In this episode of Frontier Friday, hosts discuss the development of dynamic, intelligent NPC AI for Eve Frontiers, focusing on feral drones that exhibit realistic, reactive behaviors inspired by animal instincts and advanced game AI systems. The team aims to create roaming, autonomous NPCs that interact meaningfully with the environment and players, enhancing emergent gameplay and strategic challenges in the game world.
In this episode of Frontier Friday, hosts CC Botan and CCP Drama Turge discuss the recent developments and future plans for NPC AI in Eve Frontiers, particularly focusing on the feral drones. They begin by addressing the challenges of NPC behavior in games, emphasizing that traditional NPCs often have very predictable, one-note behaviors such as simply attacking and dying. The aim with the new NPCs in Eve Frontier is to create more dynamic, intelligent, and reactive AI that can assess situations, make decisions like retreating or calling for reinforcements, and interact with the environment in more meaningful ways.
CCP Drama Turge, with a background in character behavior and technical narrative design, explains the foundations of their AI system, which relies on symbolic AI rather than machine learning. This choice is due to the dynamic and frequently changing nature of the game environment, which makes machine learning impractical. Symbolic AI, based on crafted rules and knowledge representation, allows for more controlled, predictable, and debuggable NPC behavior. They also discuss common AI approaches in game development, such as finite state machines, behavior trees, and planners, noting that their system is a hybrid adapted to their specific needs and existing infrastructure.
The discussion highlights key inspirations for the new AI design, including the AI systems in Halo, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Fear. Halo’s AI is praised for its dynamic group behavior and individual NPC reactions that change based on player actions, while Horizon’s NPCs are noted for their competence and ability to act in character across diverse environments. Fear is used as a counter-example where NPCs lack true group awareness, relying instead on a top-down coordination system. The new feral drones draw inspiration from real-world animal behavior, such as sharks’ curious but dangerous bites and bears’ territorial and opportunistic nature, aiming to create a sense of living in “space bear country” where the environment feels alive and threatening.
Currently, the feral drones can interact with their environment by scanning, looting, calling for help, and dynamically selecting targets based on utility scores rather than fixed priorities. They are designed to behave autonomously and flexibly, with more intricate group behaviors emerging as more varied NPC types appear together. The team is working on making these NPCs roam the game universe rather than being static, enabling them to disrupt player bases and create emergent gameplay scenarios. This includes future plans for NPCs to build bases, store loot, and potentially produce valuable resources, adding layers of interaction and risk for players.
Looking ahead, the team aims to introduce roaming and base-attacking behaviors by March, albeit in a preliminary form. They also plan to enhance NPC awareness with stealth-like mechanics, allowing NPCs to detect players through various cues such as heat signatures, fostering more strategic player-NPC interactions. The overall goal is to make NPCs feel like living, reactive entities that contribute to a vibrant and challenging game world, encouraging players to engage with them in diverse and meaningful ways. The episode concludes with a teaser for an upcoming roadmap update, promising more detailed insights into the game’s future developments.