AI Interaction and Psychological Effects

[chriswebb2020.736]

AI Interaction and Psychological Effects

I've been wondering about the mechanics that can be applied to the AI of NPC's we will be interacting with in the game. For the game to work well, there will need to a lot of work done for the AI. Our companions, (and our enemies,) will be coming under a lot of fire, doubtlessly much of this will be supressive fire. So what are the options for these AI should lose their bottle and try cut and run? Should all the friendly AI be under our control? (IE: Dragon Age and Mass Effect.) Should they be totally independant of our control, only following where we go? Or should we be able to give orders, but the AI can choose to ignore them? basically, I am talking about self-preservation. It is classed as one of the fundamental requirements for proof of life, it is that critical. So should the AI try to show some self-preservation instincts?

I for one say yes; and past that, I also think that different NPC's should have different levels of 'courage'. Now I don't want to go into this game and find out that ever member of the crew I enlist will be a die-hard selfless individual that will carry out every single action I instruct them to. That is not realistic and that is not cyberpunk. If that happens, I will be greatly disappointed. I want to see some variation. I want to see everything from the guy who 'thinks' he can handle it but quickly finds out he can't right up to the psychopath who just doesn't know when to stop, (and is just as likely to get you all killed as anything else.) When I recruit companions, I want to find out how they handle themselves under fire. I have been in situations in real life where the shit has hit the fan and in the back of your mind your watching the new guy to see if he's going to stand his ground next to you or if he's going to go hug a toilet. That is real.

Lastly, we will need our friends to know when and how to keep us alive. They need to know when to rush over and dose us up on stims to keep us alive and friendly medics will need to know when to start giving us adrenalin shots and nanite cocktails. But more importantly, these same AI will probably have to be programmed to weigh up the risk to themselves while they try to save our bacon. I don't expect these mental states to remain solid for the entire playthrough. People change; they adapt and they evolve, both emotionally and mentally. Go into enough fights with someone who flat out will not stand and fight and 99% of the time they will grow a spine. Alternatively, When someone has a close call that is just that bit too close, they can break. It takes time for them to get their confidence back and not everyone regains it.

So, the big question is:

"Should AI feel or show fear and if so, how should it manifest itself?"

 

[wisdom000]

It's all reflected in the cool skill baby....

Low cool, you may wet yourself and run off, or just drop to the ground and cry when the bullets start flying. High cool, and you aren't even fazed by the nuns spleen that just hit you in the face after the convent exploded...

 

[chriswebb2020.736]

It's all reflected in the cool skill baby....

Low cool, you may wet yourself and run off, or just drop to the ground and cry when the bullets start flying. High cool, and you aren't even fazed by the nuns spleen that just hit you in the face after the convent exploded...

Now I feel stupid. I had totally forgotten that stat...

 

[cmdr_silverbolt]

It's all reflected in the cool skill baby....

I love this game already. If any skill should make it to the game, definitely this one should

 

[wisdom000]

I love this game already. If any skill should make it to the game, definitely this one should

Heh, it's not even a skill, it's a stat

 

[Sardukhar]

Anyone who played 2013 will recall that until you survived a few fights, number determined by COOL, you actually had negs on rolls. Thsu non-combats and newbies were even more screwed vs vets.

I kinda miss that from 2020.

 

[Mister_Lizard]

Yeah i would love to see CEM make it into CP2077, and not just for companions but perhaps for the player as well. But it almost translates as a leveling mechanic in a combat oriented computer RPG. what I really want to see in companion and enemy AI is a recognition of suppressive fire. To be able to pin and then maneuver on your enemies is something that I have rarely seen in modern games. Like Chris Webb, and probably a lot of guys now, I've been there and know what it is like to be green and scared and have the responsibility of keeping the FNGs alive. I think that mechanically the game should have a way for NPCs to be slowed or paralyzed with fear and for the vets to be able to make rational assessments of covering fire and suppressive fire for when, how and where they are going to move. I want your grizzled solo companion to say "Screw you, I'm not charging them but if you lay down suppressing fire I will move to flank them." where the newb might say "OK" or cower behind the dataterm.

As for keeping us alive, yes they will need to know when to try to stabilize us. I think there need to be commands like "cover the med tech, I or someone else, needs help". Failing that, there is always Trauma Team, one of those necessary monthly expenses that keep you from having more money than what you know what to do with.

 

[wisdom000]

whats CEM?

 

[Sardukhar]

...good question.

"Companion Empathy Mechanic"?

"Cybernetic Equivalency Method"?

Wait. I shall google.

Boy, did that not help.

 

[Mister_Lizard]

Combat Experience Modifier. the 2013 mechanic that you were talking about Sar. It is the negative modifier that you face when you go into combat that lowers with every combat you survive. I still use something like it in my games, though I let solos subtract half of their combat sense from the penalty.

 

[Sardukhar]

Ohhhh, yeah. Jesus, I just called it the "Reflex Penalty" for years. Heh.

 

[Mister_Lizard]

I had to dig out my old copy of 2013 for that one. I almost said that it was the COOL Equivalency Modifier ( I knew that there was a modifier in there somewhere).

 

[Sardukhar]

Classy Emancipated Man.

 

[Lolssi83.811]

Pointed it out before in some thread but AI wise I'd like to see something similar from S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games. The way they lived their lives, attacked each other and looted fallen enemies.

I remember original Half-Life having great combat AI with it's commandos, but that might be just nostalgia talking. F.E.A.R. had so far best combat AI I've seen with their flanking, jumping over obstacles and dropping down from higher places.

Also liked in some older Gamebryo (Bethesda) games how NPCs equipped better gear if they aquired it. Was funny seeing shopkeepers with uber gear

 

[Mister_Lizard]

For it's time half life had new and innovative enemy AI. The first time that I fought them I did the old shoot at them and wait around a corner for them to pile into my incoming fire. When I heard "fire in the hole" and ate a grenade, that was one of the best moments of gaming for me. I would like to see CDPR take the next step in enemy/companion AI. Nothing pisses me off more than playing a modern warfare type game where the enemies, and in multiplayer the other players, just do a human wave at machine-gun emplacement because they aren't "smart" enough to be suppressed or because they know that they will respawn. That and being called gay and the N word by 12 year olds has really made those games lose their appeal for me.

 

[wisdom000]

. That and being called gay and the N word by 12 year olds has really made those games lose their appeal for me.

This is why other than the occasional co-op, I stay as far away from online gaming as possible... too many fucktards.

 

[Zagor-Te-Nay]

Well if they're going for this "animation excellence" maybe this will play into it...based on their stats/"cool" ( though I have an itching suspicion it could be renamed, something like "Resolve") npc's will have wide variety of behavioral responses. Hostiles and civilians included.

Would love to see last npc in a fight, with low stats throw itself back on the ground, pulling back ( Remember that peasant girl from "Killing Monsters" trailer)...make the player "feel" some kind of remorse.

Also in this kind of setting, sidequests that explore PTS from every day violence would be interesting...something not so common in video games and more "adult" than nudity/violent language/etc.