Preview Oblivion E3 fun at GamersInfo

[Fresh]

AI like in Ex's post above would be awesome, but I really dont see Oblivion being the game that delivers. While i think Oblivion's AI will be a decent/big step forward towards creating a "living world" I say we still need to wait a couple of years more for things to really begin to shape up.

 

[Stark]

Packages can be very very specific (i.e., eat food at this table in this Inn every day at 5PM) or very vague (i.e. eat food every day at 5PM). In the second case, how the NPC acquires the food depends entirely on the NPC's stats, items in the environment, and what the NPC owns and/or has in their inventory. If the NPC has an apple, he or she will just eat the apple. If the NPC has food back home, the NPC might go back home and eat there. The NPC might even hunt for food, or steal it. There are a number of settings on AI that govern this behavior.

what I am interested in is, how do you avoid the whole situation from collapsing altogether? Does food respawn at tables at end of everyday? does money respawn in NPC's pocket after a certain time? does food/merchantile respawn after a certain time?

otherwise, using the example you gave, the NPC would run out of arrows/potions/money sooner or later.

also, i am of the same sentiment as Hyperboy. while the Radient AI is something cool and definately a step in the right direction, I do not see wholly autonomous AI that can take care of itself and run by itself. let's temper our expectations and be pleasantly surprised by it later.

 

[crpgnut]

I agree that radiant AI won't be all powerful in its first iteration. It is exciting though to see Bethesda create something like this though. They are one of the first to try an AI that is unscripted for great numbers of NPCs. I'm sure that this will be a success, but even more importantly, will pave the way for better and better AI engines. Radiant AI is a concept that finally has the technology available to become a reality. From what I understand, it is part of the construction set and so hundreds of people will get a chance to learn the ins and outs of creating AI packages. These experiences will lead the next version of AI to reach new levels of reality and immersion, at least I hope so.

 

[Mendoza]

Packages can be very very specific (i.e., eat food at this table in this Inn every day at 5PM) or very vague (i.e. eat food every day at 5PM). In the second case, how the NPC acquires the food depends entirely on the NPC's stats, items in the environment, and what the NPC owns and/or has in their inventory. If the NPC has an apple, he or she will just eat the apple. If the NPC has food back home, the NPC might go back home and eat there. The NPC might even hunt for food, or steal it. There are a number of settings on AI that govern this behavior.

what I am interested in is, how do you avoid the whole situation from collapsing altogether? Does food respawn at tables at end of everyday? does money respawn in NPC's pocket after a certain time? does food/merchantile respawn after a certain time?

otherwise, using the example you gave, the NPC would run out of arrows/potions/money sooner or later.

also, i am of the same sentiment as Hyperboy. while the Radient AI is something cool and definately a step in the right direction, I do not see wholly autonomous AI that can take care of itself and run by itself. let's temper our expectations and be pleasantly surprised by it later.

Yeah, I'm interested in how the AI stays 'under control' too. What would happen if quest npc had a low responsibility, tried to steal something, was caught, sent to prison and executed. Or just wandered off exploring and got themselves killed. Even assuming npcs don't die through their AI decisions, would you feasibly have to visit a quest npc in prison because their unscripted behaviour had got them arrested?

 

[Sol Invictus]

I wonder if it would be possible to create a proper Markov chain with Radiant AI, and tune it in such a way that the unscripted behaviour of the NPCs and the state of the world would be believable, rather than foolish.

 

[space captain]

i think its possible - you have to be able to paint sociology and psychology in broad strokes - and be clever about implementing everything... it requires a detailed sort of generalization - in a way that hides the generic nature of all the data

one of these days im going to draw up a design document and start mailing it out to all the studios as a free gift

 

[Fez]

Radiant AI, like most new tricks and toys, will be great fun until you see the strings.

 

[Fresh]

Strings are great toys in themselves.

Especially when used together with beads and a funloving minotaur named Gertrud.

 

[bryce777]

Just so long as they fight each other to the death on a regular basis I'm sure it will be satisfactory.