Friday, September 23, 2005

Artificial Intelligence

As I was playing Half-Life 2 last night, I realized just how smart the AI in this game is.

I was in narrow train yard. All was quiet, except for the two headcrabs that I just blasted as I stepped out of the mine leading from Ravenholm. At random points through the trainyard, there are these covered walkways stretching widthways across the yard. As I walked underneath the first one, I could see the laser sight of a sniper rifle, and I knew there was a sniper perched above me. I crept out until I could see the opening, and lobbed a grenade into it. This was followed by the sniper yelling, "Oh shit!", an explosion, and his body flying out of the hole and crashing to the ground at my feet. Glorious.

The next overpass was a few hundred yards down from the first, and the sniper in this one had a clear view of me for most of that distance. Not a good situation. I crawled underneath the train car in the center, and crouched near the far end of it, just barely out of the sniper's sights. I looked to my right, and I could see a row of wooden crates leading up to a walkway filled with goodies -- ammunition, health kits, etc. As I was about to dash across the yard using the crates as cover, the sniper did something that I would have never expected. He SHOT each one of the wooden crates, breaking them into millions of pieces, thereby leaving me stranded in the middle of the yard with no where to go. A very impressive and HUMAN manuever for an AI bot to accomplish.

But, I refuse to be defeated by a mere bot. First, I used the gravity gun to snatch the ammo and health kits off the walkway that was now unreachable to me. (Unless I wanted several bullet holes in my digital head). Then, I noticed that two if the now destroyed crates had been sitting on a large metal cart. Using the gravity gun again, I pulled the cart towards me, then tipped it over on its side. I then picked it up and used it as a shield as I casually walked across the yard with the sniper's bullets bouncing ineffectively off its metal bottom. I was soon out of the sniper's range, and was able to lob another grenade, and I watched with morbid delight as the fool was blasted from his foxhole and landed in a bloody mess in the middle of the yard. Ahh, victory.

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