If I choose to be a sneaky type in this game then I hope the game provides at least decent AI. Not like Skyrim where bandits are "imagining" their comrades being shot in the head by an arrow (best game I've played but still). Hopefully Arkane Studios will make this a top priority.

Thief managed it, oh, almost two decades ago now, so it's not difficult to implement, and Arkane Studios seems intent on releasing a quality product. I have no worries on this front.

Bethesda had nothing to do with Dishonored, they just publish it. Dishonored will be nothing like TES or Fallout3.

I know Arkane is developing it but that doesn't guarantee a quality product. I'm not sure if I'm gonna buy it and it all depends on the AI for me.

There's no way they're going to miss out on something so simple. Over the years they've been gathering exactly the kind of people that understand and appreciate the "simulation" genre. It's such a rookie mistake... Bethesda does it because they're all about the pretty graphics and open world. Arkane focuses on gameplay and illustrative storytelling. If you're going to focus on action-stealth gameplay, you have to have your AI be as realistic as possible. I'm 99.9% sure your worry is unfounded.

Good AI that recognizes stealth and frontal assaults and any combination of the two is tough to do. Really tough. The AI in Crysis was incredibly complex, but often behaved incredibly stupidly for exactly that reason.

Thief was mentioned, but the Thief devs actually masked a lot of rudimentary AI programming with some really smart design choices in other areas. The slow combat and running speed, the fact that the guards are presented as being unbelievably dumb from the beginning , etc. The whole reason the game starts off with the famous bear pits conversation is to show that you're dealing some DUMB guards. Deus Ex struggled with the AI because they didn't have any of those advantages.

I don't really mind "bad" AI in these kinds of games as long as it has learnable patterns, but I'd be surprised if the AI in Dishonored gave off the illusion of being as "good" as more scripted games. People complained about the AI in Human Revolution, even though it was probably the best we've seen in this style of game, so I'm sure they'll complain about this.

I just don't see it being a problem for them. They already have a base from which to work because of Dark Messiah and Arx Fatalis. Anyone care to pitch in on how skilled/poor the games were re: AI?

Having a "keep looking for X minutes -- first the streets, then buildings" code doesn't seem like it would be that difficult to do... What problems do you foresee? They've already mentioned that if you do get into combat, more and more guards are going to pile into the fight. I can't imagine they'd let the tension be resolved just by the player hiding for 1 minute.

If anything, the Chaos system suggests that the more noticed you are, the more you'll antagonise the environment. Guards will be more alert, etc.


But how long ago was Thief? And they didn't have a lot of other experience/code on which to build when they made that game.


I thought DE:HR's AI was pretty good... People will complain about everything.

If their planing to make the NPC and guards "dumb" then I'm not buying it. Hopefully it will be done differently or else it will become incredibly easy and plain. That doesn't leave much for replayability.

I have high hopes for the AI of Dishonored. It is a simulation, not a game made of scripted events, and the one thing that a good simulation needs is good AI. There will be good AI. Do not worry.
Like Assassin's Creed minus hiding in haybails!

But the dumb guards in Theif were 20 years ago

Still, there aren't many games with really good AI.

True, but I believe that Dishonored will

I like the idea of a bunch of devs sitting around planning a game and saying "you know what this really needs? Dumb AI."

The problem isn't that the AI might be 'dumb,' it's that these types of games, which allow tons of player freedom, have inherently complex AI, and there hasn't been a game yet that has made it work as convincingly as something like FEAR. FEAR actually has relatively simple AI that appears smart because they only have to do a handful of things and do them in a way that implies intelligence.

Anyone who's interested can read the pdf at this absurdly long link:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1358663-im-hoping-for-some-good-ai/s&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CEQQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.media.mit.edu%2F~jorkin%2Fgdc2006_orkin_jeff_fear.doc&ei=eKRiT72gOYnYtgfW0ZXiBw&usg=AFQjCNFJiBuiK5NOPtW17hYf32B5DC768w&sig2=-27k7aJhcFLHpfBGGjiMIg

In these kinds of games, however, the AI has to have all the combat states of an action game, as well as several states for stealth: patrolling, suspicious, etc. AND it has to know when to switch between those states in a way that isn't jarring, AND it has to do it in relatively open, changeable, and simulated space. It's a really tough nut to crack, and it's part of the reason why the soldiers in Crysis seem super intelligent and hunt you down one moment, and then run into a wall like an idiot the next. If anyone would like to propose a way to make the AI not occasionally 'dumb' under those circumstances, I'm sure a lot of devs out there would like to hear it.

Anyway, I'm not an AI expert, I'm just kind of repeating what smarter people have told me, so take that with a grain of salt, but it shouldn't be too far off the mark. When people complain that games like this have "worse" AI than Fear or Halo, I do have to kind of laugh.

That said, maybe Arkane will just nail it and it'll be awesome, so we'll see. But I'm not going to be at all pissed if it's a little bit goofy sometimes.

That's the key thing though. The AI doesn't need more than a handful of things to do/reactions. Humans don't react in many ways. If you were to put them down like commands I can think of this right now: Patrol, search, chase, call for backup/raise alarm. Those commands are the most necessary as they're the most valid.

I'm not a Dev so I'm not going to pretend I have all the answers but in this case I think less is better. Sure it can get goofy sometimes but then again I'm not demanding perfection. Just a good implemented AI that works most of the time.

You'll get that and a little bit more (if they do it right). They've taken pains to emphasise the Chaos system... If you don't know what that is, http://dishonored.wikia.com/wiki/Dishonored#Chaos.

Yes, the Chaos system sounds great and all that but it needs to works properly. Guess we'll just have to see when it comes out.

I just want them the devs to take notes from System Shock 2's enemies, it made that game into more of a horror hearing things groan and not knowing where the hell they were

It's been a while since I've seen brilliant AI. Here is to hoping Dishonored bucks that trend.