Okay so I was making an invasion map, and there was just one thing that I was realllyyyy realllyyy wishing for. The ability to incorporate NPCs into Invasion gameplay. If you don't know, an NPC is a "Non-Playable Character" In this instance I'm referring to Marines on the Human Side, and Grunts/Jackals/Brutes/ etc on the Covenant side. I just think it would be so cool if we could add NPC spawn points to invasion maps, and spawn different Covenant or Human NPCs. It would really add a lot to Invasion gameplay, and would definitely make custom invasion games a lot more fun, and tougher. thoughts?
NPCs, along with all other types of non-playable AI, require a completely different engine than the type used for online multiplayer. Have you ever noticed how laggy a solo Campaign match sometimes gets? That's because it has to use a completely different engine just to spawn those AI, and that engine is extremely taxing on any Xbox. Now, add in three friends for Firefight or Co-op Campaign, and you've got on helluva lagfest. Still with me? Imagine anything larger than two people on either team. An exponential explosion of lag-filled badness. If one person quits the game, it could literally force you all back to the matchmaking lobby. It would be nice for something like this to happen, but in the end it's no more likely than Bungie adding drivable Scarabs to their next map.
Actually it probably has more to do with the fact that objects have to be placed in the levels to tell the AI what is an obstacle/cover/path/etc... Some engines have been designed to automatically do this but I doubt Bungie has done that. The lag is definitely a factor in it though.
Truth, I definitely understand what it is you're saying. But even if we could spawn a small amount of them, and at a high cost. I mean, the less there are, the less AI's your xbox has to control, right? In Firefight versus, there are AI controlled elites. we could do something like that I think. I dunno, even if just an implausible dream, I think it would be prettttyy cool.
No... the reason we can't forge Firefight maps is due to the AI not being able to account for placed objects. Having AI characters constantly running into walls serves no purpose. Also, last thing I wants are stats boosted due to AI kills. Keep it all AI or all human, that way the stats are easily distinguishable.
Ohh, I see what you're saying now. That makes much more sense Like I said, it may be just an awfully implausible dream. I'm not even saying this should be put in playlists, just custom games would be a lot of fun
maybe this could work? someday? i always think of ways to improve games, maybe i am just too critical, but as long as i have ideas im gonna talk about them. I think the technology is totally there, they just need to connect the dots. I mean similar games have done it, maybe not the best way. star wars battle front comes to mind. Didn't time splitters do something like that? A bot mode perhaps? though maybe not even the same style, i think it could easily be accomplished. yes they would have to have a certain limit because i guess you could potentially put probably over a million units on forgeworld which yea....xbox cant support yet. but they could keep it small and simple. maybe the npcs don't have to start on the field. but what if there was some sort of kill streak reward ya know? now dont over due it like most fps games these days, but i think it would be cool if say you had a kill streak of 5(pretty difficult for average halo players) or maybe your team went 10 kills without dying maybe be rewarded with a drop ship of some sort. lol put a hunter on there and change things up a bit. yea yea some levels are enclosed and blah blah blah cant have drop ships, but its an idea. As far as stats go, you could just make an achievement for killing npcs during custom/match so they don't have to count as kill stats. good idea pats.
AI doesn't sync in the standard netcode, which is why Campaign and Firefight use a different one (and are hence laggier). If you've ever played modded maps with AI on Halo PC, you've probably found that the AI would gradually (or, sometimes, very quickly) desync (even if they moved on fixed paths) until eventually, people were dying for no apparent reason (killed by desync'd AI that, to you, are on a different part of the map). Map scripts also didn't sync. The game literally made no attempt to synchronize AI, so anything random would almost always desync. If a player lagged in any way that affected an AI, that would desync. (Like, if I lag, knock into an AI on my screen, and then am teleported back to where I'm supposed to be, the AI will remain nudged aside on my screen only.) The same problem probably exists on Reach, though we can't verify it since the tags for NPCs don't exist in maps. It would explain why the Firefight and Campaign netcode works the way it does: it synchronizes everything but AI (by simply making everybody wait or slow down when one or more players are lagging). In short: your idea, while awesome, doesn't even have a snowball's chance in Hell of being implemented.
Perhaps using the current system, no. But that's only because it's run by a large AI. Instead of using one AI, if each NPC was given a smaller, simpler AI, I think it could work. I'm no programmer, but we have cars that can detect walls and such, right? I mean, it doesn't seem like it would be two difficult to make this work, if Bungie's software developers wanted to. I mean, they could even have a program within a game that analyzes a custom map, so that an AI would recognize everything you put in it, and implement that knowledge into the bots. Theres no way we don't have the technology, even if it could never be done on Halo: Reach.
Yea yea I understand it can't technically be done now. But forge is still just beginning. When bungie created forge, they prob didn't know how it would be received. I imagine some of those designers are blown away by some of the maps/ gametypes / ideas floating through here. To me the forge exp could be one of the greatest advancements that's come into game play, but it's still to early to tell. 10 years ago when I was looking up cheat codes for goldeneye on my dial up connection I Prob would have said the same thing you said. But now I'm building maps and playing with ppl across the world. This was kind of a "what if" thread to begin with. There are so many possibilities out there for this series, it's nice to bring some creativity to the picture, something I thought bungie was slacking on till the release of reach. But i see redemption with forge world. I'm just curious about how technical and unique it's gonna be, because now we are only scratching the surface to what will be IMO the most intellectual advancement in multiplayer.