[SakSquash]

I got this info from God Wiki, who describes Bethesda's testing of their A.I. system, named Radiant A.I., which is:

Radiant AI works by giving NPCs a list of goals. Nothing else is scripted. They must decide how to achieve these goals by themselves based on their individual statistics. A hungry NPC might compare his current gold against his moral values to decide whether he will walk to a store and purchase food, or just steal it; a skilled archer can choose to hunt his own deer.

It then goes on to describe some of the funnier situations that came about while testing the A.I. system.

The following are examples of unexpected behavior discovered during early testing:

1. One character was given a rake and the goal "rake leaves"; another was given a broom and the goal "sweep paths," and this worked smoothly. Then they swapped the items, so that the raker was given a broom and the sweeper was given the rake. In the end, one of them killed the other so he could get the proper item.

2. Another test had an on-duty NPC guard become hungry. The guard went into the forest to hunt for food. The other guards also left to arrest the truant guard, leaving the town unprotected. The villager NPCs then looted all of the shops, due to the lack of law enforcement.

3. In another test a minotaur was given a task of protecting a unicorn (there is only one unicorn in the game). However, the minotaur repeatedly tried to kill the unicorn because he was set to be an aggressive creature.

4. In one Dark Brotherhood quest, the player can meet up with a shady merchant who sells skooma, an in-game drug. During testing, the NPC would be dead when the player got to him. The reason was that NPCs from the local skooma den were trying to get their fix, didn't have any skooma, and were killing the merchant to get it.

5. While testing to confirm that the physics models for a magical item known as the "Skull of Corruption," which creates an evil copy of the character/monster it is used on, were working properly, a tester dropped the item on the ground. An NPC immediately picked it up and used it on the player character, creating a copy of him that proceeded to kill every NPC in sight.

Oh man...this game is going to ROCK!

[RLacey]

OK, that sounds impressive.

[SakSquash]

Are you going to get it!?

[RLacey]

I'm debating it. I still am nowhere near finishing Morrowind (I only bought it last summer and haven't played it much while at uni), so I might just hang on and grab it when the price comes down a bit.

Eventually, though, the answer is most certainly "yes"...

[SakSquash]

Alright, well i'm getting it as soon as it hits stores, so i'll come back and tell you just how wicked it is.

[RLacey]

Good. Then I can know that it actually is this great and crack like the gibbering fool that I am.

[Jayel]

By the time I finish Morrowind, Oblivion will be in bargain bins, or possibly on abandonware sites.

All this A.I. stuff actually reminds me of Ultima 7 - another fantastic RPG I never got around to finish. It's been years and years since I last played it, but I remember it feeling pretty darn realistic. Or maybe I'm just reminiscing through rose coloured glasses.

[Tanukitsune]

I pre-ordered the Collector's edition, but I'm likely to never play it...

It's one of the disadvantages of being a collector, you don't have to play them all...


It seems pretty daft that the guard should go hunting when he lives next to a town, but this just makes the game "quirky"...

"Excuse me, I'm a bit peckish, so I'll just kill you and take your food, OK?"

[Corley]

Nobody worried aboot the issues that could arise from this kinda thing? i mean given morrowinds track record there were some big game destroying bugs left in.

They will have toned it down for sure i'm certain.

Thats the biggest fear i have aboot this game, bugs and issues... the latest podcast i listened to said they werent playing the final release cos bethseda were ironing out some crashing bugs, i just hope they get them all.

As funny as getting stuck to items was in morrowind i hope they do a better job with this one, also have it pre-ordered mind.

[SakSquash]

That's what patches are for. Anyway, the things I listed are what came up when they playtested, so of course they're fixing them.

[Corley]

Hopefully,

Heres the podcast i was talking aboot, worth listening to if ya have 40 mins or so.

www.gamerandy.com/podcasts/galiveobliv.mp3

If ya aint heard it, just a couple of guys who managed to play both versions for a spell.

Might be an start of the game spoiler issue for some.

[Fop]

Originally Posted by Jayel

All this A.I. stuff actually reminds me of Ultima 7 - another fantastic RPG I never got around to finish. It's been years and years since I last played it, but I remember it feeling pretty darn realistic. Or maybe I'm just reminiscing through rose coloured glasses.

Well, yeah, but U7 didn't really have any AI apart from monster behaviour in battles, I guess. What it had was a whole lot of scripting, which is pretty great too. Not really viable in a world the size of Oblivion though, plus RadiantAI should make the world seem really alive, even more so than any Ultima did. Unless it totally sucks, which is a possibility with experimental stuff like this.

[Toefur]

My disappointment with Morrowind was that although it -could- have been like U7 [and thus as great as] it didn't come anywhere near it due to a lack of character personalities, atmosphere, and IMHO as interesting story.

I wonder how close Oblivion will get. This AI may be pretty impressive, and the game is sure going to be pretty, I hope it will only be as succesful as an entire entity.

[[toj.cc]Phantom]

That...is so awesome...

Bethesda has been hard at work to fix these issues, balancing an NPC's needs against his penchant for destruction so that the game world still functions in a usable fashion.

Got that from the wiki also

[jjacob]

That sounds nearly impossibly awesome, if it is true though that is really impressive, even moreso than BioShock's AI system. they better iron out these bugs though, even if they make for some hilarious situations

[Karmillo]

Im kinda dissapointed though...were not gonna be able to witness crazy crap like that

I hope they make it easy to make mods for so there will be allot popping up all over the place, then we could probably see stuff like that

[avatar_58]

Originally Posted by Fop

Well, yeah, but U7 didn't really have any AI apart from monster behaviour in battles, I guess. What it had was a whole lot of scripting, which is pretty great too. Not really viable in a world the size of Oblivion though, plus RadiantAI should make the world seem really alive, even more so than any Ultima did. Unless it totally sucks, which is a possibility with experimental stuff like this.

Ultima VII uses scripting, yes, but as long as it looks great I say thumbs up. It so far has been the only game that actually felt alive to me.....the characters weren't just doorknobs who repeated the same insults to you like in morrowind.

I'm very much hoping that oblivion will take Ultima VII's crown as my fav game of all time. Thats a tough competition in my eyes, but with the way its starting to sound it just might happen!

[Spiwak]

Wow. I'd get this soon as it comes out if my computer could ever handle it. ever.

[Fop]

Originally Posted by avatar_58

It so far has been the only game that actually felt alive to me.....the characters weren't just doorknobs who repeated the same insults to you like in morrowind.

Oh yes, I agree. What I mean by "alive" is outward appearances - people walking around with real goals, actually doing something. When it comes to dialogue, the AI won't help at all.

[avatar_58]

Originally Posted by Fop

When it comes to dialogue, the AI won't help at all.

Agreed! I really hope they improve that. In Morrowind I couldn't care less about conversation.....it was dull and everyone said the same thing and all looked the same.

I'm hoping they take a better approach with Oblivion. Each character (or at least the important ones) shouldn't look or sound the same. Give me a damn reason to talk to them, instead of having the same dialogue choices for the king, the local barmaid and some drunk in the forest.