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AI

A bad AI is worse than no AI - Me

What Makes an AI Good?

An AI is transparent in why it does something. This does not necessary mean we say that the enemy AI has an elo rating of grand master and a personality of aggressive attacker. Shows such things in context of your game world. A passant character that says not so smart things. Shows an AI with low elo. A general with decorated medals and an aggressive tone, show a high elo with an aggressive personality.

An AI should have two categories attached to it.

  • First an elo rating.
  • Second a personality.

A good AI interacts with the game world like the player does. This improves immersion and give a sense of fairness. If the AI has less ressource "I expect them to react on that fact". Often times the AI just cheats and is seldom really bothered by such things. The AI does not care about constraints and limits. Sometimes this gives the player the feeling the he plays a different game than the AI does. It shows disconnection.

Elo Rating​

The elo rating determines what tactics the AI should choose from an efficiency point. There are certain tactics that are simply a better choice (The smarter choice).

Personality​

An AI should have a personality that determines a style of play.

What makes an AI bad?

Intransparency, is the big problem. When an AI does something smart and complicated, but the player believes "Uhhh how stupid is my AI ally it's not helping me in my battle!". But in reality the AI is secretly betraying the player. Preparing to break the alliance. The player will not believe that.

The player will always see "stupid" actions, when an AI does something he does not expect them to do and does not understand why the AI does it. An AI character doing something insane, crazy while having the crazy trait seems to be inline and expected. But if the player does not see this information he sees it as a stupid action by the AI.

Summary

The player needs to understand why the AI does something. Give the player this information in the context of the game world. Show don't tell. Don't let your AI be divided between good AI and bad AI.