Thief devs: We had to dumb the AI down

Earlier builds of upcoming Thief originally had AI that was so intelligent the engineers had to dumb it down so that players stood a chance.

[Hellsvacancy]

Yeah right, my guess is you had to tone it down to accommodate older consoles, like Lukas below me said "why couldn't they have included those super difficult AI in the higher difficulties" Metro included Ranger Mode, Thief could of done the same

This is horrible news

[GarrusVakarian]

I hate it when devs water down games for wider appeal, why couldn't they have included those super difficult AI in the higher difficulties of the game and dumbed them down for the easier difficulties? That way they could still appeal to a wider audience AND keep the "hardcore" happy too. Sigh.

[jackanderson1985]

future DLC maybe? this day and age wouldn't be surprised.... hopefully they patch it in at a later date

[styferion]

yeah, why couldn't they just include the option to AI difficulties.

But the way I see the article maybe they meant that the super difficult AI is so smart to the point no one can get through at all, not just to the point you have to repeat hundreds of time to get it right...

Well we have to see for ourselves, if the hardest difficulty proves to be insanely hard, that means the original AI is just downright impossible to beat.

[Palitera]

Don't worry, it is just another lie. Anyone has seen in the gameplay footages that the AI is dumb as a rat. The players stands in a room, circling the enemy and this one stands there, doing nothing, because that is what he is programmed to do: be a dummy.

Sorry, but ultra scripted enemies are not 'super intelligent AI'.

Lie.

[YellowTempes]

Don't worry bro, the replayability of Thief stands in the fact that you can increase the difficulty of the game after you finish it once and then do so again until you actually finish the game on the highest difficulty (which should be NEVER!!!) :)

[ThichQuangDuck]

I considered and still am cancelling my preorder on this quote. AI is why I play stealth games so the fact that they dumbed it down even with the added bonus of modifiers is disapointing. The AI does seem pretty dumb the typical oh must have been the wind AI patterns.

CAN I JUST HAVE CHAOS THEORY 2

[badz149]

to put the so-call "hard AI" pn harder difficulties seems like making too much sense for most devs these days! they be like: "intelligent AI? nah...scrap it! we can't have too many good things about our game now, do we?"

[ninjahunter]

Ai is not particularly intensive, even the AI from killzone 2 was ported to the vita with only a slight nerf to their perception. On the other hand, its very easy to create AI that will completely wreck the player.

[WickedLester]

Agreed and I'm growing to hate cross-generational titles more and more! Take a look at Metal Gear V Ground Zeroes. It looks good but it's not ground breaking or anything. Certainly not like other titles like The Order 1886 or Quantum Break. Usually Metal Gear sets new standards for graphics on new hardware. Now the next gen version of this game doesn't look all THAT different from the previous gen version. I wish devs would cut this cross generational development shit out!

[Wizard_King]

Vote with your wallet, only buy what is great and pirate the rest.

It's like Ubisoft, always pirate, never buy.

[NYC_Gamer]

That's why high budget gaming is going full casual because of publishers aiming for mainstream appeal

[Qrphe]

That's exactly the reason sadly.

[MadLad]

If so, you could have just introduced said "intelligent" AI in the higher difficulty levels.
It was already there, right?

I call bunk.

[DigitalAnalog]

Indeed. What's even more insane is that they allow disabling specific aspects of the game to restrict your playthrough is considered the more relative option.

Ridiculous. I've yet to see really good AI since F.E.A.R and the fact that these hacks claim they can excel in that department is laughable to say the least.

[Chapter11]

Judging from the gameplay videos they went too far.

[heisenberguk]

LAME excuse! That's why games have always had DIFFICULTY LEVELS!!

[MasterCornholio]

BS

You could let the player adjust the level of AI that they want which is what your doing for almost everything in the game.

[DCfan]

lol, i had my eyes on this game, but now screw it. The stealth genre is dying, too easy nowadays, see through walls have become some sort of standard (Deus Ex, Dishonored, MGSV)
Even MGS is going that route. MGS2 will always be a timeless masterpiece.

[frostypants]

MGS2 sucked, man. You LIKED it when they swapped out Snake for a whiney bleach blonde hermaphrodite who looked like (s)he escaped from a Final Fantasy game?

[DCfan]

Keep grasping at straws. The story, the gameplay, the grafix, the game itself is ahead of its generations. Instead, you guys hated it for Raiden, the guy who had cool story but is girl-like. You forgot about its strong themes for "*sob*, no snake ;("
MGS1 revolutionized the stealth genre, and MGS2 re-invented it. I sank around 60 hours into MGS2 without collecting Dog tags or doing the VR missions, that proves how a good of a game it is.

