AI Variations

[JohnnyDangerous]

Hey guys, great job but can you add more AI variants? By that I mean, Skyrim for example, has soldiers and civilians. The soldi will attack you but the civilians will run. It’s strange that every scientist, administrator, or worker will attempt to fight me, a raider wearing a full up battle suit who wiped out every guard, instead of 1) running and 2) pleading to not be killed. Honestly, in Skyrim I couldn’t kill random NPCs because they talked like people. Even the miners in space plead with you over text. It’d be really hard to kill people who ask not to be shot, rather than blasting everyone on a base because they’re all legit combatants.
I know this is wayyyyy down the priority list, but hey, y’all added space air traffic control just for atmosphere and it’s great!

 

[CMDR Yates]

Hey guys, great job but can you add more AI variants? By that I mean, Skyrim for example, has soldiers and civilians. The soldi will attack you but the civilians will run. It’s strange that every scientist, administrator, or worker will attempt to fight me, a raider wearing a full up battle suit who wiped out every guard, instead of 1) running and 2) pleading to not be killed. Honestly, in Skyrim I couldn’t kill random NPCs because they talked like people. Even the miners in space plead with you over text. It’d be really hard to kill people who ask not to be shot, rather than blasting everyone on a base because they’re all legit combatants.
I know this is wayyyyy down the priority list, but hey, y’all added space air traffic control just for atmosphere and it’s great!

Would like to see this.

And a bit more randomness within types of NPC. Like, some soldiers who are extremely aggressive and gung-ho, some who are more reserved and tactical, some civilians who hide, a few who take up arms, etc.

Obviously some things need to be completely predictable and standardised, like scans, but in general, the job of an NPC should give you a rough guide as to their likely behaviour, but there should be outliers, anomalies and a bit of the unexpected.

 

[varonica]

Hey guys, great job but can you add more AI variants? By that I mean, Skyrim for example, has soldiers and civilians. The soldi will attack you but the civilians will run. It’s strange that every scientist, administrator, or worker will attempt to fight me, a raider wearing a full up battle suit who wiped out every guard, instead of 1) running and 2) pleading to not be killed.

Because the are probably going to die anyway if you mess with the power systems or the environmental systems. Civilians in Skyrim can run and hide in the bush for days or weeks, civilians in a ground base can run, and die in 30 minutes or so from lack of oxygen or power. Two entirely different environments and drivers for AI behaviour. If you are probably going to die anyway you may as well take a few shots before you do, you just may get lucky.

 

[Commander Kheane]

This is what OP is talking about, as per the unofficial Elder Scrolls wiki:

The behavior of an NPC is controlled by a variety of NPC-specific statistics.

Aggression​

There are four possible values for aggression. Together with the faction relationship combat modifier this governs whether the NPC initiates combat.

• 0: Unaggressive. Attacks nobody unless provoked.
• 1: Aggressive. Attacks enemies on sight.
• 2: Very Aggressive. Attacks enemies and neutral on sight.
• 3: Frenzied. Attacks anybody on sight.

Confidence​

There are five possible values for confidence:

• 0: Cowardly. Always flees from battle at low health
• 1: Cautious. Attacks only lower level enemies.
• 2: Average. Avoids higher level creatures.
• 3: Brave. Attacks unless being outmatched by the opponent.
• 4: Foolhardy. Attacks any type of enemy and fights to the death.

I can see where they're going with this suggestion and I kind of agree. However I'm of the mind that even the scientists working at some settlements are probably contractually obligated to defend against any aggressors. They do after all have dialogue supporting that, where if you have a weapon out they warn you and when you put it away they say they're glad they didn't have to "take it any further".

I mean just because someone's a geek doesn't mean they're wimps afraid of a fight. This is a world where the smallest infractions, such as loitering, are met with a lethal response. Everyone's gotta be ready for violence in such a world. And remember sometimes these settlements are all alone on a body. It would make sense that they're armed and ready to rock.

THAT SAID, it would be nice if there were SOME "pushover" settlements, like the resort and tourism ones, where no one was packing except the guards and if you took the guards out it would be easy pickings.

 

[NyanTurian]

I could imagine some of the scientists being cowardly or deceiving you into melee range. More variety like this is always welcome.

 

[Screemonster]

Hell, trying to flee while calling for the alarm would be more of a challenge than having them run up to you with a gun out.
Honestly, if a civilian catches me in a restricted area and they're alone, I should be able to just point my gun at them as long as they've not heard gunshots at the like and get them to sit the hell down.

I'm just here for the cat media in your datapoint there. Sit down and shut up and we'll both get out of this.

Have them get brave enough to call for help or go looking for a guard once I've left the area, sure, or get desperate if they see me gunning down everyone in sight, but.. really? Running right at me? If anything just seeing a pile of bodies and finding the alarm shut off should be enough to get them hiding, not just charging right at the guy in a dominator suit with their little pistol.

Not every settlement raid ends in the place being shut down, but the fact that literally everybody is a de-facto combatant means that if I'm on the base to do a job, unless the job literally has "non-violent" in the description, I don't exactly see any reason not to gun down anyone that remotely poses an obstacle. Especially if I'm already wanted - the difference between a 1k bounty, a 20k bounty or a 200k bounty is meaningless in game terms. Once I've got that little red symbol on my HUD, any further killing makes no practical difference so I might as well just get rid of anyone in my way.

 

[ebbrell]

I'm sure one or the NPCs is modeled on Authur