Immersive Enemies / AI
Prepare yourself, this is gonna be a long one and this is obviously just my opinion:
Enemies and their behaviour (NOT RAIDS)
First, I want to say, that the last thing I want to see, when I step onto a field or stroll into the woods is a bunch of different NPCs standing there, waiting to be attacked or aggroed. This just does not engage me in any way. I want to see something immersive.
Now, what do I mean by that?
Observative Actions
I want to be able to stand at the edge of this field/wood/lake and observe. In my opinion, looking at an enemy’s appearance and behaviour should tell me at least some information on how the fight is going to play out. Action A should tell me, that it is capable of said action in combat. While appearance A or B should give me hints on whether or not he can take a lot of damage or if it is evasive. If at least half of the NPCs have one of these descriptive actions the world will feel way more immersive and combat can get a little more interesting, without making it unfairly difficult, because the player did not know the mechanic. “Show, not tell”.
Reactive Actions
Not every action has to be shown in advance. BUT if action B is only shown during combat, the player should have the time to realize and react to the attack. If that is not possible the outcome of action C should at least not kill the player or leave him without a chance to recover. Otherwise, the player will rightfully get upset and annoyed. So, if the player fails to react to these kinds of actions, he should be able to learn from the mistake and react next time. This gives a sense of mastering the encounter.
Active Actions
This is something, Ashes of Creation are already planning to do with monsters trying to attack cities and players having to defend them. I would like to take this to the next level. What if there were a few enemies, that take action when left alone for to long. No playeraction results in action D. This could also be an observable action.
These behaviours should make the player think, that the NPCs just do their daily routine and are not just waiting to be slaughtered by you. Animals hunt for prey. Humans try to snare you with a net and then run for help, which you can prevent. That Rockmonster deep in the underground cave gets bored and comes to the surface to abduct the next player it sees.
I will continue to give examples in further posts beneath this one.
Difficulty distribution
This may leave you thinking: But Toast, that would make some enemies way to complicated to be taken on by one single player.
The thing is: Yes. And no. Every normal NPC should be killable solo. Just not by everyone.
If I had to come up with numbers, I would say, make 50% easy to handle. The challenge should be a little to none.
30% could have observative or reactive behaviours and therefore be a little more challenging. These are your standard questmobs.
Take 15% and give them both observative and reactive actions, make them mechanically hard but still manageable by the broad audience.
Now all you got is 5%. Those should be terrifying to play against alone. Only if you get the mechanics and have good movement, these should be soloable and therefore be a real challenge. This should however not mean, that their stats are inflated! Don’t give them too good drops or make them (main)quest enemies though, you will see why.
Making these 5% hard might mean, that some players, who refuse to group and insist on doing everything alone despite not being THAT good at the game, won’t ever defeat them. That is ok in my eyes. Remember, they still have 95% of enemies to fight! I must be persistent here. Get friends or git gud.
TLDR: Give enemies interesting/ immersive mechanics and make a few of them hard but not impossible.
