Forums » General Pantheon Discussion

Behaviour combos through strategist disposition

    • 839 posts
    October 28, 2018 8:38 PM PDT

    I was thinking about spicing up encounters and trying to make more possible scenarios for the way fights play out.  I was wondering if you could include behaviours that are unique to a combination of dispositions / classes and revolving around the strategist

    For instance if dispositions are assigned randomly when mobs spawn and you encounter a group of mobs, one of those being a strategist, could this trigger a particular evolved NPC group strategy. When engaged they have a more unique scripted way to act and work with each other which becomes more effective. Maybe the change of tactic is alluded to by instructions being yelled out by the strategist signalling to the group of players a combo is being started.

    Basic examples might be a caster is told to put invis on an alarmist to escape, or a druid to buff a mele fighter with speed to better run a glass canon down. Or rooting a melee type player to keep a ranged DPS npc safe. These could become more intricate depending on the combination of class / disposition. Alternatively i guess this might be already considered in the design of how every class interacts together because of any individual NPC's script and their skill set. But having it be a more unexpected outcome instead of the predicted outcome when you see a class standing there waiting to be attacked adds a bit of flavour I think.

    Any thoughts / additions?

    Maybe this is already to role of the strategist and I missed that memo :)

    • 755 posts
    October 28, 2018 11:15 PM PDT
    I think there are plenty of avenues for the AI dispositions to play out. Some of these more advanced scenarios may play out in higher level areas...makes sense to me
    • 178 posts
    October 29, 2018 1:54 AM PDT

    Intrinsic Algorithm tried to do these things, and even more,

    they tried it with everquest next, and with smedleys next project heroes song.

    both these projects failed and the AI didnt see the daylight.

    p.s. somehow i managed to mess the fonts and have no idea how to fix it.

     

    • 63 posts
    October 29, 2018 6:27 AM PDT

    MyNegation said:

    Intrinsic Algorithm tried to do these things, and even more,

    they tried it with everquest next, and with smedleys next project heroes song.

    both these projects failed and the AI didnt see the daylight.

    p.s. somehow i managed to mess the fonts and have no idea how to fix it.

     

    I don't know enough about AI... so I'm wondering.  Would having certain mobs activate abiities randomly, or having them agro on random party members for some or all of an encounter, accomplish something simillar?

    • 755 posts
    October 29, 2018 6:38 AM PDT
    The short answer? Yes. It is basically programming reactions to situations. You just have to do it in a way that doesnt create bugs in the system. You can have a mob with x or y disposition react a certain way when x group has an enchanter or when crowd control spell y is used. Most all games have simple forms of this. What we are hoping for is say there is rain and mob x has *wet* status applied they would run away if lightning spell y is cast. Or if it is nighttime and mob y has nightvision he goes after x character class or has more alarmist disposition. Basically NPC Situational Awareness. Thats all basic AI is - programmed reactions or learned reactions based on previous input.
    • 839 posts
    October 29, 2018 5:26 PM PDT

    kreed99 said: The short answer? Yes. It is basically programming reactions to situations. You just have to do it in a way that doesnt create bugs in the system. You can have a mob with x or y disposition react a certain way when x group has an enchanter or when crowd control spell y is used. Most all games have simple forms of this. What we are hoping for is say there is rain and mob x has *wet* status applied they would run away if lightning spell y is cast. Or if it is nighttime and mob y has nightvision he goes after x character class or has more alarmist disposition. Basically NPC Situational Awareness. Thats all basic AI is - programmed reactions or learned reactions based on previous input.

    I always imagined mmo AI to go the way of Dragon Age Origins player tactics options for the non player controlled party members reactions.   But we don't seem to see any of this kind of depth in MMO AI. It just seems to be agro calculators and timed sequences. 

    Would that be too complicated for an MMO?

    Edit: The reason I mentioned DA:O tactics is because it gives a non programmer like myself an insight into some ai options and mechanics I was so impressed with the multitude of options from way back then


    This post was edited by Hokanu at October 29, 2018 5:40 PM PDT
    • 755 posts
    October 30, 2018 12:55 PM PDT
    Ya i would love to see more advanced true AI. Keeps you on your toes. But if you have a lot of variations and combos or programmed Dispositions then it can *seem* as tho they are acting independently.