Taking Back What's Ours: The AI of Dishonored 2

In this 2017 GDC session, Arkane Studios' Laurent Couvidou and Xavier Sadoulet explain how the AI of Dishonored 2 was designed for a variety of systems including coordination of multiple NPCs, spatial reasoning for stealth and search, and a data-driven rule system for dialog and animations.

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[nixtblack]

if anyone from Arkane reads these comments, I'd like to thank you all for creating one of the finest games ever made. Dishonored 2 is a sublime experience that I have pumped well over a 100hrs into over numerous playthroughs and the game never fails to impress in the variation it offers. Truly a masterclass of design. I'd also like to thank you for Prey which, again, is a sublime experience. I am so sad to know no more Dishonored games are to be made, but I look forward to whatever the team develop next!

[cookiesz]

Just want to say before starting, arkane did an amazing job with the game, and while a few basic enemies can be derpy sometimes, a lot of enemies ai works really well with the map design to create cool and interesting moments that are amazingly fun to play through, in all styles, from full lethal no stealth, to no kill no detection.

edit: typos

[githubxadmin]

07:59 the talk by Elan Ruskin is actually named AI-driven Dynamic Dialog through Fuzzy Pattern Matching. Empower Your Writers! on GDC Vault.

[Tinfoilpain]

Awesome talk - AI programming has some of the most creative solutions I've seen.

[beeznest]

I usually have a lot to add, but all I need to say here is... thanks, I learned a lot from this.

[brennenhorton]

Really interesting talk. Excited to see how they advance these systems for next gen hardware

[LookTher]

"quite clearly, they are in the same boat" god the grin he had on his face saying that haha.

[fishandwhistle]

Watching this to hopefully get some insight into how the fuck the enemies in this game are supposed to work because the a.i. is driving me insane

[jk-gnfu]

A good game presented by two nervious developers.

[BotBoy-unpz]

Enemies see you through walls, are psychically linked with each other so that everyone gets alerted when one person sees you before they get a chance to shout, civillian perception is higher than that of guards for whatever reason, brigmore witches know where you are at all times and can teleport on top of you when you kill somebody near them even when they should have no idea where you are, and the amount of time an enemy becomes suspicious to alert is about less than a second, making it pretty much impossible in many situations to avoid detection if you make even a single miatake. Guards become alert from the most trivial things like a door being open, as if some other guard or servant opening a door in a crowded mansion is such an insane concept. I could go on but it’s needless to say the ai in this game is unbelievably bad. It’s an artificial way of increasing the difficulty (since dishonored 1 was a bit easy to be fair) without putting any real thought into it. What’s the result? The game becomes a reloading save simultor especially if you’re going for ghost, or you get frustrated after the 10th bullshit moment and massacre everybody in open combat. This game has some stellar area design and a great power system, but the ai team deserves to get fired (which unfortunately it’s clear it wasn’t considering the ai in deathloop was only worse if anything).