In single player games you have NPCs (non-player characters) and in multiplayer games you have bots (again, computer controlled characters). For instance, Team Fortress 2 has bots and Half-Life 2 has NPCs.
The difference is, bots behave and mimic actual human beings. They are bound by the same rules, and have the same controls and range of motion as human players. It's hard to distinguish the difference at times, granted they're far from perfect.
NPCs on the other hand, seem to be this "dumb" AI the article is referencing. They are intentionally made this way to serve a simple, singular purpose. They are either scripted for dialogue or just peppered throughout the map as meat puppets.
Why is it that we aren't seeing the bot approach to AI implanted into single player games? Why aren't we facing opponents who have their own missions/agendas in single player games, who are bound to the same controls/restrictions/exploits as yourself?
The current AI approach is to place enemies in hiding positions who want nothing more than to fight you to the death, without any purpose or reason.
I want AI that wants to do something, like another player would, that isn't concerned with me in particular, that has it's own goals/rewards instead of just fighting me or spouting dialogue at me.
> Why is it that we aren't seeing the bot approach to AI implanted into single player games? Why aren't we facing opponents who have their own missions/agendas in single player games, who are bound to the same controls/restrictions/exploits as yourself?
It is hard to put difficulty curves on those kind of AI, and they often are implemented to use full scale path searching to find objectives, so in games with larger maps they would either need to blind to things in the distance or consume excessive processing power.
I remember the Skarr in the original Unreal would be hunting the Nali until you came around and they would attack you. Their behaviors were amazing at the time (and honestly, they still are better than 99% of game AI) in that they would dodge, feign death, hide in cover, and act as packs when in groups to fight you.
They were also distinctly harder at the time than almost any other AI opponent. So much so that I remember a tremendous amount of complaining that their AI was too good.
> I want AI that wants to do something, like another player would, that isn't concerned with me in particular, that has it's own goals/rewards instead of just fighting me or spouting dialogue at me.
The problem with this is that not enough people would pay for the complex AI. Game are about profit motive, and sadly making sophisticated artificial worlds of intelligent bots doesn't bring home the bacon. It is absolutely possible, especially in an MMO kind of setting, since you can just throw more CPU cores to do all the complex logic for whatever fancy AI your NPCs are using, but nobody seems interested.
The difference is, bots behave and mimic actual human beings. They are bound by the same rules, and have the same controls and range of motion as human players. It's hard to distinguish the difference at times, granted they're far from perfect.
NPCs on the other hand, seem to be this "dumb" AI the article is referencing. They are intentionally made this way to serve a simple, singular purpose. They are either scripted for dialogue or just peppered throughout the map as meat puppets.
Why is it that we aren't seeing the bot approach to AI implanted into single player games? Why aren't we facing opponents who have their own missions/agendas in single player games, who are bound to the same controls/restrictions/exploits as yourself?
The current AI approach is to place enemies in hiding positions who want nothing more than to fight you to the death, without any purpose or reason.
I want AI that wants to do something, like another player would, that isn't concerned with me in particular, that has it's own goals/rewards instead of just fighting me or spouting dialogue at me.