Source
r/Guildwars2•
omlech

Some info about AI/aggro that I didn't know and I'd expect some of you didn't know either.

http://gw2ita.wordpress.com/review/interview-with-colin-johanson-by-mmorpgitalia-and-gw2-italian-blog/

Q: How the AI of enemies will work? Specifically, how enemies will chose their target? Will they be capable of complex behaviour and combat strategies?

A: That’s a great question, because it’s something we don’t necessarely get asked details a lot. There are very few creatures in the game right now that have kind of their final skills and abilities that we intended them to have. For example, in the demo that we’re getting here at Gamescom… the undead army in the high level map is probably the closest thing to what I would consider to be in an army that has a lot work done on it at this point. Our creatures are going to be getting a lot of work between now and release. We have really been focused mostly on the players side of things at this point and on getting all the contet put together on. So creature balance will be kind one of the next things that we tackle, and we’ll be moving army by army in trying to give them themes and skills and AI details to each army specifically. In regards to AI and aggro… simple creatures will use an AI system to determine who attack, and one of the most important criteria will be who is the closest target to them, but there are also criteria like who’s doing damage, how much damage they’ve done… and other things like that. These are basic things that most creatures would use. Then there will be unique AI for a number of different creatures that will use specific skills or the entire creatures will do different things than that. There may be creatures, for example, who attack the furthest away player in the party. There may be creatures who try to focus on people wearing medium armor or light armor, and try to chase them around. There may be creatures that run away, there may be creatures who get out of the way of attacks, there may be creatures who specifically only use skills on people at specifc times. So, all of these are aspect on which we’re going to work as we get closer to the release of the game.

Posted Oct 26, 2011, 4:56 AM UTC

6529
ArtematicPresident Kong [rddt] - AG•

This is how it should be, steel armored dudes just aren't 'mobmagnets'. Mobs should hate everyone one of you; especially those with squishier armor.

Tip of the hat to you Arenanet.

17
Din_Narcoticwww.NarcoticBrotherhood.com•

Great find, thanks for the information on aggro- didn't know it either...

9
Skyy_HighTalon Drakke•

Hey, look at that, it's not just about proximity.

8
AngelicLoki•

Haha, I wasn't going to say "I told you so", but then you went and did it for me :p

3
Skyy_HighTalon Drakke•

I'm classy like that.

2
medlish•

Great thing. I was getting worried there about the "always the nearest" thing. Imagine a skill which pulls a player to the creature. This already doesn't combine well. But with that info, I can sleep better.

5
PerennialPants[GOON]•

Think of a Smoker in Left 4 Dead (only probably without the vice grip you can't break out of hold). Imagine you're in your party, just questing along, when all of a sudden, the last member in the group gets pulled away from the pack. Think of that immersion, you've gotta keep your eye out all the time in that specific area, for fear of that mob pulling one (or more) of your group away, and disbanding you for a flank sneak attack by some crazy monsters. Dynamic quests ahoy!

2
cousin_skeeterStarkk•

The unique AI sounds exciting! A retreat tactic for enemies will make the combat feel much more dynamic.

2
Wolydarg•

Until you run into an enemy which is faster than you and have to spend 5 minutes chasing it every time you guys meet.

2
ehrlicsGW1name= Fuzzy Salad•

then you switch to long range weapons or bring a snare skill :-)

3
cousin_skeeterStarkk•

That's what we have those control and movement skills for! :D Give him a good netting with the engineer, or do that pouncing sword attack with a warrior! Plenty of ways to keep up. Still sounds like a fun chase!

2
WarJunkieGloat•

Not really...

A retreat tactic annoys me.

When you almost killed the foe, you suddenly have to chase it down.

I rather have retreat = death. Meaning, once you make the bar go down for them, instead of a death animation, they go straight to a retreat animation.

2
Osmodius•

Cannot wait for npc rogues to annhilate those mages that think they're so fancy standing at the back doing all the damage.

2
LAT3LYEnemy•

WHAT THE FUCK IS A ROGUE AND A MAGE? THIS IS GUILD WARS, FRIEND.

-2
Osmodius•

rogue/rōg/ Noun: A dishonest or unprincipled man.

And

mage/māj/ Noun: A magician or learned person.

Just because we can't play them, doesn't mean they don't exist ;)

2
RookwoodHenge of Denravi•

Cows exist as well. Also not relevant to Guild Wars. :P

0
Osmodius•

SH YOU KNEW WHAT I MEANT.

2
MintyDoomThe sinister after-meal candy.•

Just a thought but, somewhere out there after release, I imagine a team of people who've done specific damage calculations to basically infinitely kite AI by doing the same damage and maintaining distance control. It will most likely not happen but sounds crazy enough.

2
nickiter•

Smart AI fuzzes the math these days so that you can't quite do that, but maybe that's not appropriate for this kind of MMO... I don't know.

2
WarJunkieGloat•

I am glad that there are more AI than just target closest enemy.

It would work if everyone spreads out, but most of the time, I see enemy balling up, which will kill anyone quickly due to lack of dedicated tanking.

2
RookwoodHenge of Denravi•

This sounds like it won't be much different from the original Guild Wars.

2
Strogglol•

It all seems so LOGICAL! This is how the GW2 team are thinking outside the box.

1
9bytes•

Good, this seems like the "smarter" way to do things since there isn't the MMO holy trinity present.

1
BrentNewbury•

Awesome, thanks for clearing that up.

1
ScreamingSkull•

isn't it a misnomer to call agents in computer games AI? I mean, they're basically following a bunch of if/else clauses and not really learning how to challenge a player over time.

sorry, random thought just now, not really the place for it.

0
solarswordsman•

AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chances of success. -Wikipedia

So even a rudimentary system using binary conditionals whose input is the environment certainly counts as an AI, and indeed this is how such things are classified when programming a game. When you're writing the enemy code, you're the AI programmer.

10
OxyGenesis•

Technically yes but in general gaming lexicon AI has come to mean the programming that determines the mobs/enemies/characters actions in game.

3
GlumChampion•

Haha, maybe there could be a Turing test for mobs.

3
Calmwindsomnomnomnom•

I do not think fundamental analysis of our intelligence would produce the idea that we had awareness or higher intelligence either, but it is clear in aggregate that fundamental interaction is what we can call awareness/intelligence.

1