Are they?

I'll be standing around, just enjoying my day, when all of a sudden a dragon attacks from nowhere. After a good fight the dragon is slain and bystanders are starring googley eyed at me. Then they decide they've seen enough and turn to leave only to have their AI drag them back to the dragon.

Why do two people who are having a conversation stare me down while continuing their conversation.

Why can I shoot an arrow at a bandit in sneak only to have the another bandit ask "did you hear that!?" and walk off in the opposite direction.


Is this not the same exact way NPCs were in Oblivion, why is the AI so dumb?

Did Todd Howard not say so himself that the AI had been improved? Well, I don't see any of it, looks like the same damn AI from Oblivion.



/rant

My joke got censored

I agree that if an NPC sees someone get killed or finds a dead body, they should hunt till they discover you.

http://i.imgur.com/yTgtu.jpg

It isn't that they're 'disabled.' Artificial Intelligence is more about the artificial part. It's the illusion of intelligence.

And in this case, they just aren't up to your standards, I guess.

I mean, it's not that it's horrible or anything, but it's the SAME AI from Oblivion, wasn't that released in, what,, 2006?

You think Beth would have tried to upgrade the AI for the game they put "so much TLC into"

In Oblivion the whole town would be staring at you.

In Oblivion every bandit in the cave would automatically know your localization and try to kill you, they wouldn't "lose" you.

Yup, its pretty much the same as Oblivion, just a slight bit better.... Well, only because NPCS dont stop and talk to one another now... But really thats just something they removed to give the illusion that its better.... When really its just the same thing. Granted it is somewhat an improvement, but not a major one... I hope its miles better in the next game, but, i highly doupt it.

I blame Bethesda slightly, but most of the blame goes to Xbox for being so craptastic.

Me: *shoots arrow, hits bandit in the forehead*
Bandit: What was that?
*10 seconds later*
Bandit: Guess it was my imagination. (arrow still stuck in forehead)

^ exactly.

Isn't that the truth

Maybe one day games will reach a standard so high that the #1 innovation and reason to buy them will be 'AI so smart you're suprised it's a video game,' but sadly that day isn't today.

In my opinion the a.i. is better than Oblivion's, but only slightly. The stealth gameplay requires better than that, perhaps like in Thief Deadly Shadows.

Hey the Elder Scrolls is incredible Meta. The AI seems to react the same way as NPCs in a classic Dungeons and Dragons game ("you failed a spot check and missed the pink yodeling elephant in the corner"). Sometimes it seems Bethesda did this on purpose.

Seriously, the OFFICIAL explanation for Lore problems is that some enlightened characters ARE AWARE that they can reload themselves and change history over and over...

I used to think dumb NPCs were cute in Oblivion, in Skyrim it's rather grotesque, probably because faces and models are improved. Something about uncanny valley.

Yep, the uncanny valley thing is why I end up killing most NPCs that I catch doing something stupid in Skyrim It repulses me.
Never cared about it in Morrowind or Oblivion.

I’ve yet to play a game where the AI was truly amazing. I played games where I went WOW for the first 60 min but after that started to discover a boat load of patterns that the AI follows and how to exploit them. There are however some things in Skyrim that truly bug me, they should have some sort of an alert status for NPCs and discovering a dead comrade should make an NPC really paranoid for 24 hours not a few seconds, having an arrow in your knee should make the NPC permanently paranoid.

Agreed =s that and i hope in the future they add hit boxs...

It doesn't seem quite as strange after reading stories like this: "Man shoots nail into brain without noticing." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16663332

Locational damage would have been great, too. It's annoying when i shoot a bandit with an arrow through the face and he just keeps charging me.

They made sneaking easier this time around; that you don't even need 100% chameleon to become invisible anymore.

To be fair, this time around NPCs actually yell at you if you get up on the table and run and knock all the stuff off of the table. And it's kind of neat (though annoying sometimes) when they return things you drop. So, an improvement. Not great but then nothing is perfect.


I know this is probably a really dumb question, but what are hit boxes?

In some areas there are slight improvements, in others, not at all. I get a disappointed when a bandit with an arrow stuck in him will say something like, "It was probably nothing." with an arrow sticking out of his back because his AI has decided to forget about me.

Personally, I think Todd, like a lot of these PR guys not really in touch with the Players, but more in touch with their execs and making money, just pay lip service when they say things like `improved AI`. Basically, they treat game players like children, even more now than before.

Yea, improved, but not very much at all.

Awesome.


There has got to be a modder somewhere that can improve the conditions, reactions and illusion... I hadn't played Skyrim for about a week. Fired it up. Walked into Whiterun. Immediately noticed how weird it was that everyone -- everyone -- decided to talk to me, even tell me their life story, while I was walking down the street.

(I know there's a mod for less NPC interaction, but the above is one of multiple problems with PC-NPC interaction.)

I do have to agree that the AI does need some fine-tuning, but I recently got into Saints Row the Third and that game shows how far Bethesda has come in terms of AI. I could drive on a sidewalk, running over pedestrians, and the cops don't bat an eye. But if I happen to punch a mailbox then a whole squad comes after me...