Radiant AI, R2D2 in progress? Options

[Hukai The Wandering]

Here's an example of the radiant AI in action. I'm following this guy through the city after he gets done working. He walks into his house. I'm 50 feet behind him so I don't get noticed and by the time I reach te door he's locked it. So, remembering that someone mention that he has a backyard I walk around the block trying to find it. I see a small gate that leads to a fenced-in grassy area and some guy tilling the land. Behind him is a door. I open the gate, walk past the guy working, and behold: the door leads into the back of the very house I needed to get in to. I crouch down, attemping to sneak inside. For a few seconds I wait, to make sure that no one sees me; and right before I enter the building some *honoured user*(cus word) inside locks it! Now, I'm screwed; I can't get inside and I have to wait another day before I can get anything done! All this pain thanks to the revolutionary AI created by the gods at Bethesda.

Any more stories, events, or just weird happenings having to do with RAI? Put 'em here!

This post has been edited by Hukai The Wandering: Mar 25 2006, 01:09 AM

[Foster]

I was doing a quest in Skingrad, and so, without spoiling anything, I was watching what a particular person was doing for about 12 hours. Not only was she doing her thang, as it were (going to the temple, working etc.) but about halfway through the day, her best friend starts walking around like he's skat his pants, following her. I sit and watch as he continues to walk around as though he's messed himself, before he gropes her behind and starts to make off. She immediatly screams: Dirty Pickpocket!

So what's happening is one dude (who so kindly gave me a marksmanship lesson earlier) stealing from his vinyard coworker. Immediatly he does it again, this time to a passing mook, and suddenly guards are chasing him. The guards hit him around the head with a sword, and he runs off, the guards and his victims in tow, until they corner him and beat him to death with a little assistance from my bow.

So, moral of the story... character decided he wanted to steal (contrary to rumours they do try it), and that interupted the cycle of all the other characters.

Strangely the victims didn't take their belongings back, and I nabbed the guys house key and spent a night sampling his wine collection.

[Psuedo]

I was going on a random ride on my horse along the road outside the imperial city when i notice a traveler walking along the road. I decided to slow down and follow him to see where he was headed and after a while he stopped, drank a potion, and sped away from me! I couldn't even catch up with him on horseback!

[Duncan Frost]

Argh, these stories make me want the damn game NOW! I only get in the 28th

[Fethenwen]

Argh, these stories make me want the damn game NOW! I only get in the 28th  :(

You said it man!
I'm also getting it the 28th. And after that I won't have time to play it for a whole week :(

Well, as they say in Sweden: if you wait long enough you wait for something real good.
But that doesn't comfort me much, because I KNOW I'm waiting for something real good already.

[sins_to_dark]

This new AI system rules, ok heres what happened to me,

I was walking around the market district in the imperial city, now my guy has been working really hard going up through the galdiator ranks when i go into this guys shop and see a really nice shield.

For some reason the store owner doesnt trust me a bit but i picked up this nice shield and it was by accident so he goes to hit me i block and smack him right between the eyes. He runs out of his store so i think nows my chance and I start stealing all i could until he returned with 2 guards he decided to beat me to death for my crimes lol

[Khaan]

I REALLY wanted some of the armour the guards have in the imperial city, so in the middle of the night I sneaked into the barracks, and stole a full set of imperial guard armour, the next day I was walking around town when I ran into a guard wearing his pyjamas

[Duncan Frost]

I REALLY wanted some of the armour the guards have in the imperial city, so in the middle of the night I sneaked into the barracks, and stole a full set of imperial guard armour, the next day I was walking around town when I ran into a guard wearing his pyjamas

R.O.F.L!!!

[MarkII]

haha, classic. i walked into one of the fighters guilds yesterday and there was a uy inside walking around in his underwear... for no reason. can it be that there are RIA nudists?

[sins_to_dark]

I REALLY wanted some of the armour the guards have in the imperial city, so in the middle of the night I sneaked into the barracks, and stole a full set of imperial guard armour, the next day I was walking around town when I ran into a guard wearing his pyjamas

Thats Brillient LOL

Today I was walking by the docks and this nord walked up to a guard I was busy doing something then I turned around and The nord hit the guard in the face with his war hammer, a huge fight broke out the Nord was kicking some serious A**, but i thought well for once I might aswell help the guards instead of making their lives hell. So i took my bow and shot at the nord he moved and I hit a guard in the chest killing him, that led to a battle imperials vs Nord and Me lol I was evential killed while leaving the city on a guard chasing me for ages on a horse lol

[Aki]

Lets see. Oh.

For awhile I thought you needed a horse to fast-travel. So, upon doing MQ stuff at Weynon Prioty and seeing how far where I needed to go next was...I decided to steal a horse and fast-travel, being the dumbass I am.

So I easily get away with the horse, not even caught doing it - just waited for the stablekeep to wander off. But once at the place, I get off my horse, talk to some folks then get back on...

