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I like the idea, but the "Trauma Team will help you" shouldn't be a reliable fallback plan. 3 Minute reaction time is great, but still more than enough time for anyone to unload their gun into your skull. And if you just killed a bunch of their friends, they won't just go away after you drop down...
I think Trauma Team should help you. Its mainstream game after all, not some HC-niche type of game. Players can try higher difficult lvl without getting frustrated and such because Traume Team is there etc.
I'll reference myself from here - Enemy AI Cleverness :
I would like it if game gave groups of enemy NPCs both a strategic and tactical dynamic AI ... making them reactive to the player's style.
IE give them a few strategic choices at points within encounters - turtle up defensively, wait to ambush, split up for search and destroy, retreat to a better location, swarm towards player character's last known location.
Then under that are various tactical approaches, leap frop, flanking, suppressing fire, run away waving your arms in the air like a scared six year old, etc.
As long as there weren't too many variables, strategic decisions could be reevaluated by enemy NPC opponents at certain points, it could make combat really interesting.
I would like it if game gave groups of enemy NPCs both a strategic and tactical dynamic AI ... making them reactive to the player's style.
IE give them a few strategic choices at points within encounters - turtle up defensively, wait to ambush, split up for search and destroy, retreat to a better location, swarm towards player character's last known location.
Then under that are various tactical approaches, leap frop, flanking, suppressing fire, run away waving your arms in the air like a scared six year old, etc.
As long as there weren't too many variables, strategic decisions could be reevaluated by enemy NPC opponents at certain points, it could make combat really interesting.
Its not that i'm against them helping you, but if your head is a pile of gore, there just isn't that much left for them to do. Anyway, its likely faster to just quickload than to wait for TT to evacuate you to the next hospital, heal up, pay for the rescue and only then move back to take revenge. They are not personal mercenaries or bodyguards, they only come when your lifesigns drop to critical (and let you pay for it)...
Alternative suggestion: more enemies.
I just hope that the AI uses sensible tactics. For example, if the player is spotted in a room, the enemies should camp the chokepoint door, and then try to surround the player before they try to attack him/her from all sides at the same time. Not the classic "just run in guns blazing".
I just hope that the AI uses sensible tactics. For example, if the player is spotted in a room, the enemies should camp the chokepoint door, and then try to surround the player before they try to attack him/her from all sides at the same time. Not the classic "just run in guns blazing".
Division is almost like that, sometimes they take cover, sometimes they flank, sometimes they throw grenades, sometimes they use machine gun and supress, sometimes they got shields etc. Sure Division could be muuuch better, maybe for Division 3.
People seem to have drastically different concepts of what a bullet sponge is. My own feeling is having some enemies be tougher - there's nothing wrong with that. This isn't Call of Duty. Some should take quite a few hits based on armor etc, especially if you aren't hitting weak spots or using the right ammo. I honestly have seen very few bullet sponge enemies in the demos so far.
Yeah enemies with heavy cyberware should be able to take a few hits, maybe even be immune to low calibre weapons. Like the cybergirl from the very first Cyberpunk 2077 trailer. She was basically sitting in a hail of bullets that just couldn't penetrate her body plating. Or the guy in the second trailer that was shrugging of a headshot by trauma team (just some skin removed, showing the armor plate below). Or simply people in combat armor...
Sure. I guess the best way to make it clear is that, on Difficulty Level A, Unarmored Enemy A might take.. I dunno... 3 seconds to kill? But on Difficulty Level C -- that same enemy, with no discernible equipment difference -- might take a good 10-15 seconds to kill.
That's what I have a problem with. I have no problem with some enemies just being a bit tougher due to cyberware, armor, or higher body stats. But this should always be visually evident. I can forgive the Animals taking more shots to bring down because.. well.. look at them. Similarly, I'd not complain if a heavily-armored security guard was tough. The problem comes in with levels and difficulty settings. It's always very, very obvious when a game is relying on higher health pools to artificially inflate difficulty versus improved AI, better equipment, etc.
Borderlands 3 and the Witcher 3 are both good examples of this.
