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Let's Talk About The Enemy A.I.


What kind of enemy A.I. do you prefer?  

24 members have voted

  1. 1. What kind of enemy A.I. do you prefer?

    • aggressive: dealing maximum damage and going for the kill even with the risk to do a self sacrifice)
      6
    • cautious: attacking someone who can't counterattack or deal the lowest counter damage
      1
    • situational: only attacking if it makes sense (like Judgral)
      8
    • balanced
      9
    • neither
      0
  2. 2. Which FE part(s) has / have the smartest A.I.?

    • FE1
      1
    • FE2
      1
    • FE3
      0
    • FE4
      2
    • FE5
      3
    • FE6
      1
    • FE7
      1
    • FE8
      4
    • FE9
      1
    • FE10
      3
    • FE11
      0
    • FE12
      2
    • FE13
      0
    • Fates (as a whole)
      8
    • Echoes
      1
    • Heroes
      2
  3. 3. Do you prefer a predictable (constant pattern) or unpredictable A.I.?

    • predictable
      11
    • unpredictable
      13


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I noticed some differences in the A.I. from game to game.

In the latest parts the A.I. tends to go for kills.
The enemy usually goes for the highest possible damage even if its opponent can counter. It's a very aggressive strategy which really scares the player. I really like this behavior because it Forces the player to play cautious at any time. One little mistake will be punished.

It's something I really noticed in Heroes. I find the A.I. surprisingly really smart. The enemies always take the opportunity to kill someone if there's a theoretical chance. And if someone can't deal damage, they'll use an assist skill instead. However I must take into account that hitrates don't exist. 

I can't really remember the A.I. in Judgral. Iirc the enemies act random in some cases. Like in FE5's chapter 24x one dark mage attacks one ally, one other dark mage attacks an other ally. But I know that the A.I. is smart in that regard that the enemies amke good use of their staves like in 24. Status affects are healed. And enemies are smart enough not to waste their weapon, if they can't harm. However in FE4 it doesn't matter since the enemies have infinite weapon durability for some reason.

Tellius's A.I. is just weird. I can't even explain FE10's A.I. after like 200 playthroughs. It's random for the most part. They can go for kills in one case, but then in the other case they attack Shinon because of his provoke although someone else could be killed. Idk when / how shade / provoke does proc. 2-1 is literally the pure randomness itself. Sometimes the villagers move, sometimes they don't.


I can't really say about the NES and GBA games.


What does it make to be a good enemy A.I.?

Edited by Jules
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Oh wow. I was seriously considering making a topic about this last night. On the whole I'd like to see more fuzzy logic used in AI. One of my least favourite things about the series is how predictable the AI. I know exactly what it's going to do before I even end my turn. I'd like if their decision making process wasn't so deterministic. In other words, I'd like to see more RNG used in AI. So instead of attacking my expised cleric 100% of the time, each enemy will only do it 90% if the time. This would put less emphasis on strategy and more on tactics as you respond to unexpected situations on a turn by turn basis. I'm sure we've all been in a situation where we've restarted the same chapter half a dozen turns and perfected the opening four moves to the extent that it's just a big waste of time. More fuzzy logic in the AI wide eliminate that as every attempt on the map would be a new experience.

Or maybe an alternative, to make it less RNG dependent, give each enemy in the game one of several personality types, like pragmatist, reckless, coward etc, with different AI priorities. Like coward enemies will always focus on dealing the least amount of damage to themselves, pragmatists will focus on damaging the player most effectivly while keeping themselves alive while reckless will suicidally charge the nearest foe. Enemy types would be the same across each playthrough and could be learned by the player. It would at the very least make the AI less uniformly predictable like it is now.

Edited by Jotari
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2 hours ago, Jotari said:

several personality types, like pragmatist, reckless, coward etc, with different AI priorities. Like coward enemies will always focus on dealing the least amount of damage to themselves, pragmatists will focus on damaging the player most effectivly while keeping themselves alive while reckless will suicidally charge the nearest foe. Enemy types would be the same across each playthrough and could be learned by the player. It would at the very least make the AI less uniformly predictable like it is now.

they (kind of) already do this, in that some enemies act differently under different circumstances, especially on conquest.

granted, it never really occurred to me how the enemy AI works, because it isn't that notable on casual runs, but still, it wasn't completely predictable. though my memory is a little fuzzy on that

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My dream  A.I. would vary from stage to stage, depending on the enemy commander. A reckless enemy leader like Hans would be cavalier about putting his troops in danger, while someone like Selena (The Sacred Stones one, not Severa), or Brunya would try to keep their fatalities to a minimum.

Also more intelligent adversaries would come up with better formations, while things like the faceless or early game bandits would have glaring tactical errors.

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7 hours ago, Jotari said:

Or maybe an alternative, to make it less RNG dependent, give each enemy in the game one of several personality types, like pragmatist, reckless, coward etc, with different AI priorities. Like coward enemies will always focus on dealing the least amount of damage to themselves, pragmatists will focus on damaging the player most effectivly while keeping themselves alive while reckless will suicidally charge the nearest foe. Enemy types would be the same across each playthrough and could be learned by the player. It would at the very least make the AI less uniformly predictable like it is now.

Adding on to this, if the commanders of each army could have a unique personality type, it could more realistically achieve a solid behaviour for certain troops. Troops that are loyal to them would adhere to commands that the player visually sees them being giving by story dialogue and the like. I'm thinking of Awakening Chapter 10 where the commander doesn't want to fight you but understands he doesn't have much of a choice. In which case, after the defeat of someone like that, the loyal enemies would keep up the fight but those that have no real obligation upon his death will think for themselves and either flee or fight with their default instinctive behaviours.

Conflicting behaviours could also override each other at certain points to make the AI a little unpredictable at times so it could REALLY put some full emphasis on how adaptive one might be in a battle.

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I was just talking with a friend yesterday about differences in Path of Radiance's AI that I noticed and am liking a lot in my current playthrough. Some bosses - for example - actually start moving if you're in range while others wait as per standard. The ones that wait sometimes have allies nearby also not moving. Some enemies, when their health gets critical begin to fall back either to go to a healer or find a unit with a vulenary to TRADE with. Seeing enemy units that actually care about living is interesting in itself. It's also the first time I've seen any Fire Emblem NPCs ever trade. Addtionally, there are foes that don't immediately aggro when you're in their range, so picking off foes one at a time in favorable conditions isn't always possible. I once had to put a unit in range of two additional foes to draw out one single unit. Idk if these things carry over into Radiant Dawn, but PoR's AI I definitely found interesting.

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11 hours ago, (s)ad touch said:

they (kind of) already do this, in that some enemies act differently under different circumstances, especially on conquest.

granted, it never really occurred to me how the enemy AI works, because it isn't that notable on casual runs, but still, it wasn't completely predictable. though my memory is a little fuzzy on that

Well they have different conditions for aggroing enemies (which is good), but once an enemy is committed towards killing your units, their behaviour is pretty uniform.

Edited by Jotari
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Another thing about PoR: Enemies take advantage of the horse mechanic. In that one early game defense chapter, Mia got ganged up on by a bunch of hit-and-run cavaliers. She survived one turn via dodge tanking, only getting hit my an axe ironically, but she got completely destroyed the next turn while another enemy seized the castle. It was scary with them coming one after another, and definitely clever.

Edited by Arcphoenix
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