Maes
I like big butts!
Posts: 8661
Registered: 07-06 |
I suspect that what printz secretly wishes for is a bot that can actually handle stuff like finding keys, working out puzzles and understand cause-effect dependencies just as well as a real player.
The short answer is that no, such a bot does not exist, and it would be a daunting task worthy of a full PhD, as it would be nothing short of a full robotic AI undertaking (don't confuse the real type of AI with the simple attracted-to-target pathfinding that simple monsters have). Most bots just behave like friendly monsters that stick around you (if they are allies), or like enemies with enhanced mobility and a trick or two up their sleeves.
Sure, you could make a bot that is attracted to the "exit" switch just like monsters are attracted to their targets (or the player, by default), opening doors and attacking any hostiles that they saw directly in front of them. Such a bot could plausibly navigate through something like E1M1 or another simple map (even though E1M1 has a lot of potentially time-wasting traps like windows, alcoves etc.). That's as sophisticated a bot as you're likely to see, unless someone has been hired to do just that or undertakes it as a PhD or somesuch.
For anything more complex, just picture this scenario: the moment a bot would encounter a locked door, it would be faced with the first "intelligence" problem, as well as a dilemma: just like a real player, should it just roam the level and visually look for a key/switch/linedef that might open it, or should it "cheat" and simply use internal engine info e.g. look for the key's map object or head for the switch/linedef that activates the door based on tagselinedef/sector tag?
Either way, other sub-goals may pop in the middle (e.g. to find the red key, it may have to find a switch that opens another door, so it needs to put the primary quest aside temporarily and focus on another etc). You could think of it as a highly specialized "rat in the maze" problem, where the "rat" is customized to deal with the quirks of a particular environment (Doom levels).
The bot could have some preconceptions built-in (e.g. avoiding damaging floors, avoiding falling into pits too deep to be able to get out...although there are a few pits where you MUST fall into, since you know a-priori that there's a switch that can raise them or a non-pathfinding ways to get out such as an switchable elevator or a teleporter, so more complex checks must be done).
In any case, even if you build the best bot ever that "plays by the rules" alone with no way of learning to take shortcuts or taking certain risks (which would bring in ANNs or genetic algorithms into the equation...ugh), it will still be too literal and stiff in applying them, and is unlikely to ever surpass a skilled player, just like an automatic transmission can't beat a skilled stick.
OTOH, a bot could have some advantages vs a human player depending on whether e.g. you allow it to have instant at-will SR-50 movement, instant rotations towards a target, allow it to know what triggers what and so spend no time humping walls, whether it has "absolute targetting" just like monsters (no LOS/autoaim checks) so it can aim perfectly regardless of visual resolution or darkness etc.
It could also be allowed to "preprocess" a map and optimize certain paths e.g. go for keys before actually bumping into their locked doors, or detect shortcuts that allow skipping them altogether. Another thing would be to teach it to optimize weapon usage or exploit infighting it could e.g. be given superhuman dodging skills or a MK Walker behavior allowing it to close in, dodge and tyson monsters to death without as much as a scratch.
With all the above considered, it's no wonder that enemies/opponents/adversaries/agents/NPCs in most video games DON'T play by the same rules as the player: it would be too hard to do so, and it would be near impossible to make them any fun to play with. Case in point: the bots in BF 1942: they simply can't deal with certain trickery that real players can pull, and are horrible defenders (though they can snipe from incredible distances with ANY weapon).
Instead, most games have NPCs that behave somewhat close to players but are allowed simplifications (e.g. to simulate a "competitive" AI in a RTS game, just allow it to outright cheat by building instantly and having infinite resources: after all, that's exactly the impression a skilled human player will give to a less skilled opponent).
Last edited by Maes on 11-08-11 at 13:43
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04-29-11 11:42 
