<Thief’s AI was too tricky, had to be “dumbed down”>...my brain... - by BJC-SP
BJC-SP on 20/2/2014 at 13:54
Thief’s AI was too tricky, had to be “dumbed down”
The Thief reboot is finally coming, and will be released here in South Africa next week Friday. From everything we’ve seen , it look pretty damned good, even if it does seem to borrow heavily from Dishonored, which itself borrowed rather heavily from Thief. Still, unless you turn off the assistive features, the game looks a bit easy. It used to be much, much more difficult – but its AI was proving too tricky.
"The engineers were very proud," Thief game director Nic Cantin told ArabicGamers. "With the AI they did something that was really good, but when you were trying to distract a guard in that direction for example, they were so intelligent he’d anticipate you and find you and there’d be a big fight.
"So it was too realistic at some points and we had to balance those elements and spend a lot of time with AI to make sure there is no anticipation.
That could introduce a problem that existed with Dishonored, and indeed exists in most games that heavily feature stealth. Guards tend to rush in and search around their dead friends, allowing you to hilariously build up a pile of dead bodies. But Thief is all about fun.
"It’s not about being hyper-realistic, it’s about being credible but it’s still a game," Cantin said.
Thankfully, for those who do like more challenge in their games, Thief comes with a wealth of options to make the game a little less forgiving; you an turn off the HUD, threat markers, disable takedowns and alerts and even disable non-critical upgrades. In Ironman mode, you can even have it so that if you die in a mission, you have to start the game from the beginning.
Source:(
http://www.lazygamer.net/general-news/thiefs-ai-was-too-tricky-had-to-be-dumbed-down/) http://www.lazygamer.net/general-news/thiefs-ai-was-too-tricky-had-to-be-dumbed-down/
Another one:(
http://www.craveonline.com/gaming/articles/648321-thiefs-a-i-was-dumbed-down-to-make-game-more-fun) http://www.craveonline.com/gaming/articles/648321-thiefs-a-i-was-dumbed-down-to-make-game-more-fun
My IQ just drop many points.
Neb on 20/2/2014 at 14:39
This is AI game programming 101 - it doesn't necessarily mean that the game is dumbed down. The naive approach is building an AI which always makes optimal decisions. You end up with a game that no one wants to play (insanely tough chess AI aside.)
Tomi on 20/2/2014 at 14:47
Yeah, Thief with realistic AI probably wouldn't be too much fun to play. I guess it must be very difficult to find a good balance so that the game is fun to play, but still challenging enough.
New Horizon on 20/2/2014 at 15:11
LGS did the same thing with their AI in order to find the right balance in gameplay vs. challenge. It's nothing new.
TriangleTooth on 20/2/2014 at 18:21
A good AI should simulate the level of behaviour you'd expect from real people in that situation, and real people make mistakes and aren't always prepared.
Tomi on 20/2/2014 at 18:28
Hmm, I disagree. I don't think that most guards in real life would fall for the "oh, I guess it was just rats" over and over again, and if/when you were seen by the guards, they would call all their comrades for help, lock the place down and keep searching until they find you, instead of forgetting that you ever existed in about a minute.
Well, that kind of realistic AI is indeed good in a way, but not good as in "fun". In my opinion, anyway. :) I do think that the AI in the old Thief games could have been a bit more punishing and less predictable though.
GodzillaX8 on 20/2/2014 at 20:41
Quote Posted by New Horizon
LGS did the same thing with their AI in order to find the right balance in gameplay vs. challenge. It's nothing new.
Quiet, the frothers will hear you. Wouldn't want them to get upset that TDP wasn't the most ultra realistic game... Sorry, "physics simulator" to have ever existed.
Brother Inquisitor on 20/2/2014 at 21:55
My humble guess is that they're making up excuses for their AI being full of phail. Start a fight and the other AI (well within earshot!) won't notice. Get cornered by a guard, hide in a closet and the guard will just stand there, completely unresponsive (he won't even notice the dead guard right in front of him). And that's just from watching about 8 minutes of a stream.
Platinumoxicity on 20/2/2014 at 22:07
You know, too good AI is badly designed AI. When you tell a program to destroy the player, they will do so instantly. You need to create the obstacles in between to make the process harder for the AI. You need to make the AI dumber and dumber, until it is reasonably challenging, and not omnipotent.
So to me when EM says that they needed to make the AI dumber, I just hear "We needed to try to create the AI exactly the way AI is supposed to be created because it wasn't advanced enough at first"
june gloom on 21/2/2014 at 02:50
What?