Monster AI

[Gaehh]

How 'smart' will monsters be?
One of the thing I really find annoying in the current MMORPGs is that the NPCs/mobs are totally dumb.

For instance, you are at a goblin camp, you attack one of the guards, just out of aggro range of the others. Unless you train him right into the aggro range of the other goblins, they will just stand there, watch you kill the guard and wait to be the next one on your list.

What came to my mind is, why don't mobs have the ability communicate / call for help?
If a player is attacked by a strong mob, he yells for help and others will come to aid or run away in order to save themselves.
Mobs should react this way too. If you attack the guard, he will shout for help. The other goblins in 'hearing range' should decide if they come to aid the guard, or run into the camp for saving themselves and/or getting more help.
They don't need to be really 'intelligent' (which would be a nightmare to implement), they just should have some rudimental options of behaviour for these cases. (help / run away / get reinforcements from a nearby camp)

Mobs should also know where they can get the needed help. It's really annoying if 'almost dead' mobs run off into a random direction, while a camp with their friends is just a few steps away. I don't know if it's possible to implement something like this, but I believe mobs should have a basic knowledge of the terrain they live in.

[Uuldiin]

well accually not many ppl know but EQ's monsters CAN call for help. but thats only certain types, rare ocastion an orc will run to a group of 2 or 3 orcs for help bringing more to you. or one time i had a Sabertooth run off on me and come back with 2 others, may have been a bug, but highly smart idea

[Gaehh]

Only happened to me once in EQ and the mob was Cazic Thule. He calls the whole zone to his aid, that hurts... :)

[Kintoun]

LOL actually what normally happens is a wounded NPC will run away aggro'ing a ton of other NPC's. When the wounded NPC has recovered enough it too will return, sometimes along side the others.

It's good to see an avid EQ player btw Gaehh =) I'm starting to miss EQ quite a bit... but I know the only way to satiate my hunger is to keep telling myself, Arcanity soon, Arcanity soon!

[BelDragos]

Actually I asked this question months ago and the staff said that the monsters will have intelligence and act that way. This means that they will pick up weapons and use them against you and learn from your actions in a limited way. I even suggested that they be allowed to capture and ransome you. Perhaps for gold or you teaching one of your skills to them. I imagine the calling for help would be in there somewhere based on how smart they are programed.

[Kintoun]

Their aiming pretty high there. But if they can pull off 50% of what they say, Arcanity will rock the gaming world as we know it. Heck, if they only pull off 10% I'll still love Arcanity!

[Foxnix]

Wow with good AI we would really have a dynamic world as the Mobs would evolve with the rest of the players.

I agree with Kintoun if BHT can do even half of this then they have my vote.... Err they pretty much have it now though with the way the boards are run and friendly not to mention helpful communication which is bouncing back and forth (Anyone ever been to the verant message boards?).

I say long live Arcanity :)

[Rolfe]

We plan on making our mobs smarter than current MMORPG mobs. Of course, the level of intelligence will vary with the type of mob. Social mobs like goblins, kobolds, etc, will have a more intelligent AI. If we do it right, there will be more interaction with intelligent mobs than just killing them. My ultimate goal is to have no distinction between an NPC and a "mob". They should all be NPCs in my opinion. That said, we haven't started working on real AI yet. It's all just ideas for now.

[Kintoun]

Hahhha great! Lets start killing the townspeople then! yay!

Interaction tho should be great. Being able to have a good enought faction with an evil race and so being able to walk up to a "mob" and asking it questions, and getting some info from it.

BTW in my experience a mob is from rouge-based and text-based RPG's. It's basically a NPC which is only meant for killing. As in what most people kill for exp. Cause in some RPG's there are obviously NPC's that can't be killed. These NPC's are not mobs. MOB actually stands for something, altho almost nobody remembers what... heh.

[Gaehh]

I agree, there should be no difference between mobs and NPCs.
Just like in real life, you should be able to communicate with every 'intelligent' being. (also depending on your faction ofcourse)
This would make building factions up much more interesting and rewarding and make the game-world more 'real' and immersive.
It would also take away from 'cookie cutter' gameplay, where everyone solves the same quests and runs to the same places. By working on your factions you would get quests from NPCs (mobs) who are KOS to most others for instance...
Would be fun to become a friend of orcs or goblins and even help them defend their villages against invaders :)

[Lordosis]

I think MOB stands for Mobile Object, and it came from MUD programming. But I could be wrong.

[Foxnix]

Yep Rich is right MOb is Mobile object from the old MUDs.

I think it would be cool to build up your faction with the lizard men of the swamp and then go do some quests for them. It would also be cool to help defend the Orcs from those pesky humans who like to kill them all.

Theres nothing more saddening than an Orc with a life span of less than a may fly!

[Kintoun]

Ya I remember it was from the orginal MUD's and MOO's. But never knew what it stood for..http://members.chello.nl/~deleeuw3/ahic.gif