What is the Best A.I. Game so far?

[BassBomb]

I was pretty sure CNC3 AI cheats ?

 

[CP5670]

The brutal one certainly does. I don't know about the others though.

 

[irishScott]

Originally posted by: Sureshot324

Originally posted by: irishScott
Company of Heroes hands down. On Expert.

I actually wasn't that impressed with the AI in COH. It doesn't seem much harder on expert then normal. In fact, the Opposing Fronts expansion, they gave the AI units 50% more HP on expert just because it wasn't hard enough compared to normal.

It still doesn't know how to establish a solid defensive position at a choke point or launch a coordinated attack.

It was smart enough to take out my howitzer with AT guns when it saw I had mucho machine gun nests around it.

Was also smart enough to garrison the right buildings around a victory point to protect it.

But yeah, it is generally weak defensively and the devs had to compensate. I remember trying to rush the bases after the siege of mortain, only to run into pre-set minefields.

 

[Oyeve]

B&W

 

[GundamSonicZeroX]

Originally posted by: Zenoth Halo: Combat Evolved

Another game that really got my attention with its superb A.I (for the Covenant, mostly for the Elites) back in the days. I do believe that Halo 2 and Halo 3's A.I are respectively even better than the previous, but H:CE's A.I was another great step forward for first-person-shooters which always had a reputation of featuring enemies and/or allies with brain-dead A.I (which is sadly still true today despite the few exceptions around).

What the hell were you smoking? When I played the game (on Heroic), I would throw a grenade at an Elite and miss, having the grenade either next to their foot or another place within lethal splash damage. The Elite would just stand there and yell, while I either fire at the other aliens or sit behind cover., then the grenade would explode, killing the Elite. Yeah, those enemies are real smart.

 

[Zenoth]

Originally posted by: GundamSonicZeroX

Originally posted by: Zenoth Halo: Combat Evolved

Another game that really got my attention with its superb A.I (for the Covenant, mostly for the Elites) back in the days. I do believe that Halo 2 and Halo 3's A.I are respectively even better than the previous, but H:CE's A.I was another great step forward for first-person-shooters which always had a reputation of featuring enemies and/or allies with brain-dead A.I (which is sadly still true today despite the few exceptions around).

What the hell were you smoking? When I played the game (on Heroic), I would throw a grenade at an Elite and miss, having the grenade either next to their foot or another place within lethal splash damage. The Elite would just stand there and yell, while I either fire at the other aliens or sit behind cover., then the grenade would explode, killing the Elite. Yeah, those enemies are real smart.

Fortunately, I'm a non-smoker and I really enjoy it that way.

As for the Halo: CE A.I, which you played on Heroic, I cannot comment much, since I mostly remember from my experiences while playing on Legendary. And in any games out there you will see the A.I acting as you describe, however it doesn't suddenly make the A.I dumb for all other situations where they do act intelligently.

If you saw them "stand there" and waiting to get blown up by your grenade, then it makes them automatically dumb and any improvements in terms of A.I in first-person-shooters brought by that game are null? No thanks. Play it again, on Legendary, maybe you'll see more situations where the A.I shows cunning tactics. And remember that you have to think of Halo: CE's A.I "capabilities" with the standards of late 2001 and early 2002.

A lot of people for example are praising F.E.A.R.'s A.I, including myself. But there are still situations where the A.I will seemingly forget its lines of code and act brain-dead. Does that suddenly make that game's A.I sarcastically "real smart" as you pretended for Halo: CE? I don't think so.

 

[GundamSonicZeroX]

Originally posted by: Zenoth

Originally posted by: GundamSonicZeroX

Originally posted by: Zenoth Halo: Combat Evolved

Another game that really got my attention with its superb A.I (for the Covenant, mostly for the Elites) back in the days. I do believe that Halo 2 and Halo 3's A.I are respectively even better than the previous, but H:CE's A.I was another great step forward for first-person-shooters which always had a reputation of featuring enemies and/or allies with brain-dead A.I (which is sadly still true today despite the few exceptions around).

