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| Re: Halo AI: has it progressed? Where could it go? | |
| Posted By: scarab | Date: 11/1/11 7:36 a.m. |
In Response To: Halo AI: has it progressed? Where could it go? (scarab) : Is there anything NEW that 343i could do to deepen the illusion that the NPCs : are people? I can think of one thing that would help. Halo NPCs never look at each other, there is never any eye contact. When a Grunt says, "back me up" and another Grunt replies, "I'm with you" its never obvious who said what. They are communicating but they never make eye contact. There is something autistic about the Halo NPCs. I don't think that they ever look at each other and they never make eye contact. Why does this matter? We are the only animals to have whites in our eyes, the only animal to provide a huge clue as to what we are looking at. The idea that the eye is the window to the soul is not just poetry. We can infer what a person is thinking about by simply looking at their eyes. Its very natural to us and its not something that we often think about. Its just something that we do on an unconscious level. Making eye contact is a very human thing but its not totally unique. Chimps may also do it, domestic dogs will gaze at a human's face to judge our emotional state or to take advantage of our greater height to see if we have seen something that they are looking for. But in every case of face gazing the reason is social, the entities doing it have a theory of mind and are demonstrating that they are thinking entities. The fact that Halo NPCs never look at each other undermines any notion that they are thinking beings. It happens at an unconscious level, you may never have noticed this at a conscious level but rewatch encounters in theater mode and just watch the NPCs interact (or fail to interact). I suggested this idea before. I remember Shiska saying that taking your eye of the enemy is a way to get yourself killed. I agree but nevertheless its just something that is hardwired into us, we can not help but do it. Yes a glance can get you killed but it is just a glance and we need to look around from time to time to keep up our situational awareness. That noise behind you: is it an ally or an enemy. If you don't want a friendly fire incident then you need to keep track of the changing spacial relationships of enemies and allies. (So there are valid reasons for occasional glances, especially when you are in cover). Which reminds me of something I saw in a Halo 3 clip. A Brute and some Grunts were shooting at the Chief. They were standing on a narrow ramp and they were all, independently, strafing and firing. The group acted as one. They were like a virtuoso pianist's fingers, all synchronized together with no missteps. It was impressive but unnatural. Look at the size difference between a Grunt and a Brute. The Grunts were underfoot, practically dancing between his legs. Weren't they worried about being stood on? Wasn't he worried about tripping on a Grunt? The original game had some idea of ally NPCs getting in each other's way. Have you ever heard an argument between NPCs when one gets in the others firing line? I had to break up an, almost, fight between sarge and a marine (I defused the situation by getting into a nearby Scorpion). I just think that this idea could be extended by showing other ways that NPCs can step on each others toes (either literally or figuratively). I feel that the games that followed Halo did not follow up on the innovations of the first game. They didn't add new mechanisms to show us that we were fighting thinking beings. I wonder if the AI team were even thinking in those terms. Maybe they were just thinking in terms of fighting behaviors of of developing ways of allocating tasks to teams to semi-automate encounter design. Those are worthy goals but they are technical goals. They are not focused on the player's perspective on what is going on in the player's head. I think that 343i should be thinking of what is going on in the player's head. They should be encouraging the player to form mental models of the enemy, to form opinions about what the enemy is thinking and the player should be able to gain a tactical or strategic benefit from understanding how the enemy thinks. How could this be done? I'm not sure but I will try to suggest some ideas in a reply.
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