Halo 2 Artificial Intelligence Explained

An anonymous reader writes "Stuffo has an interesting interview with Bungie's lead AI developer, Chris Butcher. Butcher explains in detail how the enemies in Halo 2 think and exactly why they do the things they do."

Comments

Sounds like a good approach

[ex_ottoyuhr]

I've long suspected that the proper way to handle game AI, and game development in general, is to model things in a manner as similar to the real world as possible... It's also nice to finally have a self-preservation instinct in game enemies...

Does anyone know if Far Cry used a similar approach? Its AI struck me as very close to Halo's in a lot of ways. (Then again, the whole game was like that...)

And is the server messed up, or is this a first post? :)

AI

[MyLongNickName]

It is interesting to see how much work is required to get something that simulates 'common sense'. Note how much 'tagging' was required to get a character in a controled environment from point A to point B in a logical manner.

Now take your average FPS player. He is able to look at the terrain without these tags and make a coherent game plan. Leave one tag off of an object, and that AI player is suddenly trying to do something impossible and not able to make a decision to try a different tact.

AI has certainly improved. I can't even begin to guess how many single player games have been destroyed simply because I found an explotable AI weakness. What will make AI really good is when it can adapt strategies when it has consistently lost.

Re:is halo2's ai that good?

[Hassman]

Yea, they seem to use a lot of covering fire as well. The elites will pin you behind a wall with constant fire while others advance on your position. Pretty cool stuff.

Re:Could someone explain...

[ajd1474]

The best way to see this is when you are involved in the three way battle between Covenant, the Flood and the Humans (when you are the arbitor).

Each time you enter an area there is a battle going on between the humans/flood/covenant. Most games the action revolves around you triggering something. Halo 2 (and similar games) have the world and its players acting out their own story. You could stand in a corner and just watch the battle unfold. This is useful when you come up against a bunch of sentinels and flood... just let them battle it out, then waltz in a take out the winner.

The AI treats all enemy forces the same way, and as such you become just another player in the battle. It is also noticable when you die, in a lot of games the AI simply stops once you're dead, because you are the trigger for every action... in Halo 2 they just keep on fighting each other.

It means the world feels much more real, because all this is happening "around" you, and not "because" of you.

AI level = Difficulty level

[MMaestro]

On Legendary I've seen the AI do some crazy things they never do on Normal or Heroic. So far out of the ordinary, I've seen marines press their backs against cover and peek around it before attempting to fire. I think grunts attempt to use grenades to blow away your cover, but that might just be flushing out techniques. I've had elites try to 'bait me' by letting one come out in the open and having the others stay hidden until I tried to take the bait. And of course, they flank you. A lot.

I haven't tried any missions where there are jackals, hunters, flood, forerunner drones, or *spoiler* brutes yet but I'm guessing they have their own tricks. Oh and before you question what I saw, on legendary there are LOTS of situations where you're against 6+ elites at once so you see their tactics quite often.