Enemy combat tactics - dull intentionally?

[Eigenvalue]

It seems to me that many easy fights in the game would not be so easy (if not almost impossible) if the enemy opponents behaved in a more organized and more intelligent way, as for example casting more appropriate spells, concentrating on killing the priest in the party first, not falling into my simple traps forcing them to attack me one-on-one (or rather one-on-four), and so on.

 

I don't mind when it's rats or chitrarchs, but even Lord Trinket's goblins in the beginning of the game had a chance to off the party once and for all, were they slightly more intelligent...

[Randomizer]

It's partly due to the limits on programming. Adding a larger search radius for the monsters to detect the party slows down the game because the shortest path function takes too long. This is why you can pick off monsters one by one.

 

Some of the spell choices are limited so that the monsters don't flat out kill the party. Hricikis in Avernum 5 had a lightning spray attack originally that was almost always going to kill characters. Others are in response to what you do so slow causes mage monsters to haste themselves.

 

The AI usually goes after the last damaging attack which can trick it into leaving a dying character or chasing after another.

 

Jeff is slowly making the AI more intelligent and deadlier.

[madrigan]

Originally Posted By: Randomizer

The AI usually goes after the last damaging attack which can trick it into leaving a dying character or chasing after another.

This can cause some characters a lot of problems depending on how the initiative numbers work out. A character just a tiny bit quicker than the enemy gets beat up a lot.

Originally Posted By: Randomizer

Jeff is slowly making the AI more intelligent and deadlier.

I've noticed that a few monsters will go right after my spellcasters even if they haven't cast yet.

[*i]

Doth ask for much. Making a good AI is very difficult. Sure, Jeff is getting better and many tricks are becoming available in this regard, but this is not simple stuff for one guy in a basement to do. Me personally, I'm impressed he pulls this stuff off at all.

[Wanderer]

I've also noticed that the AI that controls my party's summoned monsters is not always on target since sometimes they just hang around and watch. It must be quite a difficult programming job.

[waterplant]

My priest gets mind controlled WAY more than my other characters despite wearing mind effect resistance gear. This happens enough that I thought the game was targeting the character with unshackle mind. Perhaps I'm just unlucky...

[echoes]

If I could make one suggestion it would be that enemies who have a choice between melee and ranged attacks quit committing suicide once they notice a player has used Arcane Shield / Spineshield / Battle Crystal et. al. Actually, was this less of a problem in A6 than A5 or did I simply get Arcane Shield later in A6?

 

Also, this thread reminds me of my favorite Jeff Vogel quote from years gone by:

 

Quote:

I write my AI in, oh, say, 5-10

minutes. Usually while drunk. In other

words, I put twice as much effort in my AI as

everyone else.

[Quiconque]

Making the AI react to player choices will inevitably open up a thousand ways to exploit the AI. In this case, the cure is worse than the problem.

[Eigenvalue]

I had a feeling that the AIs did become more intelligent in A6 as compared to the previous games. Therefore, having invested some in the enemy intelligence, I thought that the only reason not to have invested a bit more is that, in fact, we do not want the uber-intelligent AI. Or do we, theoretically-speaking?

 

My only point was that, not for all, but for some special encounters, a simple set of easily implementable heuristics could make the player's job much more tough. Although I see (what's with all these people changing names on this forum?) the previous post author's point...

[Alorael at Large]

I don't think the AI changed much, if at all. And I think the most it really needs is to be not terribly exploitable. The combat challenges of Avernum tend to be tactics in response to puzzles and scripts, not outmaneuvering an AI. That would be a different game.

 

—Alorael, who doesn't quite know why Spiderweb has such a rash of name-changing. It's generally an option taken by those who have been around long enough to be recognized and referred to by a particular moniker regardless of what the forum calls them at any given moment.

[Californian]

To all of this discussion, I would add (because I know nothing whatever about AI), Jeff has said that he intentionally made the demo portion of A6 easier than usual.

 

As the game progresses, it gets lots more difficult. Some of the later bosses managed to find ways to hit my little party pretty hard.