Ai And Useable Objects

[Springheel]

"It would be interesting to see if we could create 'AI objects' that could be interacted with by AI in the area, like a chair that they might wander over to and sit in, or a fire that they warm their hands at, or a book they look down at and flip a page. Little touches like that could add to the realism of the situation. The interaction could probably be scripted and attached to the object itself, so than any non-alerted AI (or perhaps only civilian AI) that comes near the object has a 20% chance of 'using' it.

 

This might require extra animation work, however, unless we stick to things that are already going to be animated.

 

I think the idea has endless comic relief value as well. For example, creating a wine bottle that AI occasionally stop and take a drink from, or a painting they occasionally stop and scratch their head in front of."

 

Just wanted to get that idea posted here. My thought was the either 1) individual objects be created with this property, or 2) normal objects can be someone gifted with this property when placed in a map.

 

The idea being that AI will not stop and sit in any chair they pass. A single chair would be defined (somehow) as 'AI-usable'. Any calm AI within a certain radius may be affected (perentage chance each time they come within range). If they are affected, they 'use' the object. In this case, they would sit down for a small amount of time before getting up and resuming their patrol.

 

We would have to come up with objects that either use an existing animation (like sitting) or could use a generic animation.

 

I can expand on this later, just wanted to get it down.

Edited November 19, 2004 by Springheel

[sparhawk]

"It would be interesting to see if we could create 'AI objects' that could be interacted with by AI in the area, like a chair that they might wander over to and sit in, or a fire that they warm their hands at, or a book they look down at and flip a page.

For this to make it work we need to extend the object properties to specify which animation is required and we will ned some generic animations. Some that I can think of would be:

Bend over: books, maps, scrolls, letters, oven

Kneel down and bend on floor sideways: look under bed, lockers or tables )(as if searching a lost item on the floor), might be usefull for searching algorithm as well.

Sit down: Chair, couches, logs

Scratch had: books, maps, letters, scrolls, wall painting.

Drinking: Bottles, cups

Stirr: Oven, pots, alchemist labratory

Kick (frustration aftera fruitless search): any kind of small objects which are standing on the floor or some furniture.

After kick the AI could hold it's toe and jump up and down on one foot in a circle. As if it hurt it's toe. Should be used VERY rarely though.

Knocking a buddy on its shoulder, should also be used very rarely and needs a fracion system.

 

I guess there could be some more.

[Springheel]

This may be applicable to this idea, I don't know:

 

If you want to trigger the built-in animations just add a "target_ai_followalternatepath1" and Ctrl-k it with the character you want to animate. Then add a "path_anim" and give it a Key "anim" with a value of whatever anim you want like "cower" or "run" or whatever anims that character has. Select the character and give him a Key of "alt_path_1" with a Val of "path_anim_1" or whatever you named your path_anim. When you trigger the target_ai_followalternatepath1 with a trigger_once or you trigger it in a script, your character will perform that animation. If you're using this animation in a cinematic make sure you give all entities the Key/Val Cinematic/1. I was going to add this to my cinematic tutorial, but I'm too lazy.

[Domarius]

Only stick to simple animations.

 

Eg. a bottle can be picked up from any direction. A picture can be looked at from practically any direction (the AI will have to be on the correct side of the wall to see it anyway).

 

But a book will need the AI to be exactly in front of it, to turn the pages. And this would require the book to have page turning animations or something.

 

The data needed for each object could be implemented easily - making the AI's react to it, and making the appropriate animations, could always be done after the first version of the mod has been done, right? This is an aesthetic feature, not too critical.

Yet IMO it would help dramatically to make this mod feel even more immersive than other versions of Thief.

[sparhawk]

The data needed for each object could be implemented easily - making the AI's react to it, and making the appropriate animations, could always be done after the first version of the mod has been done, right?  This is an aesthetic feature, not too critical.

Yet IMO it would help dramatically to make this mod feel even more immersive than other versions of Thief.

Yes. No need to do this now. We must first implement the core gamplay. I think with the version that I uploaded yesterday it is already a good step ahead in this direction.

 

What we need now is level designers who actually use these features to give me some feedback.

Edited November 25, 2004 by sparhawk

[oDDity]

Yes, a great example of ambient AI animation was in the Gothic games (my second favourite games ever), which had the most realistic AI I've ever seen (not their intelligence maybe, but they just seemed real because of their animations and dialogue)

Still, it's best to get all the base, essential animations out of the way first, though we can keep on bulld a list of optional extras here.

[sparhawk]

Yes, a great example of ambient AI animation was in the Gothic games (my second favourite games ever), which had the most realistic AI I've ever seen (not their intelligence maybe, but they just seemed real because of their animations and dialogue)

Yes. Gothic is IMO one of the best games in terms of realism. The world is absolutely believable and they did a great job to make it come alive. I always loved it to see i.E. how the workes came back from work in the evening, or went to their work in the morning. There is no shortcut as many games do, that at some point in time they are suddenly gone. They really go to work and if you are there you can go with them. But this is a small highlight. There are many such details included and the combat AI is also excellent.