Peace Walker is the last good MGS game.
I was looking at MGSV gameplay the other day, and oh man, they went the casual route of tagging enemies and seeing them through walls, it pains me.

[frostypants]

Explaining why I hated it is not "grasping at straws". I'm not sure you understand the meaning of that phrase.

MGS2 re-invented the stealth genre if MGS and MGS2 were the only stealth games you ever played. They were well produced, but they were pretty nerfed in terms of stealth mechanics. I even prefer the original Thief to either of them in terms of actual stealth and tactics.

And strong themes like what? Themes like incest and cliche VR crap? Whatever. Kojima was drunk when he wrote the plot of that game.

And no, the fact that you played it a lot does not "prove how good a game it is". The hell kind of argument is that?

[_FantasmA_]

MGS2? LOL MGS3 is far superior. I think 2 was the weakest of the Solid games.

[VENOMACR1227]

I don't know why games cant be tough/hard anymore. Look at Demon Souls and Dark Souls, very hard games. But that's what makes it more satisfying when you beat it. I remember a game back in the day on the SNES, I beat it in a few hours it was so easy. Why not have easy, normal, hard, insane difficulty?

[1nsomniac]

Typical post release developer bs!

[DanielGearSolid]

Isn't that wat difficulty settings are for?

[Yukicore]

For stealth games neither option is very good. If it's too hard you have to restart a lot, hardly enjoy the story, gameplay. If it's too easy you lose the interest quickly and can't take the game seriously.

We can only hope that they will manage to balance out the game.

While most of you understand, you must accept that there is survival of the developing/financing companies. If they don't get enough interest for a game, they lose money with the project, rather than gain, plus you won't get any future products if that happens, so they have to aim for the largest audience, it's only normal.

[Inception]

Sigh, this is sad. Another devs scared that people will not buy their game because it has tough / smart A.I.

Someone must stop this bad virus (games got toned down to appeal wider audience) spread through all the world!

[frostypants]

Nah, this is PR spin. The truth is they couldn't get that AI working across all platforms.

[Inception]

If that's true than it will be more bad to them when gamer bought Thief and find the A.I sucks even if they play the hardest difficulty

[killzone619]

LOL

[Bakkies]

I doubt this is the truth. More like PR BS to excuse them from review backlash.

[Palitera]

Yup. Their AI is simplistic as Doom's.

[Activemessiah]

Yeah F**k this game.

[curtis92]

Yeah something tells me you weren't getting this in the first place.

[Activemessiah]

I was intrigued at first since Montreal was responsible for Deus Ex HR... but this is some BS right here.

[Picnic]

They need to keep that AI code for a super hard 1999 mode though!

There will always be ways for the games makers to counteract super smart AI. Give the AI great sight and great memory but not so good hearing for instance. Mind you, any great AI would never stop hunting. Games do start being a hardcore chore (e.g. Rage) when that happens.

[curtis92]

Look at the comments... full of people who weren't getting the game anyway, coming in due to the nature of the article title, acting like this is the last straw. Come on guys. Go troll somewhere else. Read the article and use common sense. If they'd left the AI as it was it would be a horrible experience that's virtually unplayable. You want hyper realism? Go steal something in real life and fend for yourself. I want a ******** video game. Get over yourselves.

[starchild]

Couldn't agree more. I guarantee the game will be challenging. These people want super intelligent AI for each NPC even if it breaks the game and makes it not fun.

[FlyingFoxy]

Because they dumbed it down doesn't mean that it's over intelligent at all.. it could've just been the case that the enemy A.I was much more aggressive in that they searched practically everywhere, easier to detect the player?. It could be just they removed more random pre-set paths?

This can be said about FPS games, bots or CPU players are always aiming at a particular target when they come into a certain range.. it just means you can adjust it to be harder, or easier for the player. Does not mean it's more intelligent because it's harder to play against..

Though it could be true what they are saying, they aren't showing any proof in an "older build" of the game.

[Saryk]

This has been done for years (dumbing down AI). I think SOE (could be wrong) had to dumb down their creatures in game because they would kick a groups ass.

[kingPoS]

We can't have Skynet developing now can we.

Gateway MT6706 2008

[aLiEnViSiToR]

Trying to please everyone is impossible, sad to see how thought of getting more money makes games worse :(

[TheRedButterfly]

:/ Would've preferred a higher degree of difficulty… Seems like games today are too easy (excluding a few titles, obviously).