Citadel of Sorcery

I sadly was playing wow earlier, and realized that the AI is stupid.  Mobs kind of just stand around, or walk in a very small area, and if you attack one that is close to them, they just watch it seems.   I know most of this is due to the aggro range and stuff like that, but is this how the AI is going to be in this game?  Or are they going to be paying more attention.  I personally know, if I see someone being attacked and I can assist, i do.  Will mobs have that sense to see or know someone is about and help their allies?  Will they stand or move in little patterns guarding a mine or will they be walking through the mines, setting up tactics to protect it from others?  The mine is just an example, it could be anything.  I don't know if it is possible to make an AI that smart, but I figured I would ask seeing as it has been stated the AI will be very smart.

There are few, if any, monsters in the game, since this is not a rading game. 

But here's what I know.  Each player has their very own quest in the game, no one's story is thhe same.  Not only do you have your own story, but you also develop you own enemies and allies.  So say you are doing a quest, and mabye your enemy will be able to track you down, and ambush you in a surprise attack.  When this happens, you get into an epic battle and blah blah blah.

Point is, that some NPC's will be smarter than others, like a dark witch will be very intelligent.  Point is, from what I understand, there will not be stupid NPCs/monsters standing around waiting to be attacked.

The 4th paragraph on this page says it all...

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/gameID/333/setview/features/loadFeature/1836

"This is just one example of a changing dynamic world. Every monster, every Non-player character (NPC) has a purpose in the world, a life, goals, movement. Some of these NPCs become your friends and enemies… not everyone’s… just yours. Monsters in Citadel of Sorcery move through the world on their own agendas and logical tasks. They may be building up their forces along the No-Man’s-Land border for an assault on a Town, and the following day that assault will commence. Or, they might be a raiding party that is out burning farms and killing the local population. They might be abducting people to turn into their own kind, or building a foothold in Citadel lands. There are nearly endless agendas, and they keep working toward these goals unless they are stopped, or they are successful and then move onto their next goal. Time moves on."

Hope that helps

Originally posted by Shadowlord10

I sadly was playing wow earlier, and realized that the AI is stupid.  Mobs kind of just stand around, or walk in a very small area, and if you attack one that is close to them, they just watch it seems.   I know most of this is due to the aggro range and stuff like that, but is this how the AI is going to be in this game?  Or are they going to be paying more attention.  I personally know, if I see someone being attacked and I can assist, i do.  Will mobs have that sense to see or know someone is about and help their allies?  Will they stand or move in little patterns guarding a mine or will they be walking through the mines, setting up tactics to protect it from others?  The mine is just an example, it could be anything.  I don't know if it is possible to make an AI that smart, but I figured I would ask seeing as it has been stated the AI will be very smart.

Citadel of Sorcery is not using a standard agro circumference.  This means that if you walk up behind a hostile opponent they may not attack you.  It depends... did he hear you?  Did he turn so that you got into his vision?  Is his vision good or bad... if bad, and you stop moving while he looks, he still might not see you.  These examples should show you that opponents will act more realistically than standard argo models.

However, once detected how does an opponent act in battle?  That will depend on their intelligence level. Again, our game is taking a different route on this area.  The opponent AI is dependent on their intelligence.  Therefore, you MAY be up against stupid monsters that will not have much in the way of strategic thought.  However, in other cases the AI may be of fairly high intelligence.  In these cases your opponent will have a lot more options and use them wisely. 

As for mob communication, our game again works differently.  If you attack one of several guards and wait until the other two are facing away, the others will be unaware that you took out the first guard until they see him down or missing... or you make too much noise, in which case they might turn and see you.  Also... if one guard sees you attack another he might yell an alarm.  But they are not magically attached to each other and all attack you because one was attacked.

Jatar

Citadel of Sorcery dev team member

Originally posted by mike470

There are few, if any, monsters in the game, since this is not a rading game. 

I'm not sure where you got this information, perhaps I was unclear somewhere.  However, let me clarify now,  there are LOTS of monsters in Citadel of Sorcery.  One of the two armies at war is made up of all kinds of creatures and monsters.  The only difference is that our monsters are not randomly distributed, they generally have an agenda of some sorts, rather than patrolling a grid square on a map.

Jatar

Citadel of Sorcery dev team member

Very interesting Jatar.  I really like the way that sounds.  Will monsters be able to say use tactics like a human group would?  Lets just say that you and 2 friends run in to a group of 4-5 of something, 2 of them are more damage dealing, one will heal, and 2 will be able to tank.  I'm not sure this will apply, but it is seems like a good example.  So the 3 of us decide to go after the healer first, logically that would be smart, but the AI may have an ability to prevent us from targetting the healer?  Or will the healer run away so you attack the others, then comes back and heals?  The dymanic of it seems really interesting, and if they can work in sync with each other like this, this will be one hell of a game.

Originally posted by Shadowlord10

Very interesting Jatar.  I really like the way that sounds.  Will monsters be able to say use tactics like a human group would?  Lets just say that you and 2 friends run in to a group of 4-5 of something, 2 of them are more damage dealing, one will heal, and 2 will be able to tank.  I'm not sure this will apply, but it is seems like a good example.  So the 3 of us decide to go after the healer first, logically that would be smart, but the AI may have an ability to prevent us from targetting the healer?  Or will the healer run away so you attack the others, then comes back and heals?  The dymanic of it seems really interesting, and if they can work in sync with each other like this, this will be one hell of a game.

You have it almost exactly.   The only change to your example is that we aren't using the standard 'Tank' and 'Healer' system.  However, monsters (and players) can have roles at times, and the monsters AI will apply those roles.   But your example is correct for our game in that they will have AI appropriate for their role.

If I was going to fix your example, let's say one of them stays back and heals the others.  So you break through and attack that 'healing' opponent.  He might then switch to offense and engage you, while one of the others that was fighting might now back off and start healing.

In a different example, some archers might hang back and pelt you with arrows, but if you close, switch to swords and engage you, while a magic user might retreat if you come close, then reengage with magic if you don't hunt him down.  If you do hunt him down, he might switch to melee weapon and use a combination of magic and fighting. 

Jatar

Citadel of Sorcery dev team member

Wow.  Simply wow.  That is amazing that you are going to be able to do this.  I have to be honest, I can't believe an AI could be this smart.  I get a feeling your going to make every game's AI look retarted compared to what you can do with your AI.  Hehe.  I seriously look forward to hearing more.

Originally posted by Jatar

 

Originally posted by mike470

There are few, if any, monsters in the game, since this is not a rading game. 

 

I'm not sure where you got this information, perhaps I was unclear somewhere.  However, let me clarify now,  there are LOTS of monsters in Citadel of Sorcery.  One of the two armies at war is made up of all kinds of creatures and monsters.  The only difference is that our monsters are not randomly distributed, they generally have an agenda of some sorts, rather than patrolling a grid square on a map.

Jatar

Citadel of Sorcery dev team member

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