Why do people
play games? I donno. All I know is I started playing games to escape from
reality. Then why am I always the first to scream out we want more realism in
games. Look at developers always trying to make AI as goofy and as unpredictable
as humans. Granted that means more human like interactivity. But maybe sometimes
it's better to have computer opponents and games that don't really mimic humans.
Remember Terminator 2: Judgment day might happen. We might develop an AI that's
fully self aware.
I just can't get enough of The Sims. The reason being in very honest terms I
like playing GOD. I want to control every aspect of the little Shaan and his
lazy bumming womanizing lifestyle. But to tell you the truth this game is
sometimes way too frightening and close to home. Watching your Sim on his path
to loserdom can be a very disturbing and reminding. Maybe mimicking life all
that closley isn't all that great.
But then again look at the sports genre. We can't have players in the game who
never miss, who never tire, who never make mistakes. Developers understand that
gaming these days are a lot more than graphics and polygons. Today's AI doesn't
involve making the right moves, but to be as human as possible. Chaos is a good
and hard thing to simulate. People tend to think of a good sports sim as making
the players do the right things. But in real life players get nervous, hands get
sweaty, tired players can make foolish mental errors Basketball players
sometimes miss the rim completely on free throws. Sports gaming has reached a
point where both the graphics and processors are powerful enough to simulate the
follies and quirks of human athletes. Clumsiness is harder to simulate than
agility and we are seeing that realized in the latest sports games. Visual
Concepts and to a degree, EA sports has brought real-world chaos and unpredictability
to sports gaming. They've helped evolve the genre from an often cold,
predictable challenge, towards a very human experience.
Deathmatching, a term coined by id's revolutionary shooter DOOM. Deathmatching
is quite simply put the most fun you can have with your computer. Fragging your
buddies to bits......life can't get any better. But when you go online these
days you come up against some of the most accurate serial killers ever. They aim
for your and the cursor never shifts from there no matter how much you jump or
how much you strafe.....believe I have tried. So you need to practice before you
can do some fragging in the real world. Enter BOTs. BOTs are commonplace in shooters
these days whether it is to practice offline or whether to make up for
the lack of players. So since playing against BOTs are supposed to make you get
ready for duking it out against humans, BOTs have to mimic human behavior. Well
in most games I have played BOTs do the right things and make the right moves.
How? They cheat. BOTs never miss, always know where you are, can suddenly
increase their speed. But Quake 3 Arena changed that. The BOTs in Q3A have been
programmed with BOT tendencies across a wide range of attributes that affect
their behavior. BOTs are rated in aiming skill, map knowledge, long/short range
preference, reaction time, weapon preference, desire for armor, health level
priorities, aggression, hearing and more. At any given time in a game, the BOTs
analyze their situation and then decide upon an action according to their
attributes.
One thing before I go on whenever you begin a FPS why do we always start with a
wimpy gun or a crowbar and why the women in FPSs are all dangerous supertalented
cyber vixen Shaolin blackbelt masters with big breasts. short skirts and are
also voluptuous?
Teamwork is becoming a big part of shooter AI, and while there has been
progress, there's still room for improvement. Let's put it this way if a bad guy
does something stupid you kill him and move on but if a team mate does something
stupid you restart the game. The next step in enemy AI is therefore is an enemy
team that works as a team - a human team.
I finish off quoting Brian Long, AI programmer for No One Lives Forever, I want
to see an AI buy a newspaper, read it, and throw it into the trashcan. I want to
be in a shootout with some henchmen in a kitchen, have one of them run out of
ammo, grab a large metal tray and use it in a vain attempt to deflect my
bullets." Simple wants, simple needs.
|