Some more questions regarding teammates and Procedural Architecture

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ZenTakJack
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Some more questions regarding teammates and Procedural Architecture

First of all i want to say happy new years to you guys and i wish you all the best of luck for the future. I have some more questions yet again about a few particular aspects of Six Days.


For starts is it possible (using the go command) to tell an AI teammate to flash a light through the window of a house or building from outside or to look through a window to see if there is any contacts? This question is coming from what was shown in the very first sitrep where one of the soldiers were shining a light into a dark house through the window. Witch i think could be helpful in some scenarios.

During a night operation if you toggle off your flashlight to hide your position will your teammates also do the same to prevent blowing cover?


This one is more complex and it's my main question of this post, I'm still very curious on some of the Procedural Architecture features and it's implementation. In Particular the interiors as this is the largest focus when it comes to tension and surprise factor. I've been holding out on this question for awhile but i'm intrigued.

Are the building interiors strictly using hand-crafted rooms or is it a mix of "organic" rooms and hallways with the addition of handcrafted ones? Basically is it possible for layouts (rooms/halls) to "blend" more seamlessly.

Something i saw in the recent breaching gameplay is the very first room they enter has a "mirrored" room adjacent too it. It looks quite realistic as they are symmetrical. Is there actual symmetry generation in the Procedural Architecture for interiors or is that all a preset "piece" per say.

I will say with the bit of footage you guys have released since the announcement the interiors do look very realistic and they don't seem to have any obvious dictation on whether they are procedural or not. I'm just curious on how much the layout is free to differ in the context of that structure in the most recent gameplay video.


Thanks.
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AmperCamper
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Re: Some more questions regarding teammates and Procedural Architecture

Thanks for asking this and sharing your support, Zen.
ZenTakJack wrote: Wed Jan 11, 2023 4:15 pm For starts is it possible (using the go command) to tell an AI teammate to flash a light through the window of a house or building from outside or to look through a window to see if there is any contacts? This question is coming from what was shown in the very first sitrep where one of the soldiers were shining a light into a dark house through the window. Witch i think could be helpful in some scenarios.

During a night operation if you toggle off your flashlight to hide your position will your teammates also do the same to prevent blowing cover?
Your Marine AI teammates follow your lead on whether to use flashlights. As for the Go Command, you can order Marines to “secure” a direction, which might shine the flashlight towards what you’d like. But, the Marine is going to try to find a safe place to position, which might not be close enough for the flashlight to cover.

Without giving away too much about how Procedural Architecture works under the hood: our system uses a mixture of both hand-crafted and algorithmic interiors to get the job done. It's important to remember there are only so many ways you can lay out a house logically (even if it was all just math). But, variety is not limited to the layout of houses and expands with additional walls, stairs, and window layouts. These have some practical limitations too, but how these layouts blend with all the components that generate inside them multiply with each other to create high levels of unpredictability.
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Kean_1
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Re: Some more questions regarding teammates and Procedural Architecture

I've said it before but co-op is the main reason my friends and I (consisting of a couple old Marine vets) are interested in SDiF but especially for the procedural generation of the game world / city.

I know it's been touched on before and I really won't know until I get to see the game firsthand but I already expected some "familiarity" to an extent as I expected limitations in this respect. ....but it sounds like the mechanics in place will create enough variety to make each run-through feel unique.

The only real question still (in my mind) is discovering more about the AI and their behavior as that has much more of an impact on the "unpredictable" aspect of the game play. For instance, if you've got AI that has only a handful of scripted actions, reacts only a couple different ways each time, hides in the same areas of rooms, etc., etc., then it doesn't matter how good the procedural generation is as the combat will still feel the same over and over again.

IMO, both the procedural generation and the AI mechanics go hand in hand to create that unpredictable / "unique each time" experience. .....maybe even the AI taking more priority if I'm going to be honest.
ZenTakJack
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Re: Some more questions regarding teammates and Procedural Architecture

AmperCamper wrote: Fri Jan 13, 2023 8:06 am Thanks for asking this and sharing your support, Zen.

Your Marine AI teammates follow your lead on whether to use flashlights. As for the Go Command, you can order Marines to “secure” a direction, which might shine the flashlight towards what you’d like. But, the Marine is going to try to find a safe place to position, which might not be close enough for the flashlight to cover.

Thanks for the response on these questions Amper i appreciate it!

Kean_1 wrote: Fri Jan 13, 2023 9:39 am I've said it before but co-op is the main reason my friends and I (consisting of a couple old Marine vets) are interested in SDiF but especially for the procedural generation of the game world / city.

I know it's been touched on before and I really won't know until I get to see the game firsthand but I already expected some "familiarity" to an extent as I expected limitations in this respect. ....but it sounds like the mechanics in place will create enough variety to make each run-through feel unique.

The only real question still (in my mind) is discovering more about the AI and their behavior as that has much more of an impact on the "unpredictable" aspect of the game play. For instance, if you've got AI that has only a handful of scripted actions, reacts only a couple different ways each time, hides in the same areas of rooms, etc., etc., then it doesn't matter how good the procedural generation is as the combat will still feel the same over and over again.

IMO, both the procedural generation and the AI mechanics go hand in hand to create that unpredictable / "unique each time" experience. .....maybe even the AI taking more priority if I'm going to be honest.

I do agree. In fact, good AI design is independent from any kind of proc-gen. You can have stellar AI even without randomized environments. The AI should be able to make full usage of the environment and it's utilities to their advantage. As it does not know that the environment is "procedural" or randomized, it just knows the environment exist and should treat it universally as if it's a "real" or "static" environment.

Even if the environment is static the AI would be capable of making split-second or varying decisions in some circumstances. Naturally it would make different decisions and tackle given situations or encounters
a bit differently each time. Weather it's a group of enemies that decide to retreat or fall back from position, or if they decide to hold their line is up to the natural RND factor that complex AI systems should be capable of doing.

The procedural aspect should add on to this significantly. if done correctly can insure a relatively varied experience that gives a more natural sense of "immersion" as there can be certain moments where you need to actually think and pay attention to what the enemy is doing. Even more so making "good" decisions actually play a role. Unlike a cod campaign for example were the risks are all pre calculated shooting galleries. Whilst that makes for a flashy presentation it falls weak to hold true tension and even weaker for any kind of replay value.

At some point combat always has a similar feel to it in principle. However take an example like Arma 3 where the AI is capable of fully traversing around the environment in a mostly unrestricted manor. That alone puts a much higher amount of possible scenarios and it can keep you on your toes during play even after dozens to hundreds of hours.
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