realized they had money and a rush of Humvees and APCs start popping out. A bit later I noticed an MRL and an APC just driving into eachother inching back and forth as they tested who could out push who. The MRL got bored, turned away, paused, and then drove off after where the APC went.

The final observation of AI behavior is that the AI never get into an occupied transport vehicle defeating the entire purpose.

At the back of the NOD base on Whiteout I spotted something strange. A small, not much taller than a regular infantry unit, mech armor suit. Unfortunately the match ended before I got around to taking a screenshot of it. Has anyone else seen this?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

At the back of the NOD base on Whiteout I spotted something strange. A small, not much taller than a regular infantry unit, mech armor suit. Unfortunately the match ended before I got around to taking a screenshot of it. Has anyone else seen this?

Dit it look something like this?

Shot00006-1.jpg

MayhemweldingBot-1.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ah ye, always so easy and fun to pick on something as complex as AI right ? This is a free MULTIPLAYER shooter done on weekends and evenings. If you want human like AI you should look somewhere else. AI was mainly done for when we werent even closed beta. So that the devs had a way to somewhat play the game and test gunplay. Since then we barely touched AI and dont intend to work on it much more.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I understand what you say RypeL and it's good to write this down, but I don't feel like this guy just put this down to flame something, he did effort to write down issues in order to compensate.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ah ye, always so easy and fun to pick on something as complex as AI right ?

I wasn't doing anything to pick on anything. I was just curious to see what the AI does without people being involved.

I happen to think what happened with the Hotwires was particularly awesome and is a huge plus. Nothing is more terrifying than the thought of a bunch of Hotwires running toward you with the knowledge that all of them may be bent on attaching C4 to your face. I think it would be epic if that were intentionally tweaked and made a feature of the Hotwire and Technician AIs rather than done away with.

I was just putting down minor and for me at least, entertaining random things that happen.

It's only a minor issue that the AI doesn't recognize the manned emplacements and doesn't get into already occupied vehicles. Fixing those issues would take a good deal of work and aren't important because it is a multiplayer game where the AI performance comes second to the player experience.

The AI ignoring the tunnel at most is a patching issue or at worse is a fault inherent in the Unreal engine which is nothing that could be fixed by developers.

As for the running into eachother... The AI still more competently drive vehicles than some people I've seen. Once I saw someone spend 10 minutes of a marathon match alternating between trying to drive a humvee or APC on top of the barracks.

The not recognizing emplacements is understandable because the AI would have to be programmed to only man them when enemies are or may be within range of the emplacements and then leave them afterward. Not a small task. A threat recognition zone would have to be created around the entrance and if an enemy enters that zone any free units in the area would be called to the turrets and kicked out of the turrets when the threat zone has no enemies in it again.

Besides, if I didn't love the game I wouldn't play it nearly every day. That's the only reason I've noticed these things because I tear into every aspect of the game finding ways to improve something I already love. That's what I do as a game designer. If I didn't love the game and didn't care about it I wouldn't bother looking for minor issues that could one day be solved to make, one day, every aspect of it near perfect.

It is a wonderful piece of work and as one who tried to get people to work on games with the anticipation of getting payment after the product starts making money... It's a fantastic achievement that a team of volunteers have crafted a game better and more well thought out than many AAA titles I've played and without any real hope of getting payment.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

At the back of the NOD base on Whiteout I spotted something strange. A small, not much taller than a regular infantry unit, mech armor suit. Unfortunately the match ended before I got around to taking a screenshot of it. Has anyone else seen this?

Dit it look something like this?

Shot00006-1.jpg

never seen it, always hoped to. It is a default character from Unreal, that the AI for some unknown reason chooses to play as even though it is an unused character.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Totem Arts Staff
Ah ye, always so easy and fun to pick on something as complex as AI right ? This is a free MULTIPLAYER shooter done on weekends and evenings. If you want human like AI you should look somewhere else. AI was mainly done for when we werent even closed beta. So that the devs had a way to somewhat play the game and test gunplay. Since then we barely touched AI and dont intend to work on it much more.

I don't think he's complaining...

...but if it does bother people so much, let me try to look on the AI when Beta 4 is out. About time I sharpen my rusty UnrealScript experience :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One thing I do as a designer to hone my own skill is to tear into every aspect of games that I love to learn from them. Find little things here or there to look for in my own games that I design for the purpose of shaping a flawless experience for gamers, if such a thing is possible.

This also extends to games that I hate and can't stand playing but do anyways. This isn't one of those. All the observations I've made are because I love Renegade X and want to help make it that flawless experience that I strive for in my own designs.

My studying the game so closely is an indication that I am impressed with it enough to where I would be proud to have any connection to it even as loose as just making suggestions in a forum.

Mostly, I'm just sharing things that I've found because I find them curious and wanted to know what interesting things others have noticed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In my opinion the AI is pretty good already . . . like any game AI is more just there to fill the space and prevent matches from being empty or quiet. Seeing a random UT3 character is kinda funny.

BTW is there a bot stand-in system? Like a way to have a server where bots will fill all the spaces and quiet when a player joins? (like Blacklight has) Sure the AI's are retarded, but AI's are retarded in most games, and often do find themselves getting to a "bored" point, meaning they hit a dead end script. (Just kill them and they start fresh)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...