Bungie adds vehicular AI into Halo 3

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Bungie adds vehicular AI into Halo 3

Remember in Halo 2 when you proudly drove around in your spiffy warthog with an AI controlled gunner manning the turret only to be annoyed by him, because he was shooting at a tree and not the five ghost riding Elites in front of you? Well, according to this week's Bungie Weekly Update we'll be able to write off that problem in Halo 3. Frankie says that the AI controlled marines who fight by your side will be a lot smarter and will actually take hints to where they should be shooting simply by knowing where you are looking. Point your camera to the right and the gunner will shoot to the right, storm straight ahead and the gunner will unleash death bullets in front of you. Better AI always rocks.

Source: Xbox 360 Fanboy

I hated that, I'm glad in Halo 3 we have marines who know what is going on!

[Guest]

I'm glad Bungie is ironing out all these problems from the previous games, rather than just making it look special and add new features.

Halo 3 is just getting better and better.

[Pajter]

Great stuff. :D

[Huleboeren]

Meh, the developers always say this crap about enhanced AI - but when you actually play it, its not really noticable :D

... and will actually take hints to where they should be shooting simply by knowing where you are looking. Point your camera to the right and the gunner will shoot to the right, ...

In Halo1 - the car drove where you pointed the camera?

Will it still do that? If so, Id like the AI NOT to point where im pointing

Id have to drive straight for the enemy if I wanted the gunner to shoot them :(

[Tech Star]

Well at least they are trying to make it better. :)

[yert*]

But the warthog is controlled by your camera...How is this helpful?

[giga Veteran]

Meh, the developers always say this crap about enhanced AI - but when you actually play it, its not really noticable :D

In Halo1 - the car drove where you pointed the camera?

Will it still do that? If so, Id like the AI NOT to point where im pointing

Id have to drive straight for the enemy if I wanted the gunner to shoot them :(

The AI improves the predictive targeting of an AI gunner, so that now, he?s going to shoot where he thinks you?re looking, with a frightening degree of accuracy. Balancing that in Campaign would have been problematic in Halo: CE or Halo 2, since it would have been too powerful a weapon, but in Halo 3, there is simply so much going on, and so many targets to focus on, that improving it is actually necessary to stop the game being too hard.

It works especially well in letting you steer the vehicle and the camera to tempt the gunner into targeting an individual. So if a brute is giving you a really hard time, lobbing Brute Grenades, for example, you can easily cause the gunner to pick that guy as your next target with simple steering and looking. And it doesn?t matter if he?s in the center of a group of five or six Grunts. If you?re aiming correctly, the AI gunner will know the difference and concentrate on the Brute, not because it?s a Brute, but because you?ve chosen him as the target.

Other vehicle behaviors have been vastly improved too. When you drove quickly up to Marines in Halo 2, they used to scatter and dive out of the way ? which is cool, but not too convenient when your intent is to cruise up to them and tempt them into a vehicle. Now they?re far smarter about knowing where you?re aiming and how fast you?re going, and will only dive at the last second if they sense real danger to their livelihood. They?re also way faster and more logical about getting in and out of vehicles. It?s almost as if they know there?s a war going on?.

You can drive a certain direction without having the camera pointed to it. It all depends on your control of the left analog stick.

This greatly helps if you want to take a certain person who say--has a sword or another p(Y)r weapon. Good job bungie. (Y)

[addc182]

sounds good

although i quite enjoyed the crap AI so i was pretty much on my own and i could just be rambo and kill everyone without help

the AI was only there if i needed more ammo for my BR lol

[Elliott]

although i quite enjoyed the crap AI so i was pretty much on my own and i could just be rambo and kill everyone without help

I always thought the opposite. I hated that the AI was so stupid, for the enemies and my marines. I'm glad Halo 3 is actually providing smart group AI. I finally think this is going to be challenging.

[Smigit]

Frankie says that the AI controlled marines who fight by your side will be a lot smarter and will actually take hints to where they should be shooting simply by knowing where you are looking. Point your camera to the right and the gunner will shoot to the right, storm straight ahead and the gunner will unleash death bullets in front of you. Better AI always rocks.

Doesnt sound like that great a system to me at all actually. I dont necessarily want the AI to prioritize what im looking at as their intended target. It seems very robotic to me and furthermore if not handled right could just lead to players getting ambushed from behind because your squad decided to all face the same way you were. To be honest I'd prefer it if they werent bound to the player at all but if you had a group of say 8 marines in a large room then 2 may follow you and the other 6 would split into 2 squads that would fan out in different directions and be able to work as a small group of three while not forgetting to aid the other 2 squads in the room also.

Also when I'm driving I'm pointing the camera where I need to move, not at what I want to be killed yet. It's quite likely the enemies or at least the biggest threats will be behind your car and as such again you dont want the gunner shooting at some small time non threat enemy as something nasty takes you from behind.

I'm sure itll all work better than halo 1 or 2, no doubt abaout it. That said i still think its very limited and the AI still sounds like they will be meat shields and just an extra gun for you, especially if they aim at what your aiming at.

[kylejn]

Maybe some way to use the directional pad to direct where he should fire would work better. Guard the rear, left flank, or right flank, or plow straight ahead.