And before anyone says it isn't possible for CDPR to make smarter, more aggressive enemies that scale with difficulty, just know that a mere mod for the Witcher 3 called "Ghost Mode" did exactly that.
Aggressive charging enemies are nothing new in game industry. I dont get why people praise them so much. Hell, its been done since the 90s.
I say make "Move or Die" combat, higher difficult lvl, more enemies comes, you need to kill faster and crowd control faster if you want to survive. Sure, theres games with similiar combat, but if they use Trauma Team, they could push the challenge lvl even further, really put a pressure on player.
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That mod is a thing of beauty. Not just for enemy challenge, but also for the general system changes esp. regarding armor effects. Just spamming fast attacks is no longer the best (or even a good) way to fight. That said, the enemies are not really smarter per se - but simple additions like charging prevents you from just easily leaving the fight & heal up at will.
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He essentially removed a lot of tethers, which does make the AI smarter overall.
This.
And this.
Only sasquatch is a "nonsense bullet sponge" in the demos, but it's also true that we don't know the difficulty level of those demos (usually are played at the lowest difficulty because the dev cannot lose, of course) and all enemies matched V's level. The only things we can refer to are CDPR's past (TW3) and the recent action RPGs, and all of those have bullet/DMG sponges.
I think the best way to approach difficulty for normal enemies is to adjust a combination of accuracy, response time, and aggressiveness. This would work well both to adjust the overall difficulty of the game, as well as to handle the internal difficulty curve as the player levels up and gets more familiar with the game.
Accuracy can control enemy damage output without making the player feel like they are fighting against toy guns. Aggressiveness allows you to give some players a challenge that would overwhelm others, and can be made to feel as though the enemy is being cautious rather than dumb. It can be as realistic to fight enemies who are cautious and prioritize their own lives as enemies who will aggressively hunt you down, but in game terms it is much harder for the player to deal with fearless enemies. Delays in response time can be contextualized as an enemy being shocked or overwhelmed, just a touch too slow to shift mental gears. Maybe their cool stat is not quite high enough.
These avoid the fake difficulty of simply increasing health to make overcoming an enemy a grind with very little payoff. Chipping down a health bar for half an hour is not difficult, merely frustrating and punishing. Same with nerfing enemy damage. Players can tell when such an obvious handicap is used and it doesn't feel good to be reminded you are playing with a handicap. This can still be an issue with things like accuracy and reaction time if you take it too far. Players will notice if a room full of enemies can't hit them standing still, or if enemies stand around doing nothing for too long, but this is true for anything that can be done to adjust difficulty. Also, you need to get these factors right anyways if you want to maintain immersion. No one is going to believe in your bots if they all stand around waiting to die.
Accuracy can control enemy damage output without making the player feel like they are fighting against toy guns. Aggressiveness allows you to give some players a challenge that would overwhelm others, and can be made to feel as though the enemy is being cautious rather than dumb. It can be as realistic to fight enemies who are cautious and prioritize their own lives as enemies who will aggressively hunt you down, but in game terms it is much harder for the player to deal with fearless enemies. Delays in response time can be contextualized as an enemy being shocked or overwhelmed, just a touch too slow to shift mental gears. Maybe their cool stat is not quite high enough.
These avoid the fake difficulty of simply increasing health to make overcoming an enemy a grind with very little payoff. Chipping down a health bar for half an hour is not difficult, merely frustrating and punishing. Same with nerfing enemy damage. Players can tell when such an obvious handicap is used and it doesn't feel good to be reminded you are playing with a handicap. This can still be an issue with things like accuracy and reaction time if you take it too far. Players will notice if a room full of enemies can't hit them standing still, or if enemies stand around doing nothing for too long, but this is true for anything that can be done to adjust difficulty. Also, you need to get these factors right anyways if you want to maintain immersion. No one is going to believe in your bots if they all stand around waiting to die.
One could dream of an Alien Isolation type AI which would wander and live on it's own, so every time you die and retry you'd have to adapt, rather that following the same path.