Ai Smart Searching?

[Catfish]

Hello there. I am a new one, so please forgive me any stupid or allready answered questions i may ask.

 

One of a few things i disliked about thief, while playing it the firs times, was that guards allways shown their status with woice comments. Every time they spoted something (garrett obviously) they spoke. Every time they started or stoped searching they spoke it, so i could hear them. I consider it unreal and annoyng. Allways tought that smart guards like Benny could, from time to time pretend not to be allerted, but check the suspicious things without his sword raised, or with just turning his head to get a better wiew, and of course say nothing to warn the potential thief. From mine point of wiew improving this can add a little more uncertainity to dealing with what is called AI, and raise a tension a bit, towards deeper thrill.

I am just asking for your opinion, or whether you considered something like it before.

[New Horizon]

Hello there. I am a new one, so please forgive me any stupid or allready answered questions i may ask.

 

One of a few things i disliked about thief, while playing it the firs times, was that guards allways shown their status with woice comments. Every time they spoted something (garrett obviously) they spoke. Every time they started or stoped searching they spoke it, so i could hear them. I consider it unreal and annoyng. Allways tought that smart guards like Benny could, from time to time pretend not to be allerted, but check the suspicious things without his sword raised, or with just turning his head to get a better wiew, and of course say nothing to warn the potential thief. From mine point of wiew improving this can add a little more uncertainity to dealing with what is called AI, and raise a tension a bit, towards deeper thrill.

I am just asking for your opinion, or whether you considered something like it before.

 

Well, Thief 3 went a lot further in the audio comments than the original games...and we're leaning towards Thief 1 and 2 for our AI. There will be improvements of course, but I think you're missing the idea behind these audio alerts. They're not just there to signify that the AI has been alerted, they're also there to let the player know how much noise they're making...how visible they are to the AI from a specific distance. If you take that away, you break the game components. There are plenty of other ways to add some uncertainty to the AI, but I certainly would not support removing 'vital' player/AI feedback.

[kohan69]

Agree with New Horizon here

 

The guards are dumb illiterate individuals. Like many stupid individuals they sound out their thoughts as they occur "HUH?", "What was that?", "Damn rats!", etc. Therefore it does not deteriorate the realism of the atmosphere.

[Catfish]

Well, Thief 3 went a lot further in the audio comments than the original games...and we're leaning towards Thief 1 and 2 for our AI. There will be improvements of course, but I think you're missing the idea behind these audio alerts. They're not just there to signify that the AI has been alerted, they're also there to let the player know how much noise they're making...how visible they are to the AI from a specific distance. If you take that away, you break the game components. There are plenty of other ways to add some uncertainty to the AI, but I certainly would not support removing 'vital' player/AI feedback.

 

Don't mean to remove them, that woul'd be shame. They play a important role, that is for sure. I mean in only a small amount maybe about 15% of cases shoul be replaced with something different. What i try to point is that i allways know exactly when the guard spot me, when he start his search and when he is don with it from his woice responses. All the time all the information, no surprise.

[Crispy]

I dunno, I think that would be more frustrating than interesting. Players need to have good feedback on what's going on in the world, and in a stealth game that usually has to be audio.

 

I love your avatar by the way.

[Springheel]

There are plans on the books to make the more sophisticated and skilled guards generally talk less than the other guards.

[Catfish]

I agree with you generaly, i just had a feeling, that occasional change may add some spice.

 

I love your avatar by the way.

Thanks

 

And remember: We may have days, we may have hours, but sooner or later we push up flowers!

[Catfish]

There are plans on the books to make the more sophisticated and skilled guards generally talk less than the other guards.

That the point. I like it. Thanks for the work on the game to all of you there btw.

[Crispy]

And remember: We may have days, we may have hours, but sooner or later we push up flowers!

Heh, heh. Grim Fandango rocks. Maybe I should replay it one of these days...

[sparhawk]

I also did a few months ago. The nice thing is, that even though the story sounds quite grim, it can also be used for children, as it is not really violent. My kids loved it. I'm about halfway through, because I had a crash in the casino and then somehow I forgot it, but this reminded me to finish it.

[Crispy]

The bit that always annoyed me was

the tumbler lock puzzle near the edge of the world

- I only managed it on my first playthrough. I must have been doing something wrong the other two times.