AI NPCs

Zama666 · April 6

I would love to see AI NPCs....ones that remember me, knows about the quests I have done, give feedback on armor sets I hunting for, chat about my PvP performance (or lack thereof), what I have done recently, and odd tales of ESO lore that might apply to my recent journeys, random curses from Molag Bal in my head, and better Companion Banter.

Let's toss logistics and cost out the window for now...and imagine.

Yeah, can of worms...but I like worms.

Thotz?

Z

Serpari · April 6

No amount of AI writing can ever compare to the lived experiences real flesh-and-blood people bring to the table, and it certainly cannot deliver the VA performances I expect from this game (Alfred Molina, Michael Gambon, John Cleese, Bill Nighy, to name some). Quest checks that 'remember' your progress can be done without AI, and have already been done in this game.

I'm a professional writer, every day I fix AI writing because companies think they can cut corners here by firing their writers—yet in the end it's a disjointed, wooden, unprofessional mess that costs them more in lost talent and time. It's gotten the point I charge more for fixing AI writing because 9 out of 10 times you'll have to pay me for editing an existing piece and create an entirely new one.

tl;dr: No.

Elsonso · April 7

Present day generative AI text is really good at sorting and assembling "Lego blocks" into recognizable prose, but it really isn't very good at making the assembled Lego blocks meaningful by itself. What we see today is possible because of the sheer number of Lego blocks available to choose from and the processing power to sort and assemble relatively quickly. We are still at the stage where "Artificial Intelligence" is neither.

So, no, NPCs driven by generative AI is not something that I would be looking for.

That is not to say that we won't eventually get to the point where we are seeing "Diamond Age" level AI story telling.

TaSheen · April 7

Not any time soon I think. I wouldn't want to see AI NPCs personally. AI isn't "creative" - AI is an "assembler" of snippets (which does produce another question - is AI respecting copyright? I'm skeptical....)

Danikat · April 7

This doesn't need AI. There are already NPCs in the game who will comment on your quest progress and will react differently if they've met you before. Occasionally theres ones who act differently if you're a vampire or werewolf, or part of the Dark Brotherhood and other things.

ZOS could do that more frequently if they wanted to, and probably reference other things like your Alliance rank or specific achievements. But they don't currently use it even in some places it would make sense - like updating base game quests to allow for the possibility that a character hasn't started the main quest and so still has their soul, or preventing NPCs talking to you like you're a moron who doesn't known what books are when you've maxed out the Mages Guild and Antiquarian skill lines.

AcadianPaladin · April 7

I don't know from AI but there are some things I'd like to see in the game to improve its responsiveness to character/roleplaying.

1. My elf is very well read. Don't make her ask an ignorant question like 'Who is Azura?' to advance a questline. More dialog choices are needed.

2. My elf is a skilled healer. Recognize this. If your mother is sick, don't send my elf off to gather silly herbs so you can try to slop together a poultice. Give my elf the option of healing your mother with her prodigious healing skill/spells.

3. Have companions interact with what you are doing more than they already do. They already provide context-sensitive combat advice like 'Drink a magicka potion!' that helps bring them to life a bit more. I'd love to see them also comment on what quest you have active, where you are or what you doing more often and even offer advice on quests.

Muizer · April 7

I think it's beyond doubt that generative AI will start playing a role in gaming soon, but it may not be in the most obvious of ways.

I'd first expect something cosmetic that does not impact quest design or voice acting. For instance, perhaps generative AI could be used to personalize the wording of the player's side of the dialogue a bit.

As for AI being dynamically involved in quests, I would hazard if it ever comes to that it will have entered as a tool in the design phase first. Only when that's robust can we expect to see it become a part of a game world. Probably first in some indy single-player games with low production costs.

Credible_Joe · April 7

Serpari wrote: »

No amount of AI writing can ever compare to the lived experiences real flesh-and-blood people bring to the table, and it certainly cannot deliver the VA performances I expect from this game (Alfred Molina, Michael Gambon, John Cleese, Bill Nighy, to name some). Quest checks that 'remember' your progress can be done without AI, and have already been done in this game.

I'm a professional writer, every day I fix AI writing because companies think they can cut corners here by firing their writers—yet in the end it's a disjointed, wooden, unprofessional mess that costs them more in lost talent and time. It's gotten the point I charge more for fixing AI writing because 9 out of 10 times you'll have to pay me for editing an existing piece and create an entirely new one.

tl;dr: No.

You're assuming AI would write the NPCs. But you have it backwards from what AI could really do for RPGs, in that no amount of real human writing would ever be able to produce enough content to allow an NPC to interact dynamically with the player.

Writers like yourself would still make the characters, along with everything else (plot, background, etc). And the more detail you give them, the better the AI would be at living them. The appropriate metaphor here is the relation between a screen writer and an actor. It's the writer (and director's) job to give the actor enough information to work with to make the character believable for an audience. Hell, the director could fit in this metaphor too as the prompt engineer.

An AI on its own will never be able to produce good content. But AI in the hands of creatives like yourself, especially in the game industry, could make things possible that were only fantasy before. NPCs that have something different to say every day. NPCs that have opinions on what you're doing, and not restricted to a check list under specific circumstance. NPCs your character could build a real rapport with, without resorting to pure headcanon when they run out of things to say, or don't have content written for the spot you're adventuring in right now.

tl;dr, AI without the foundation of real writers like yourself is useless. AI built on the writing and imaginations of real people can make something real that players have been yearning for since the old text adventures from the 80's.

FluffyBird · April 7

ZOS couldn't even handle character development and continuity with their "play in any order" (thank Mora they went back to longer stories).

Adding all the tiny checks about player's character into dialogues seems to be outside of their... I shouldn't say "capabilities", so "scope", perhaps?

I feel like we had a similar discussion here already, the one that was a total AI sales pitch with OP salivating all over the idea. I don't trust the AI we have now to be capable of being a proper "actor" no matter how good the "director" is.