SmedBlog (last year): NPC Enemies and Armies

[LongBow]

NPC's in Planetside, my immediate reaction is “wut?”, then I remember its an intelligent team behind the game and that Smed is sharing a 3YP with us before the game is live!

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NPC invasion:

no thanks, its a great idea its just not part of the Planetside formula.

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NPC harvesters

“A wild secondary objective appears” … yes please! Section 8 has shown what an improvement this can make to 'liven up' game-play, please take this idea further.

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Player controlled AI forces

interesting, but what difference is there between a building that spawns AI that march from A to B and a building that lets you carry a player controlled turret from point A to B? In both cases you create a static target priority (AI, AA or AT) in both cases you choose how you get to point B and in both cases players can make “armchair general” type decisions with immediate responses; in fact the only difference I see is that one is done by players and the other by AI.

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Player Created AI

Personally I'm inclined to like this. However because the tough part in AI is having them make “human” mistakes there is little to no “market” for winning AI.
At the end of the day we are just going to have access to a state engine; within two days, my outfit will have V1.0 of our AI and that will be that.

If anything the only difference is going to be the ratio of AI:AT:AA and that will be moment to moment.

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The "Hero" complex is a single player design concept, its something we look past in "archaic" multiplayer RPG's its not something to idolise.

In single player your the hero, in multiplayer your a champion... and that is something better conveyed by the weight of your mighty vanguards tread than any cannon fodder.