From what I understand, the problem they ran into was that the AI was just too good. People in that environment tend to stop playing unless its a comp stomp. So if anything, I think AI in the future will get dumber, not smarter, as game companies try to attract more players. As far as when you are teamed up with AI, it might be godlike AI you play with.
TO FIX WOW:1. smaller server sizes & server-only LFG awarding satchels, so elite players help others. 2. "helper builds" with loom powers - talent trees so elite players cast buffs on low level players XP gain, HP/mana, regen, damage, etc. 3. "helper ilvl" scoring how much you help others. 4. observer games like in SC to watch/chat (like twitch but with MORE DETAILS & inside the wow UI) 5. guild leagues to compete with rival guilds for progression (with observer mode).6. jackpot world mobs.
There's a lot of potential applications for the new sort of "player-mimicking" AI they've launched with Island Expeditions, I do however sure hope they're not going to be used to replace key roles in dungeons.
Active WoW player Jan 2006 - Aug 2020
Occasional WoW Classic Andy since.
Nothing lasts forever, as they say.
But at least I can casually play Classic and remember when MMORPGs were good.
Strangely, Blizzard is coming full circle on this issue from Diablo 2. In Diablo 2, you had smart script kiddies coding bots that were able to take a teleporting sorceress and successfully navigate a randomly generated maze to reach Baal and then the bot would successfully complete the Baal run while REAL players would just follow the bot down via portal and sit there and soak up XP. A lot of people complained and wanted this behavior banned but it never was.
Now here we are in 2019 and its the wave of the future.
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We're probably headed for the D2 model where the player just stands there and does nothing and his team of Blizzard-designed bots run the dungeon or raid for him or her. And then they stream it all on Twitch so a bunch of us can eat our dinner while we watch a player watch the Blizzard Bots run the dungeon. Its like Botception!
TO FIX WOW:1. smaller server sizes & server-only LFG awarding satchels, so elite players help others. 2. "helper builds" with loom powers - talent trees so elite players cast buffs on low level players XP gain, HP/mana, regen, damage, etc. 3. "helper ilvl" scoring how much you help others. 4. observer games like in SC to watch/chat (like twitch but with MORE DETAILS & inside the wow UI) 5. guild leagues to compete with rival guilds for progression (with observer mode).6. jackpot world mobs.
Probably in response to the millions of people unsubbing from the game lol. There is currently only 3 million active player characters between the EU and US. (active characters is any activity spent within a 2 week span of time)
So me with over 6 alts I actively use all the time contribute to 6 of that 3 million. Goign by these numbers there is a high likely chance that there is less than 1 million subs playing. Which is lower than both ESO and FF14.
https://www.wowrealmpopulation.com/
It's looking REALLY bad this expansion. Even the low point of WOD had at least 3 million subs. BFA barely has 3 million active characters...
With number of players getting lower and lower everyday this could be a good thing.
THE HORDE WILL ENDURE
THE HORDE IS STRONG!
They should really work on hunter/warlock pet AI aswel.
Subarashii chin chin mono
Kintama no kami aru
I mean, that depends on what you mean by "too good". The "AI" in island expeditions isn't just player-like characters that simply have smart scripting - they're just NPCs with a little more thought put into their scripts, and a whole lot of needlessly overpowered abilities players could never have. They're effectively cheating, which is a very common way of making "AI" "better" at playing video games.
I use quotation marks liberally here because of course we're not talking about anything even remotely resembling AI here. They're not even machine-learning systems like the ones they used to (somewhat fairly) beat pros at StarCraft. They're just scripted behaviors with more complexity in the script than is usual for other NPCs. That's basically it. And because that is so insufficient for providing an actual challenge, they also have to make them "cheat" in order to maintain the desired level of difficulty.
I'm foreseeing two possible scenarios for AI Battlegrounds. Either a) players will figure out the weaknesses in the script, and proceed to predict and/or exploit NPC behavior to their advantage; or b) NPCs will cheat in ways that make them either under- or overpowered, erring on the side of lower power to keep the players happy and let them win.
The NPC companions will be the source of approximately twelve dozen angry forum threads a week because pet AI is absolute garbage and they're never doing what you actually want them to do.
I disagree with this and I'd like to read some data on it. I find the opposite to be true. This forum for example is very into the social aspect of WoW, something that hasn't really existed in a long time, and never existed to the degree that they claim it's been lost, and yet the average WoW player doesn't give a shit about any of that and tends to prefer it the modern way over the old forced community way.
See? =) Forum dwellers tend to be more in favor of the forced socializing aspect of WoW.
AchaeaKoralin - Are you still out there? | Classic Priest
TO FIX WOW:1. smaller server sizes & server-only LFG awarding satchels, so elite players help others. 2. "helper builds" with loom powers - talent trees so elite players cast buffs on low level players XP gain, HP/mana, regen, damage, etc. 3. "helper ilvl" scoring how much you help others. 4. observer games like in SC to watch/chat (like twitch but with MORE DETAILS & inside the wow UI) 5. guild leagues to compete with rival guilds for progression (with observer mode).6. jackpot world mobs.