Why I have no interest in Coils more specifically, T9.

[Ayrie]

Kosmos:

Simplest explanation I can offer is it is far harder to manipulate/bug an encounter when the boss' skill sets are on timers.

Script and AI are the same thing.

AI is an illusion created by stacking many conditionals. If the game sees these three triggers do that. The problem with that is it can be figured out and manipulated. You could eliminate or avoid critical moves by never triggering their conditions.

A real quick example is Matt samurai genkai in FFXI. He would not start his combo until hit 3 times. Want a easy way around the fight? Know that you get 3 easy hits before he is fixing to rail you. It didn't change the outcome, but it shows how conditionals can be exploited to lower the intended difficulty.

[Gillionaire]

Kosmos:

Simplest explanation I can offer is it is far harder to manipulate/bug an encounter when the boss' skill sets are on timers.

Script and AI are the same thing.

AI is an illusion created by stacking many conditionals. If the game sees these three triggers do that. The problem with that is it can be figured out and manipulated. You could eliminate or avoid critical moves by never triggering their conditions.

A real quick example is Matt samurai genkai in FFXI. He would not start his combo until hit 3 times. Want a easy way around the fight? Know that you get 3 easy hits before he is fixing to rail you. It didn't change the outcome, but it shows how conditionals can be exploited to lower the intended difficulty.

and that's why we need test servers to work out the kinks. It may be harder to make, but the polished product will be superior. SE's in-house testing team doesn't quite seem capable of catching all the bugs evident by the hotfixes every single time they roll out a patch. I get it hotfixes are inevitable from time to time, but having to do it after every single patch seems wrong.

[Kosmos992k]

Kosmos:

Simplest explanation I can offer is it is far harder to manipulate/bug an encounter when the boss' skill sets are on timers.

Script and AI are the same thing.

AI is an illusion created by stacking many conditionals. If the game sees these three triggers do that. The problem with that is it can be figured out and manipulated. You could eliminate or avoid critical moves by never triggering their conditions.

A real quick example is Matt samurai genkai in FFXI. He would not start his combo until hit 3 times. Want a easy way around the fight? Know that you get 3 easy hits before he is fixing to rail you. It didn't change the outcome, but it shows how conditionals can be exploited to lower the intended difficulty.

I'm not sure I follow your reasoning that AI and scripting are the same. Yes AI has to function based on a set of rules - just like we do, but if it's nothing more than a fixed set of rules that trigger a response, without evaluating differing courses of action and their outcome, it's not really AI.

AI needs to be capable of responding not only to player actions and it's own state, but also needs to be able to anticipate possible responses to actions and determine which is better/worse. It also has to have a forward looking capability to predict responses and determine which course of action has the best potential outcome. I'm not thinking of Deep Blue chess playing AI here, just an ability to look at the potential responses to actions and choose the best one.

In your example, why did Matt start his combo after 3 hits? Because it was scripted, not because AI decided it was the best course of action. Of course players can exploit that kind of situation, just like we can exploit the enrage timer in Turn 2. Relying on such fixed triggers is not really artificial intelligence, though it's often described as monster AI in game descriptions. IMHO, it's only artificial intelligence if it adjusts based on player actions.

With regard to your example, the combo is triggered by a single definable condition. That is easily exploited and lacks intelligent direction. On the other hand, if the AI evaluated the situation and determined that despite the trigger making it available, using the combo would not be the best outcome, the player would be unable to exploit it so easily. That's what makes it more complex to implement and test - obviously.