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Adaptive AI in Games - Does it Really Work?

Posted by Cliff on from the reacting-to-you dept.

qasimodo asks: "I was recently reading a preview of Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, and then I came across this article at GameSpot saying Pandora Tomorrow will feature adaptive AI which 'will adjust itself to players' skill level'. I remember (and is also mentioned in the PT article) Max Payne also featured this, but I never noticed it. I guess that's the best way to know if it works, since it adapts to your gaming skills, but does it really work? Have you noticed it? Do you have proof of it?"

3 of 128 comments (clear)

  1. Re:However by Acidic_Diarrhea · · Score: 2, Informative
    I agree. That's an easy fix to the problem of people not feeling like they earned it - simple options screen selection could just turn off the adaptive gameplay. One thing I would like to note is that this isn't AI. Detecting how many times a player has failed and lowering enemy health or making enemies less sensitive to movement is not AI.

    The field of artificial intelligence is nowhere near having a good handle on simulating thought but Splinter Cell isn't where the breakthrough has come. And I'm not trying to pick on you - AI gets bandied about and associated with way too many products and is actually becoming a watered down term. I mean, the electric blanket I got over the holidays had the slogan, "The blanket with a brain!" printed on the outside. Again, sensor detection and response is about as AI as a smoke detector detecting smoke and then beeping.

    --
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  2. Re:This has been around a while... by waaka! · · Score: 2, Informative

    Didn't Doom and Quake have user-selectable difficulty levels? Not sure how that would be adaptive, really.

  3. Adaptive AI by ThePyro · · Score: 2, Informative


    I'll be the first to praise Descent's great AI, but I honestly don't think it's adaptive at all. Doing a search yielded no pages that indicated an adaptive AI. I even found an interview with one of the developers, and although AI was discussed briefly, no mention was made of adaptability.



    The Descent robots were definitely smart - they could find you ANYWHERE in a level, could call for reinforcements, and some knew how to sneak up behind you when you weren't looking. But they didn't adapt to your playing style or learn from their mistakes. There were five difficulty levels: Trainee, Rookie, Hotshot, Ace, Insane. From what I can remember, the bots were just a little bit better at dodging on the higher difficulty levels (and did more damage, too).