What the hell were you smoking? When I played the game (on Heroic), I would throw a grenade at an Elite and miss, having the grenade either next to their foot or another place within lethal splash damage. The Elite would just stand there and yell, while I either fire at the other aliens or sit behind cover., then the grenade would explode, killing the Elite. Yeah, those enemies are real smart.

If you saw them "stand there" and waiting to get blown up by your grenade, then it makes them automatically dumb and any improvements in terms of A.I in first-person-shooters brought by that game are null?

You said: "mostly for the Elites," so I talked about my experience with the Elites. If it was a one time thing, I wouldn't dog the game so much, but the fact that I can do it every time I encounter an Elite does bring the A.I. down a bit. The Elites are the second worst in the game (the first would be the Hunters). The only thing that the enemies did that impressed me in Halo was during an encounter with some Grunts, some of them ran behind a Jackal. While I was dealing with the Jackal, (I couldn't just throw a grenade, I was out) a Grunt came up from behind and attacked me.

And remember that you have to think of Halo: CE's A.I "capabilities" with the standards of late 2001 and early 2002.

Half-Life had better A.I., and that game was released in 1998.

Play it again, on Legendary, maybe you'll see more situations where the A.I shows cunning tactics.

No thanks, I'd prefer not to play an average game when I could play Half-Life 2, Unreal, or Far Cry instead. About Legendary, many games back in the late 1990s and early 2000s would just increase the amount of damage it takes to kill an enemy (some more recent games do this as well), I highly doubt that Halo is an exception.

A lot of people for example are praising F.E.A.R.'s A.I, including myself. But there are still situations where the A.I will seemingly forget its lines of code and act brain-dead. Does that suddenly make that game's A.I sarcastically "real smart" as you pretended for Halo: CE? I don't think so.

Yes, any game where a soldier possessed by a little girl curls up into a ball right in front of me immediately has bad A.I. Most of the cool A.I. tricks in FEAR were scripted events, it's not like the enemies did anything extraordinary.

Ooh, an enemy jumps through the window right in front of my cross hairs when he could've shot the glass and thrown a grenade. That's about as impressive as the combine throwing flaming barrels down at me, most of which I blown up before the barrels could gain any momentum. :roll:

 

[Zenoth]

Originally posted by: GundamSonicZeroX
You said: "mostly for the Elites," so I talked about my experience with the Elites. If it was a one time thing, I wouldn't dog the game so much, but the fact that I can do it every time I encounter an Elite does bring the A.I. down a bit. The Elites are the second worst in the game (the first would be the Hunters). The only thing that the enemies did that impressed me in Halo was during an encounter with some Grunts, some of them ran behind a Jackal. While I was dealing with the Jackal, (I couldn't just throw a grenade, I was out) a Grunt came up from behind and attacked me.

If you haven't played it on Legendary I won't try to argue with you since what you've seen occurred on Heroic, which is a difficulty level I played perhaps a single time. What you described about Grunts taking cover behind other Covenants or even behind rocks or trees (for example on the Halo level, the second one) happens all the time on Legendary, the minimum they do is to keep a distance from you, which if I recall correctly they barely do on other difficulty settings. Yes I said mostly for the Elites, but it applies to all Covenants, I just observed more intelligent maneuvers from the Elites, I didn't classify them all.

Half-Life had better A.I., and that game was released in 1998.

I beg to differ. In Half-Life only the Marines' A.I is good. But I wouldn't qualify good as being "better" than what I see in Halo: CE. What are they doing "better" than the Grunts or Elites exactly? Throwing grenades? The Grunts did it to and believe me with much better accuracy, at least on Legendary, obviously. The Marines ran away (sometimes) from grenades, so the Grunts (also sometimes) do, what's "better" in that? There's nothing actually better in Half-Life's A.I than in Halo: CE's, they are very comparable, and personally I would still vote for Halo: CE's simply because the "good" parts, on Legendary, aren't limited to just one type of enemy in the whole game.

No thanks, I'd prefer not to play an average game when I could play Half-Life 2, Unreal, or Far Cry instead. About Legendary, many games back in the late 1990s and early 2000s would just increase the amount of damage it takes to kill an enemy (some more recent games do this as well), I highly doubt that Halo is an exception.

