- Behavioural modelling is an important part of NPC development for games. Should emotive modelling be part of that development?
For human NPCs, the exact emulation of human nature is the ultimate goal. It is a seemingly impossible goal as much of the human mind is still not totally understood and human nature doesn’t have one way of working but still developers will try their very best to create characters that represent people as closely as possible. In the interest of creating as accurate a representation as possible, emotive modelling should definitely be a part of NPC development. Currently developers make characters appear human and often work around giving characters emotions by programming them to respond specifically to scripted events. for example in many RPGs killing a passive character will anger certain characters causing them to attack where as other characters will become fearful instead and run away. Both of these are portrayals of emotion however it is very noticeably scripted where emotive modelling in combination with the normal behavioural modelling would make the response seem more natural and representative of an actual human.
2. Consider your favorite video game. If it contains AI controlled agents how individualistic are they and their behaviors, and, how might you set about improving them?
Taking Civilization V as an example for individualistic AI is like taking Brian May as an example of a ‘good’ guitarist. Each character in Civ V is a world leader from history and they were all thoroughly researched to create an AI that truly represented that leaders personality traits as accurately as possible. That said there are definitely many things wrong with Civ V. In fact there was one bug from the original civilisation game that was so wrong and so humorous that the developers decided to play on that bug in every game following it.
The bug as described in these images causes Gandhi, arguably one of the most peaceful leaders in human history, to become more aggressive than what should be possible within the games restraints. Immediately there is room for improvement to this AI however I also personally love this bug and it’s hilarity within the flow of play is something I quite enjoy.
Unknown (n.d.) Tumblr
Aside from deliberately kept bugs there are still many things wrong with the games AI. For example the AI characters don’t understand the concept of hypocrisy as they will often tell you not to settle a city near to their land but will then settle right next to you very shortly after. In the latest iteration, Civ VI, this action can be used as a reason to declare war on an opponent however the act still occurs far too frequently and is something that I think could be improved upon, not necessarily by removing it completely but by making it a more deeply considered action by factoring in how close the nearest non-friendly city is.
Reference
Various Unknown (n.d.) Tumblr, available at: https://prokopetz.tumblr.com/post/78145553694/chaz-gelf-sixmilliondeadinternets-gandhi-has