Serious AI discussion

We all know that AI is confirmed for Space Engineers, how do you think AI should work in the game?

Personally I don't believe in any of the mummy/robot/alien/zombies that people talk about. It would be nice for a different game, however.

Obviously having friendly AI that can maybe do some work or defend or attack things would be really nice. They just showed off AI doing tasks in ME. What I think would be really important though is enemy AI. PvP multiplayer servers are mostly barren wastelands when It actually comes to fighting people. Usually the host needs to organize an event to get people to fight which seems silly. May as well just have a tournament in creative mode for that.

Another thing is exploring and mining. Exploring is more or less a Sunday cruise for any semi competent player. Then there is mining, an incredibly monotonous job. Smashing rocks for 30 minutes really isn't enjoyable. And yes you can make automated machines but for those who don't know how or don't want to this can be an issue. The point is that the game would actually be exciting with enemy AI. The difficulty could range from tiny stupid drones and crazy grinder guys all the way up to big cruisers.

I want to know what the community thinks and what ideas or visions that you all have for this. I also thought it would be a fun discussion topic.

Cheers

 

Serious is the new official, everyone is using it now.

 

I was thinking the same here, hahaha

 

Third that. I guess all previous threads were either jokes or just practice runs.

 

At least this guy isn't one of the weird alien lovers. I hate the idea of aliens in SE they don't fit (except for one person who talked about an alien in an engineers looking suit I could see that). I'd like some enemy faction/pirate AI that's all.

 

Well, with planets I believe we can have AI similar as ME, since we won't have the 3-axis and 3 moments problem as in open space. But I find it unlikely that AI is able to fly ships - unless the ship design is very clever and some specific routines are written.

 

I don't think aliens fit the theme of SE. I prefer the idea of sentient machines. For example, imagine encountering a Bracewell probe. Autonomous ships piloted by an AI would be interesting.
If AI engineers ("humans") were added, they'd have to have damned good NPC/player interaction without feeling forced or artificial. Scripted actions and conversations would soon become easy to predict and bore the hell out of long term players.
At least a synthetic adversary has an excuse for its repetitive and inhuman characteristics.

 

A lot of "serious discussions" appearing lately...

Judging by that quote, we are looking at AI controlled engineers which do some (all?) of the stuff we can do. This is extremely complex actually and I hardly expect AI to be like this any time soon. So I guess the first implementation will probably be AI-driven ships and some basic systems to repair themselves (kinda what we have in scenarios right now, but with welders), probably able to retreat and be able to mine to get resources for repairs (and maybe new ships?), while planets will have some local life, most likely other engineers and they will probably behave like peasants from ME that defend their territory.

 

I think the scenarios might (partly at least) be a test-bed for AI. There are stations with defense drones in the first one, and you have to deliver ships to a trader in the second. Both of these I can see being very good to have in survival. The defense drones just strafe and shoot with their turret, but they work. No more complexity really needed there. Most of the time the AI enemy would not need to get out of its ship. Or even be anything other than a ship.

In most games I've played the AI have been pretty stupid in comparison to players. Even so, they manage to win in combat. But building is something different, more creative. I can see them having a blueprint of their ship and welding parts on that have become broken, but not designing vessels.

What I would like AI to be like is not annoying. I do not want waves of pirates eroding my ship.

 

Good job derailing this thread, Wizlawz.

 

So the serious thread just became a music video montage?

 

I've always liked the replicators from Stargate SG-1 universe. They should be fairly easy to code as they can just walk on any surface. Having them "eat" blocks and then replicate would be terrifyingly awesome. I want to run down a corridor shooting them off the walls before finally succumbing to their relentless advance.

 

If I found a planet with Replicators i would run away yelling nope nope nope nope...

If I found a planet with Aliens i would run away yelling nope nope nope nope...

If I found a planet with Deer i would run one over and then yell out Doe! a Deer... a female Deer..

 

Space whales. Make it so.

 

Perhaps what's needed is a motive for an AI that can be everything for everyone.

What I'm thinking is more or less based off of (my admittedly probably poor memory of) the East Indian Trading Company. The AI can be driven to get ores, potentially trade, have it's own standardized outposts and ships, but aggressively pursue and attack those that get too close to sensitive operations or attack their space. Because of the large company nature of the AI, it could send multiple ships against a player (or players) at a time, which makes them far more dangerous than a single ship.

Now, you can argue if the AI should be Robotic or Human in nature, but the large company concept could still be what the game needs.

 

It would be great if there was ai that tries stealing your resources...

 

I believe all types of AI could be introduced. Territorial ones being my favorite choice. One that sits around a rare resource (or even moving between others) forcing the player to choose between attacking or going further out finding resources. I think any type of behavior would work just fine in SE. However, we we're talking more about individual entities (player sized bots) ... that could be just frightening in itself ... giving some of us a reason to close the doors. lol

No matter what they add, it'll be a blast to have something react than just be instantly hostile and harass the player.

 

AI for attacking ships of course, lets hope some day we can see an enemy carrier shooting at us with gatling turrets and missiles, and then sending an assault team of small fighter ships in X formation and torpedo ships and also boarding ships deploying pirates inside your industrial carrier.
I will also be ok with just some drones randomly attacking you, your base or ship, like the cargo ships but hostile. I know there are some mods that attack your base already so, and now with open source this can be more intense

 

Regarding aliens; with the implementation of planets, alien ai surely looks reasonable. They don't have to be intelligent, but rather animal-like. I think in the iAMa marek said deer might show up in some planets. Those are technically alien, right? He also said trees which I suppose are also "alien" in terms of being from other planets.

Personally I would hate to see planets be lifeless. Sure some planets will be, but if the Dev team said they were adding flora to planets, a lack of fauna might seem odd. So overall in the regard of alien ai/mobs, I somewhat feel they'll be needed in the future.

 

If the planet isn't earth.. and there are Deer on said planet, then those are Alien Deer.

Bam Aliens Confirmed.

 

Seriously Stanley original vision came to light and was not ruined by Steven.

If the AI component is called Hal... Nope Nope Nope

 

IMHO they should start with lower forms of life (animals), as their AI would be easier to code and would add content immediately.

Further up the road, superior intelligence as both CREW and foe would be great.

Orks woulda be da best intermediate step, but GW would come to us like an exterminatus on an heretical planet.