I was kinda disappointed to see the AI hasn't changed as of yet in Diablo 3. I would have loved to see the enemies working in clever ways besides just relentless pounding. Maybe they trigger destructible environments on players and such. Anyone else feel this way?
Did you not watch the move, Having there AI change is no biggy but having them work together will make playing hard enough. Did you not see the skeletons with the shields? Mixed with the archer skeletons? That combo makes for a great fight. I think the random AI (even if its a basic AI) will be very enjoyable. Every time you reload a game and start the run over again for loot you wont see the same thing you did the first time and i think every one will like this.
I honestly didn't expect much intelligence from Skeletons, Zombies and Trees... The boss SHOULD be just pounding.
You didn't see the enemies working in clever ways? So you didn't see the Ghouls clambering up the walls for an ambush or the Skeletons and the Berserkers and Cultists working as a team? It's not as though they're going to have mindless zombies and daemons plotting against you, strategically planning their next collective move to exploit your weaknesses. Not only do you get ambushed, etc, but in the boss fights, where you'd expect to see bosses planning and scheming, they actually do plan and scheme. If their hordes of defenders have been taken out, they'll run back to their other forces. No destructible environments on players? What about the bridge being destroyed, the bookcase collapsing, the enemy spawning booby traps from chests, the trees becoming enemies and the siege-breaker daemon bursting through the wall? An honest question, did you actually watch the whole gameplay video or did you skip most of it?
The enemies did have good AI. How could you look at the part with the shielded skeletons and the archers covering for each other and say they had bad AI? Besides, these are the most retarded of enemies in intelligence. They most definitely won't be that smart, but more powerful enemies (think Abyss Knights and such) are almost sure to use the environment against you.
Well for one my stream froze midway for like a good three minutes. So all I saw was the fighting inside where Cain was, and then the last half of the witch doctor leading up to the boss. The bodd fight did impress me though. I'll watch again and look for what you guys are talking about.
Look for right at the beginning, where the Ghouls set up an ambush by crawling up the walls, just after, where the Berserkers team up with Cultists, after that, where the Chest sets off the Spectre summoning Booby Trap, where the ceiling gives way and takes out the bridge/walkway, where the Skeletal Shieldmen team up with Skeletal Archers, the head Satyr who tactically retreats to the remainder of his army when the first lot is wiped out, where the trees come to life and ambush the party and when the siegebreaker demon breaks through the wall. All examples of basic tactics and environmental effects on the player. Also, it may cut out if you try to skip past where it's loaded, the annoying thing being that there's no indication of where it is. However, if that's the case, the fact that you're skipping ahead to begin with would imply you're missing a lot of the video.
No, I meant while I was watching it live... During peak viewing, and I would have to buffer every minute or so. I'll find it on a fan site though.
Are these really examples of AI? I mean, sure, skeletons cover archers, but aren't they doing it only because they were placed in front of them to begin with? Same with berserkers and cultists. Berserkers just go after you, while cultists do their thing, and the "teamwork" part comes from the fact that berserkers were initialy closer to you. I'm not complaining, since I don't expect these kinds of lowly enemies to be super intelligent either, just saying that I don't see tese things as examples of good AI. I'd interpret it more as their masters planning tactics (placement) for them
Well if they were placed randomly, with awesome AI, they'd group up like that anyway. Same goes for the ambushes and tactical retreats. If they weren't grouped to begin with, they'd decide to group accordingly. If they weren't triggered to retreat, they'd decide to retreat accordingly. If they weren't set up to ambush, they'd decide to ambush accordingly. The thing is that the proper AI would cost tonnes to achieve the exact same thing that they'd achieve through placement, so in effect, they're just cutting out the middle-man, resulting in the equivalent level of intelligence for a fraction of the cost.
So I watched the gameplay footage a few times. I see a lot of areas of shining brilliance and a couple of just plain stupidity. Good The ghouls climbing the cliffs. The archers and shieldsmen fighting as a phalanx The traps on chests Enemies now surround which in D2 they had problems doing consistently Bad Enemies just walk right into the zombie wall, I want my baddies to be smart enough to walk around after taking so much damage. A lot of times they were in straight lines, making focus fire on heroes impossible. I just thought of something, and they may have scripted it this way for the preview...but if a hero is spamming whirlwind, then the enemies should start dispersing so they are just mincemeat. Adaptive AI would make Diablo an absolutely hardcore experience all around.
The enemies died as soon as they hit the Zombie Wall, so there was no chance at turning around and taking another route, not to mention that they'd be being pushed by the ones behind them, so would be forced into the wall. What do you mean by the enemies were in straight lines? You mean like how the stationary enemies standing in front of others blocked them from attacking? If so, that's in all games, and it's practically unavoidable. Most of the time the player's supposed to be bright enough to use this to his or her advantage, like how the Barbarian jumps to the bridge or in StarCraft2 where they demonstrated how the Nullifier's Force Fields can force a chokepoint, forcing the units in the front line to block the units behind them.
TYreaper you two "bad" things should perhaps be implented in Hard, but not in Easy or Medium should it? I tihnk thats another way how you can balance each of the "levels"
