AI Awareness Improvement

[DARKHAWX]

An idea I had for Bannerlord after watching one of the new videos from E3 this year was to improve the troop AI so that it better finds enemies and better notifies the player of where an enemy is.

Currently the system seemingly makes the AI path towards the enemy without regard to LoS (this is prevalent when there's a few stragglers left in a battle, especially within a town). Your troops will just move towards enemies and not take into account whether they would know the enemies were there. As a player I sometimes get into that situation where everyone's dead around me and I don't know where to go. It would be nice if a nearby troop who did know where the enemies were shouted "Follow me!" or "This way" before heading into battle so that you and nearby troops know that the last remaining enemies were around this corner and not that corner.

Another similar situation where AI awareness would be helpful, especially if they're adding in complexity to the AI to perform certain manoeuvres in battle, would be to notify the player when the enemies do something, like flank the player. If you're facing ahead and can't see any enemies and then suddenly they're upon you from behind, it would be nice if your troops gave a shout of warning moments before it happens. Maybe they're is a hill to your left and the enemy come barging over that just behind you and you don't notice, however one of your troops did; they could shout out a warning about incoming calvary which would make the current squad of troops you are with to turn around and face the new enemies and alert you to their presence.

Just a small (I say small, but it's AI so it's not really small) QoL improvement that might help with immersiveness.,

 

[Woyeyeh]

I'll add to these ideas...

I have seen the AI troops run into walls, clump near edges, etc. I say we just scrap the AI mesh and replace it with line of sight detection. If a soldier doesn't see an enemy, chances are he won't know the enemy is there. But with the current system, it's as if the AI troops are omniscient! Worst of all, if you tell them to charge, they will find the enemies for you. Yes, even if they are separated by 5 walls, 2 stairs, and a siege tower. Go to warband multiplayer and you can see players hiding in sheds, barns, towers, and houses. Go to wfas multiplayer where you can crouch, and you can see players hiding in haystacks. The other players don't know that he's there unless he makes a sound, reveals himself, or is spotted.