Please overhaul the driver AI and traffic lights

[MaximillionSERG]

Dear Cyberpunk Devs,

I am someone who tries to drive normal in games — also in Cyberpunk 2077. And with that, I realize that the driver-AI and the traffic lights have some major issues sometimes.

I can see why the traffic lights are turning always green when the player comes near, so they do not have to wait. It is understandable, but it breaks the immersion a bit when you see traffic lights turning red from a distance a second ago. And when you come near it instantly turns green again, although the first car from the other road couldn't even cross. Or in another case I was crossing the intersection. The traffic light was still green. It turned yellow to warn about the phase change to red. And somehow it immediately turned green again because me, as the play, was near. This was quite immersion-breaking for me.

Now to the AI issues:

— Cars stopping without any reason
— Cars not driving on green light
— Cars driving on red light
— Cars not waiting when they turn left (this is an issue sometimes — the traffic gets hard stuck when a left-turner and a straight-goer simultaneously enter the crossing area)
— Cars are turning right in the middle or left lane
— Cars not driving and honking when you park just a millimetre on the street
— Cars do not do takeovers, even they could (e.g., when you stand on the street)
— People do not react to honks

I am sure that this will have a very low priority for you to consider, but it would improve immersion greatly.
With that said, thank you for making this game.

Sincerely,
Maxi

 

[Disturbed_Man]

Don't you mean the whole AI? I have seen more games have more reactive AI than CP77. GTA V is one of them. But your points stand.

 

[Garrison72]

Car AI needs work.

 

[AdamTaylor]

The AI for this game is horrific. There's ancient games with vastly better AI than this.

Look at a game like Sleeping Dogs, WatchDogs, Saints Row or RDR2... all of those have functional AI's that make the world feel alive.

Pedestrians react well to what's going on. People chat, they will run for cover if a fight breaks out (not just squat down in the line of fire), they will react to cars and people moving around them.
And traffic... OMG it's abysmal. In other games cars react properly. They'll honk if something blocks them, and drive around things and keep driving normally. If combat starts, some cars will stop and the drives will bail and run away, while others will back up and drive away from the fight. And cars don't magically disappear as soon as you turn your back. They all "exist" properly until they're well out of range. The traffic in this game is pathetic.

 

[Guest 4406876]

Best behaviour I've seen from a pedestrian in CP77 is to get in "danger mode" and crouch staying put in place stiff as fuck like he's shitting on the floor. And around her other 20 people doing the same in the middle of the street.

 

[vyvexthorne]

The worst is right outside your apt building (where you meet Jackie eating food for the first mission) The cars are constantly smashing into the barriers as they make the turn for some reason. There's other locations like this as well but that's the easiest for me to describe the location. It's like the pathing is just not lined up properly or something.

 

[MaximillionSERG]

Dear Cyberpunk Devs,

I am someone who tries to drive normal in games — also in Cyberpunk 2077. And with that, I realize that the driver-AI and the traffic lights have some major issues sometimes.

I can see why the traffic lights are turning always green when the player comes near, so they do not have to wait. It is understandable, but it breaks the immersion a bit when you see traffic lights turning red from a distance a second ago. And when you come near it instantly turns green again, although the first car from the other road couldn't even cross. Or in another case I was crossing the intersection. The traffic light was still green. It turned yellow to warn about the phase change to red. And somehow it immediately turned green again because me, as the play, was near. This was quite immersion-breaking for me.

Now to the AI issues:

— Cars stopping without any reason
— Cars not driving on green light
— Cars driving on red light
— Cars not waiting when they turn left
— Cars are turning right in the middle or left lane
— Cars not driving and honking when you park just a millimetre on the street
— Cars do not do takeovers, even they could (e.g., when you stand on the street)
— People do not react to honks

I am sure that this will have a very low priority for you to consider, but it would improve immersion greatly.
With that said, thank you for making this game.

Sincerely,
Maxi

A small addition to my original post:

Night City is located in the NUSA as far as I know, in California. In the States the traffic lights are mostly positioned after the intersection and not in front of it, in addition they do not have a red-yellow phase like we do in Europe.

I know the position change would be too much — but maybe consider taking out the red-yellow phase. It directly jumps to Green after a Red Phase.
So the phases are like this: Green, Yellow, Red, Green, ...

And perhaps increase the full phase duration (from Green to Red) from 6 seconds to maybe at least 8 or 10 seconds.

 

[batouyukinawa]

I am an American and yes, no yellow after red. I didn't even know it was a thing.

I pretty much figured this would happen. Witcher was an amazing game but let's be honest. AI was never CDPR's strong suite.
Enemy AI is nice though, they try to flank you and take cover or back down when being outgunned. Room for improvement though. All valid points pertaining towards the NPC AI behavior.

 

[MaximillionSERG]

I am an American and yes, no yellow after red. I didn't even know it was a thing.

I pretty much figured this would happen. Witcher was an amazing game but let's be honest. AI was never CDPR's strong suite.
Enemy AI is nice though, they try to flank you and take cover or back down when being outgunned. Room for improvement though. All valid points pertaining towards the NPC AI behavior.

In most European countries its standard. ^^
I think it got implemented to alert the driver “hey its getting green in a sec step on the gas”
Because non-electric cars have a little “wind up” when you press on the gas until they move. So it kinda reduces/counts in the reaction time of the driver and of the car when going green for a small flow boost.

 

[MFJones83]

If your vehicle is even slightly on the road, the cars "behind you" won't move. Ever lol. I've parked a bike on the sidewalk and blocked traffic

I really hope they plan on updating the AI because this shit is killing the immersion for me.