Every NPC has AI packages. Even your lowly bandit will have sandbox and patrol packages, and still have the ability to flee.
I do get your point about voice acting though. However I think reactions are a lot better than Oblivion, and it's just something that will hopefully improve further in future games.In a game this big, where every NPC has anything from 2-20 packages, they will overlap. Bugs will happen. When a dragon is killed and the town flock to see the dragon, say a remark and walk away, that's AI. When they stare at a dead body, make a remark and then continue on, that's AI. Standing out in the rain, in Oblivion only the homeless went under shelters. If I were a market stall owner, a bit of rain wouldn't put me off. Guards have to stay outside anyway, and smiths have to go on about their business. The world doesn't stop when it rains.

Dialogue has nothing to do with AI. That's just the lack of dialogue lines recorded. However I agree combat AI is a bit dodgy sometimes, but it always has been. The game was never promised ground breaking AI (that was Oblivion's E3 demo). It did however promise NPCs with schedules, decent combat AI and NPCs that react to what you've done. I think it does all this fairly well.

I got the one-man musical chairs part from another forumite. It made me laugh because that's what a lot of NPC's do. They sit down, stand back up, walk in a circle, sit back down, chew on some bread, stand up again, walk to a different chair, sit down, drink mead, stand back up again, sit down, blankly stare for a few minutes, stand back up, walk in a circle, sit back down, etc.

In fact, I just described Lydia's entire life when she isn't adventuring with the player.

I think we've gotten this "reacting to what PC does" part to mean a bit more... permanent reaction. Like beginning a mourning if a close person dies, for example - and there are people in mourning right from the start! Why this notice -> remark -> continue as normal pattern if the result is so hilarious / uncredible / stupid / outright bad as it is with Skyrim? I understand this as an experiment, but why do these experiments clearly still under construction need to be so big part of the hype of the game so that they are seen as failed promises? Or why do these under construction need to be in the game at all? Some company could keep all their more advanced AI development in secrecy and then just unleash out a game that would blow everyone away.



Haha, yeah! Tolfdir from the College was the first person that came to my mind, actually. He is most active when it comes to moving around, still staying mainly indoors. Lots of rooms to visit, lots of things to dreamily gaze at, and LOTS of chairs to sit on in the Hall of Attainment! He's living the NPC Dream!

I'd have been satisfied for example the. "We're currently in mourning" dialog would apply for all NPC's (in towns/villages) who lost a love one, and then maybe once a game month (trust me you've done it several times over) they pick up the Dialog on the particular day, and close up shope / visit the hall of the dead, SOMETHING. I don't need them perpetually in mourning after I've offed their spouse but come on.

you know what would have been nice? Holidays. lock up shops, sell for half price, give away free items to the player if nearby etc etc and if it rains? don't do it. its all there, I don't think I'm asking for anything thats not already being excercised else where in Skyrm ;p

though at this point I am notw asking for....events? rather than AI improvements me thinks.

What Iliked about obliv's AI was that they seemed to interact with each other. It was like they were living beings. Rather autistic about mudcrabs, but alive.

I have to disagree lol, they were more like dipstick mudcraps tbh...how quickly (not you) some peeps seem to forget the riviting conversations between NPC's lOLOL

Such people always bah, bah on about what there game can do and then the end game is not like the demos you saw. it's like Crysis 2, they just showed how great their engine is but half of the stuff got cut in the final game. E3 videos are also just marketing and then features usually get cut on the final version.

This video really speaks to me.

At this point, I am not looking for "absolutely miraculous", or even just miraculous. I am looking for something much more basic, which I naively assumed would be no-brainers: That I be recognized as head of the guild, and not some flunky. That the npcs wouldn't reintroduce themselves to me, several times in one game day, or within minutes.

Radient A.I.??? All that's going on in Skyrim is what's called a "Finite State Machine". It's the same A.I. video games have been using since..hell, the beginning of video games.

I like http://youtu.be/G3kSmdX9gJA better



I think the only 'attention to detail' that went on here was with respect to features that would look impressive and draw more casual gamers.

the stupid 3d map and 'cleaning' the interface seemed as though they were much more important than story lines or AI.

I agree, if anything the AI seems to have gone backwards in this game.