Well then you must not have played Half-Life 2 much have you? In Half-Life 2, along with Episode One and Episode Two, the A.I on higher difficulty levels do not benefit from anything. The only thing that happens in Half-Life 2 when you select Hard instead of Normal is indeed that you're taking more damage from enemy fire or just general damage (falling, explosive barrels, etc), and you receive less health increases from taking health packs. But there's absolutely nothing brought in terms of A.I. I still clearly remember the Combine soldiers of Episode Two (the latest part of the Half-Life saga I've played) standing there shooting at me and only moving when they have to reload, both on Normal and Hard.

And Half-Life 2 isn't the only example of a post-2002 first-person-shooter in which increasing the difficulty level does not increase the A.I's tactics and overall capabilities and intelligence, it's always a matter of adding or removing health packs or ammo crates or adding or removing enemies or increasing or decreasing their damage, such a game-play mechanic has been around since even before Half-Life (I remember playing Turok in 1997 with that problem too) as far as FPS'es are concerned. I haven't played Unreal enough to judge, but I can also attest that the A.I in FarCry isn't much better on higher difficulty levels than lower ones either.

Yes, any game where a soldier possessed by a little girl curls up into a ball right in front of me immediately has bad A.I. Most of the cool A.I. tricks in FEAR were scripted events, it's not like the enemies did anything extraordinary.

Well if any A.I has to do extraordinary things to be good by your book then I see why all of this debate between us will go nowhere and why I'll always be wrong. I'd be curious to know exactly what you expect from "good" A.I considering what scripting can bring us. All games out there, as I said, are bound to have their A.I acting strangely or not doing anything or being stuck somewhere or being literally dumb. And that example you gave with the soldier getting in front of you while you where shooting, I mean... isn't that supposed to happen? You were shooting a wall or what? You didn't expect an enemy to sometime get in front of you kill you? If they always stand behind something then what kind of bullets they'll need to shot at you from their cover? And the good A.I in F.E.A.R was scripted events and the bad was the "true" A.I? Please explain, if you want.

Ooh, an enemy jumps through the window right in front of my cross hairs when he could've shot the glass and thrown a grenade. That's about as impressive as the combine throwing flaming barrels down at me, most of which I blown up before the barrels could gain any momentum.

Well at least we can agree on Half-Life 2, a game you contradictorily listed on your "better than average Halo: CE" list, being nothing very special after all. And by the way in Half-Life 2 the A.I, the Combine, don't throw barrels outside of scripted events, in fact the actual Combine entity didn't throw anything, it's just a trigger spawning barrels as you walk through the scripted area with the Combine(s) very close to them and placed in such an angle that it gives the illusion that the A.I coding behind the actual Combine units is directly and universally responsible for those barrels going at you. Ironically, in Half-Life 2, there is A.I capable of dynamically detecting barrels or various other objects in their path and throwing/kicking those towards the player, and it is the Zombie's A.I, which in all honestly is the only thing being done intelligently in Half-Life 2 when it comes to A.I.

 

[SniperDaws]

The Marines in Half Life were amazing, infact i want to go and play it again now

 

[BW86]

I thought FEAR had pretty good AI

 

[Pia]

Half-Life marines were awesome. I fondly remember them as the first AI that effectively used grenades against me without line of sight. I don't know if they cheated and used my actual position, or if they used last sighting.

FEAR also had quite nice AI for the scenario of aggressive, unprepared assault by a half-squad. (And not due to unique scripting.) Where it fell short was situations where you'd expect elite soldiers to prepare for coordinated defense or assault, play unfair, and have backup plans. Instead they were standing or walking around. When you've got a room with exactly two entrances, and four special forces guys are defending it, do you assign all four to patrol to and fro the whole space in case the potted plant in the middle turns out to be a tango, or do you point two assault rifles at each entrance from behind the best cover you can find?

 

[MrStryker]

Armed Assault/Operation Flashpoint isn't on the list.