Enemies AI

[Alter]

How about advanced AI for your enemies? Perhaps some of them hunt in packs or stalk you. Maybe even attempt to corner you.

I like the idea of enemies only "respawning" every now and then, and possibly keeping damage for a while. If severely injured, they attempt to flee. If they escape, they will either heal or die.

It's almost like they were sent to destroy you, rather than just stumble around until they spot you. They also wish to preserver their own lives.

 

[Josh]

Yeah I'd like that. It's always been they just kind of appear, walk in like a straight line towards you, and then try to kill you. They don't really defend themselves, or do anything else. If they tried to defend themselves, kind of like in AoL where they moved the sword and shields they had themselves, it might be a little better.

 

[El Bagu]

I really like your idea of some more "intelligent" enemies. It would make the games a bit harder and add to the excitment factor. But not all enemies, that would freak me out D:.

I would like to be hunted by enemies, in a way PH is actually a role model here if we think about the ocean king temple. Well they didn´t exactly hunt you the enemies but they were rather alert, and if spotted....

 

[DvSag]

One thing that needs to change is how enemies are susceptible to attack. In TP (and basically every other 3D Zelda title, but mainly in TP) the "tougher" enemies all have one major opening. Try as you might, there's really only a few tactics you can use to best these foes; try otherwise, and you'll be on your arse in no time flat. However, the downside to this is that once you find that enemy's particular weakness you can exploit it consistantly and that takes all the tactical work out instantly.

What would make the enemy AI seem more intelligent would be if they changed up their strategies once their weaknesses were found out. Take, for example, the Darknut in TP. Quite possibly one of the few challenging enemies in the game, especially with his armor destroyed. Well, all he really needs to be bested is a side-step attack to stun him, and then you can just go to town with sword swings. You can keep doing this over and over, and he won't even have time to attack, let alone counter attack. Perhaps, however, if after you had found out that all you needed to do was side-step attack and you hit him with it, he'd change his stance randomly. This new stance would not tolerate your side-step attack any longer, and you'd have to figure out which technique you need to use to get through his new defense. Now imagine not just one Darknut, but a small platoon of Lizalfos constantly changing up how they fight you. Wouldn't that make the game more of a challenge? It would definitely make Lizalfos more threatening, that's for sure.

 

[Amelie]

I think that is a great idea. I find the IA in newer Zelda games to be very... lacking. I think them stalking you or traveling in groups or even cornering you would be a great improvement. I dont know why Nintendo has not done that already.

 

[Alter]

On a side note, I should ask if anyone has ever played one of the "Carnivores" games. Bassically like dear hunter, except you hunt dinosaurs. The raptors cleverly stalk you. And it's a Windows 95 game! If they could do that then, think about now!

I'm just so surprised that they haven't thought of this yet. I hope someone from Nintendo is reading this.... *yeah, right*

 

[lonely_moon]

I would like to see more intelligent AI. The enemies would seem like they actually had minds of their own. They could all employ different attack tactics, even differing between members of the same species, so that way, no two would ever be truly alike. And, like Alter said, they would know when they were seriously injured, and would attempt to flee.

It would definitely add some difficulty to the game. But please don't add that extra AI to Darknuts/Iron Knuckles. They're hard enough. Same with ReDeads, except they're more scary than hard, and also, I don't think they'd even have a brain.

 

[Zeanith]

Eh. I don't really know. I like the dumb ones. They make me laugh.

 

[Zemen]

im not so sure about advanced AI but i think it would be nice to have difficulty settings because some of the Zelda games seem too easy (WW comes to mind right away). i beat WW without dying at all both times i played through.

 

[Caleb, Of Asui]

It would be cool to have intelligent AI. It would certainly be more realistic. I'm going to agree with lonely_moon and say that some of them should stay stupid, like redeads that aren't supposed to think very much / at all, and darknuts who, besides being hard, are kind of just supposed to stand there as guardians sometimes. Some weak enemies are probably supposed to have little intelligence, and thus low AI.

Though, it is always fun to have Darknuts kill each other in The Wind Waker, then look around like, "What the heck was that?"

 

[Vincent]

All the AI in Zelda needs to be tweaked. They're not very advanced with the AI, Nintendo. I would like to see an enemy actually dodge my attack, and outsmart me. A perfect example of bad AI is Ganondorf in Twilight Princess. If you stand behind his cape, he'll just stand there and kick the air, forever. Also, if you hold the fishing rod over him, he'll just stand there and stare at it like a cat with yarn.

 

[linkman8]

On a side note, I should ask if anyone has ever played one of the "Carnivores" games. Bassically like dear hunter, except you hunt dinosaurs. The raptors cleverly stalk you. And it's a Windows 95 game! If they could do that then, think about now!

I'm just so surprised that they haven't thought of this yet. I hope someone from Nintendo is reading this.... *yeah, right*

Oh yeah, I used to play that game back in the day. Heck, it's still fun. But yeah, out of nowhere, you'd have a raptor or an Allosaurus hit you from behind.
Now that would be cool if they were to apply it to the next Zelda game. If enemies could hunt you, that would add a nice looming, surprise factor to the game. Also, it'd be nice if the enemies could initiate tactics against you, like if you're trying to escape, they could tell their allies to cut you off at a certain point. Stuff like that.

 

[Y2K3]

I think it's a great idea, but I also agree with lonley_moon and Caleb about how not all all enemies should be smarter. Sure, adding more AI would make the game seem more realistic, but at the same time, making everything smart would take away.
Such as: Like Likes or even those Redeads should have pretty low AI. They don't think. They're just there.
However, most/all of the -fos would be expected to have a higher AI.
Well, that's really just my opinion anyway.

 

[Zemen]

i like all of your ideas on the AI. it should be changed but leave the obviously dumb monsters dumb and make the tougher monsters smart. the only time in Zelda that enemies are hard to fight is when there is more than 3 or 4 of them attacking you. other than that its usually carelessness that gets you killed as opposed to lack of skill.

 

[DvSag]

If the monsters didn't hesitate and there were more of them attacking you at once, the game would be so much harder.

Back in the ALttP days, as soon as enemies saw you they charged at you. Now-a-days we have enemies who stalk you, but have no defenses. They carry shields, but they do NOT know how to use them.