General Ai Change (Per Unit Basis) Suggestion (With Some Minor Others)

[matrixEXO]

It's just a general change that I would like to suggest to improve enemy AI fluidity with their own gear and weaponry.

 

Grineer

Lancer - Smarter grenade tossing. They should be throwing grenades beside the object being covered behind and not in front of.

 

Shield - Should never open shield when an ally is taking cover behind him. Should be more of a defensive unit, only using the shield knockdown when the enemy is close to them. Multiple Shields needs to band together to form a defensive line.

 

Trooper - Should be acting like a melee unit but rushing from cover to cover and trying to get close to the enemy, abandoning cover if none exist nearby to be even closer to the enemy. Effective attack range should be created so they would not attack beyond that range.

 

Scorch - Same as Trooper but they already have an effective attack range.

 

Ballista - Always behind cover, repositioning only when enemy gets close and if enemy is out of sight for a shot.

 

Heavy - Impossible to change without completely new mechanic (firing from cover).

 

Napalm - Should always reposition himself to a safe cover point whenever he isn't going to shoot or during the firing delay.

 

Bombard - Same as Napalm.

 

Commander - Should always use Switch Teleport whenever he's surrounded in a group of other Grineers. Non-heavy Grineers should always gather near a Commander (AI interaction).

 

 

Corpus

Crewman - Same as Grineer Heavy Gunner, mainly due to the weapon's non-existent recoil. This would put them far apart from their Grineer Lancer counterpart.

 

Sniper - Same as Grineer Ballista.

 

Tech - Should always deploy Shield Ospreys whenever possible and not when only injured.

 

MOA - Need to be able to walk and fire. This will improve functional capability of the MOA other than just a run-in-fire-die enemy type.

 

Shockwave MOA - Need to show when the shockwave does not impact a player. The wave as compared to what actually would happen does not sync. (Not an AI fix but more of an animation effect fix.)

 

Railgun MOA - Need to stop firing without proper line of sight. If no Corpus unit or camera (excluding turret) can see the enemy, it should not be able to detect where he is.

 

Fusion MOA - Drone detachment should be done on HP loss, not upon reaching ~50% HP. This would improve the functional combat situation of the MOA as compared to being a laser beam of suicide.

 

Shield Osprey - Needs to make use of cover. That would increase survivability of the Osprey as well as make them more annoying.

 

Mine Osprey - Needs to be able to hold the mine on themselves, letting it prime for longer before deployment. This would mean that they could essentially just drop an instant bomb rather than having it wait for another 10s before detonating.

 

 

Infested

Runner - Detonation time should be extended with slow effect. Otherwise, grant it slow immunity.

 

Crawler (all) - Should not get up when attacking. They are crawlers, they crawl.

 

Toxic Crawler - Should apply poison damage on attack. (Not AI fix but an attack change.)

 

Healer - The wave of healing should penetrate through walls and always show so people will know where it is and how far it can heal. Otherwise, set the heal range to be the same as heal effect wave. (Not an AI fix but more of an animation effect fix.)

 

 

Others

Who-is? - Should be able to wallrun, mantle, climb and do anything a player can do. Should be able to detect certain abilities (Frost's Snow Globe, Vauban's Bastille) and either avoid them or go into their effective area to prevent it's usage from stopping his progress.

[NacaIcon]

This is...a really nice list. I mean, nothing that DE could really do quickly, or without half a dozen other coding bugs cropping up no one expected, but a good list for them to work towards.

 

My only complaint is- arn't the Shield Ospreys annoying enough, without them flat out hiding from the player? Not saying it's a bad idea, only that I don't really like it :P

[matrixEXO]

This is...a really nice list. I mean, nothing that DE could really do quickly, or without half a dozen other coding bugs cropping up no one expected, but a good list for them to work towards.

 

My only complaint is- arn't the Shield Ospreys annoying enough, without them flat out hiding from the player? Not saying it's a bad idea, only that I don't really like it :P

Shield Ospreys are annoying but nothing that you can't stop with a good RoF gun. In fact, Shield Ospreys are one of the easiest enemies to kill in the Corpus maps. I would like to increase their survivability a lot more by making them make use of cover. Also, when they start to make use of cover, enemies out in the open or away from the cover area would be rather vulnerable given how they cannot beam allies that's being blocked by any object. This is a slight nerf/buff scenario in either way.

[NacaIcon]

Shield Ospreys are annoying but nothing that you can't stop with a good RoF gun. In fact, Shield Ospreys are one of the easiest enemies to kill in the Corpus maps. I would like to increase their survivability a lot more by making them make use of cover. Also, when they start to make use of cover, enemies out in the open or away from the cover area would be rather vulnerable given how they cannot beam allies that's being blocked by any object. This is a slight nerf/buff scenario in either way.

Like I said, not a bad idea.

I admit I did think of 'if the Osprey is behind cover, it can't shield it's allies in front of cover', but now that I think about it more...

Perhaps an AI edit to make the Corpus troops more likely to reposition to areas where they would be covered by the Ospreys? Maybe not the MOA since they're really the Corpus 'front line troops', so to speak, and it's only logical that the humans would be more intuitive then the robots (as far as basic self-preservation is concerned).

[matrixEXO]

Like I said, not a bad idea.

I admit I did think of 'if the Osprey is behind cover, it can't shield it's allies in front of cover', but now that I think about it more...

Perhaps an AI edit to make the Corpus troops more likely to reposition to areas where they would be covered by the Ospreys? Maybe not the MOA since they're really the Corpus 'front line troops', so to speak, and it's only logical that the humans would be more intuitive then the robots (as far as basic self-preservation is concerned).

That would work fine too. In fact, a bump in MOA spawn/deployment rate and slight reduction in Crewman spawn rate would also fit as well.

Edited July 8, 2013 by matrixEXO