Peasant attack! Run!

The RAI seemed to realize this horse was stolen, and they acted as if I had just stolen it right now. *grumble*

Even important NPCs attacked me. Which means, I died.


What else...hrm.

Well. I went into a abandoned fort once, and started exploring. I kill some orc lady and continue in, soon enough I encounter what seems to be the ending parts of a bandit brawl - they were killing each other. So I drop in a mop up the remaining two.

It was awesome though. To walk in and find that.

[PCGamer2099]

Well while adventuring, I came across an abandoned town, Alswell I believe it was called.

***Small Spoiler***
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Found out the people there got turned invisible. right before I finish the quest to turn the townspeople visible again, i walk out of the one building to find a rat attacking an invisible towns folk. I try to help him, but instead just wack him a few times (hard not to hit an invisible guy).

So when the rat dies, he comes straight at me.. and not wanting to kill him, I run. I ran into the center of town and used the scroll to turn the people visible again, and then kept running down the road. He chases me for a good mile before a bandit jumps out and starts wailing him.

The two start brawling in the middle of the road and when the towns person finally got low on health, he books it and runs off with the bandit and his pet wolf after him. I lost them after that, So I dont know how the outcome was, but it was hillarious to watch.

This post has been edited by PCGamer2099: Mar 28 2006, 07:48 PM

[Soulseeker3.0]

Oh yes (I almost forgot...) I was raiding some ALyied(sp?) ruin,One thing you need to know about this dungeon is that there is a corrador with giant swinging sharp things of death, and these three zombies attacked so, me being the weakling I was at the time, decided to run for my life. (granted I was in sneak they were to strong to die in one critical hit)

The three zombies were following me and eventually I made it to the door and was standing outside, panting it away, trying to get my bearings stait enougvh to go back in and do hit and run tactics.... All of a sudden the ZOmbie apeared in front of me and I almost died... I was like "what the heck!?" but yeah I found out that monsters come out of doors as well.... But yeah I killed it (eventually) and went in to pick off the last two, it turns out one of them died by the swining things and then I found the other mopping around.

(the same thing happened with some vampire battle mages... except I died)

[Khaan]

I was in the north in the mountains above chorrol, when I saw a deer running as fast as it could across the road infront of me. A couple of seconds came an imperial legion ranger chasing the deer, screaming "WHY...WONT...YOU...DIE!!!!!!!" Over and over and sticking as many arrows as he could into the back of the deer. I followed them for about 5 mins untill I finally lost them, but the deer had about 15 arrows sticking out of its butt

This post has been edited by Khaan: Mar 29 2006, 12:23 PM

[Furious_George]

I posted this briefly in my glitching Baurus thread, but here's the whole story.

I was in Arcane University and Baurus wouldn't leave the area to take me to the Elven Gardens, so I hit him to see what would happen. I didn't get hit with a fine/bounty/crime, so I hit him a few more times, upon which he attacked me of course! The hilarious thing is that some NPC yells "assault! someone is being attacked!" I'm assuming that because I am an apprentice in the Mages Guild, they defended me by attacking Baurus. What ensued was melee after hilarious melee - one or more of them would attack Baurus and he would fight back. Any time they'd knock him down he'd be unconscious briefly (since he can't die). Then, one of the mages would accidentally hit another when aiming for Baurus and those two would square off. In about an hour, literally dozens of mages lay dead around the outside of the Arcane University. I took all their nice daggers and stripped them naked, throwing their useless gear to the side so I'd know who I harvested.
It was soo funny to see them attack each other over and over - all lights/fire/shock/various creatures summoned etc. When the hullaballoo subsided, I'd go and punch (no weapon) Baurus and the whole thing would start again. I'm assuming his dagger was in pretty bad shape because he did less and less damage per hit and turned into a nice trainer for my armor skill and armorer skill.

Luckily for me after resting and leveling up, he appeared in the elven gardens.

[Khaan]

I posted this briefly in my glitching Baurus thread, but here's the whole story.

I was in Arcane University and Baurus wouldn't leave the area to take me to the Elven Gardens, so I hit him to see what would happen. I didn't get hit with a fine/bounty/crime, so I hit him a few more times, upon which he attacked me of course! The hilarious thing is that some NPC yells "assault! someone is being attacked!" I'm assuming that because I am an apprentice in the Mages Guild, they defended me by attacking Baurus. What ensued was melee after hilarious melee - one or more of them would attack Baurus and he would fight back. Any time they'd knock him down he'd be unconscious briefly (since he can't die). Then, one of the mages would accidentally hit another when aiming for Baurus and those two would square off. In about an hour, literally dozens of mages lay dead around the outside of the Arcane University. I took all their nice daggers and stripped them naked, throwing their useless gear to the side so I'd know who I harvested. 
It was soo funny to see them attack each other over and over - all lights/fire/shock/various creatures summoned etc. When the hullaballoo subsided, I'd go and punch (no weapon) Baurus and the whole thing would start again. I'm assuming his dagger was in pretty bad shape because he did less and less damage per hit and turned into a nice trainer for my armor skill and armorer skill.

