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Dynamic AI

Llewen

Grand Inquisitor
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Campaign Supporter
I was busily farming away a few moments ago when I started musing on the basic idiocy of the ai. I was thinking about how the ai just randomly spews out spells and special moves, and how much better it would be if the ai "thought" more like a human. Then I had a small epiphany, and it occurred to me that it might indeed be possible for the ai to think and act more like a human player.

The foundation of it would have to be stats, and I think with today's hardware and technology what I am proposing would be possible. Basically the server keeps track of the damage dealt and taken by each human player over a period of perhaps ten seconds, and the special moves and spells that are used in that period, as well as the spell effects and buffs the players is affected by. The damage taken is subtracted from the damage dealt to create a kind of +/- rating.

This information is fed into a database, and to make it more interesting it is recorded on a per shard basis. The information would have to be categorized not only by the +/- rating, but also by the specials and spells used. The mob ai would then select the +/- rating for the specials and spells it has available, and the higher the mob's intelligence, the higher up the +/- scale it would choose it's tactics from with a random variation within a certain range to prevent the tactics from being completely predictable.

This would ensure that mob intelligence has an effect on it's tactics, and would prevent mob tactics from being predictable, as well as allowing them to adapt to the changing tactics of players, and in essence to "learn". Having the data compiled on a per shard basis would also ensure that the mob tactics on each shard would be unique. And something tells me this could be done with some clever coding without putting too much of a strain on server resources.
 

Llewen

Grand Inquisitor
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Campaign Supporter
An interesting by product of this kind of data gathering is that it should make it extremely easy for the server software to spot players using exploits to break the various timers and cool downs in the game.
 

MalagAste

Belaern d'Zhaunil
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Campaign Supporter
Interesting thought...

But then you would be expecting people who can't code the software we do have to fix obvious bugs like the entire problem with the x/y thing and having pictures and such poking through the floor of having the stuff in the EC fall onto the floor below when your trying to place a deeded item implement this sort of forward thinking...

Are you sure they can do that? I mean you say it should be easy and possible.. Yet take a look at where we are and what we are dealing with.

I still can't see half my items on my paperdoll... and many of them are male when they should be female and female when they should be male.... and you want them to code something as complex as what your proposing????

Are you daft?



*Sorry but I'm becoming increasingly frustrated with the way things are... and we are talking about UO running on a bare skeleton crew here... of folk who many of them can't program their way out of a paper sack... or wouldn't know art if it was right under their nose... Ok maybe not that bad but I'm seriously not happy... for every step forward I feel we take a few back...

Take housing for instance. They finally after YEARS of begging give us the ability to be co-owned to more than one house.... but they neglect to increase the number of co-owners a house can have so the boost is more like a skunk in a cat suit. It stinks and leaves you walking away in disgust. Your elation over getting something new is quickly soured.

Somewhat like discovering you have a gallon of milk.... and cereal but come to find out after you've poured it over the last of your cereal that it's been expired for 2 weeks. Looks good.... smells horrible and tastes even worse.
 
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