Luckily for me after resting and leveling up, he appeared in the elven gardens

ROFL

Yeah something like that happened to me too:

I was in 'The best defence' buying some new armour from the guy in the steel curiass, so I made the guy like me to get cheaper prices. once i'd bought it I obviously wanted to try it out with my sword so I got my longsword out and started thinking how cool I looked as I smashed my sword through the stuff on his desk ( as you do )

Anyway I eventually accidently hit the fur armour seller , and because the other guy liked me so much he immediately started to attack my victim and chased him out of the shop, then all the guards started joining in outside because they thought he had started it

[Furious_George]

ROFL   

Yeah something like that happened to me too:

I was in 'The best defence' buying some new armour from the guy in the steel curiass, so I made the guy like me to get cheaper prices. once i'd bought it I obviously wanted to try it out with my sword so I got my longsword out and started thinking how cool I looked as I smashed my sword through the stuff on his desk ( as you do  )

Anyway I eventually accidently hit the fur armour seller  , and because the other guy liked me so much he immediately started to attack my victim and chased him out of the shop, then all the guards started joining in outside because they thought he had started it 

Good one.
BTW, there are two sellers in there; a heavy armor seller and a light armor seller. The "fur seller" when I visited sold mithril armor, and I'm sure if you visit at a higher level you'll eventually get glass armor.

There's actually a quest (Daedric: Mephala) where you do this sort of thing on purpose and get two groups of people fighting each other. I'm going to have to figure out more ways to make it happen!

[davidzo]

I don't think the Radiant AI is much of an improvement compared to the Ai in MW. Of course it is more realistic overall. Sometimes it makes quests harder and more boring especially when you have to spy on somebody.

I was hunting in the region north of Chorrol when the dark horese courier lady was attacked by bandits in front of me on the street. She immediately got off and ran away into the wilderness while the one bandit shot arrows on her and the other was slashing her Back with his axe until i pulled him down. I killed the bandits and a wolf just in time before she would have been his meal. Then she returned straight to the horse with some arrows still in her body. When i asked her she just got angry and said she had no time to talk and road away immediately. is that kind to someone who just reescued your life?
I mean, the AI is good for normal things, but it is not flexible for stories outside of the normal preprogrammed quest-scheme.

Another time when i sneaked into someones house in Bruma to assasinate a person for the dark brotherhood in a certain manner that it would look like an Accident , i overheard the conversations that the man and his servant had because i was a little early and hat to wait. They greeted each other as if they met a stranger on a street and told various things. A few seconds after their conversation they started anew with greeting and all as if they just met. They wished each other a good day and said good buy but a few seconds later they began again with the same conversation. In this all they didn't move a bit and stand in front of each other in the main room of the house. So i think whats missing in the AI are the connections that people have between each other. a servant of a nobleman should threat his master other than a beggar and a wife should adress her husband different than a foreign traveler does to her husband.

The radiant AI is one quite capable thing, but it is still very much limited...

This post has been edited by davidzo: Mar 29 2006, 11:41 PM

[Furious_George]

@ Davidzo.
LOL!!! No, this is no Turing test!
Clearly, an in-game AI is going to fail the reality test (Turing test) when programs much more powerful based on supercomputers also fail.
Where the RAI succeeds is in making an overall (IMHO) much improved RPG-style play of interaction with NPCs, and introduces some humerous scenarios.
In a thread on another board, I saw a post complaining that NPCs rarely broke the law but were pretty boring in general. Actually, that's realistic. How often do your neighbors break out in a fight? OTOH, it's fun to 'tweak' the AI and incite situations such as those described above.

This post has been edited by Furious_George: Mar 30 2006, 12:29 AM

[davidzo]

i think it woould be no problem to let the NPCs have some relationship to each other. Just three different manners to react would be needed to make alittle more realistic touch. One for people lower one for people higher and one for family members. that would sure help a lot. A Flag that the NPCs don't talk the same conversations in their houses that they talk outside and not ten times again to the same person would also not be complicated to implement. The really big thing is the Audio. If you have more types of conversations you have double or twice that size of audiofiles. not the programming is intense but the amount of data stored on your HD. Maybe an extra Audio DVD which you need to put in when you want to play the game would be a solution.
The AI is just not so smart as shown in the Trailers. I just hate it how boring the sound recorders were. There are several people in the cities with different voices which say exactly the same. Such things as "Ah you're the Hero of Kvach..." It wouldn't have been that complicated to have a little more variety. That there are many people with the same voices is inevitable, that i do understand but that different voices say exactly the same things is just plainly dumb and boring. The person could use other sentences or only other words with the same meaning. But instead I hear the same compassion a thousand times.

This post has been edited by davidzo: Mar 30 2006, 12:47 AM