They still aren't interesting though. (Destiny)

by Jabberwok, Monday, October 06, 2014, 15:29 (3943 days ago) @ Ragashingo

Just in general this games AI is lacking compared to Halo.

Totally disagree. The one real leg up Halo has over Destiny is enemy communication. Halo 1 hit it so far out of the park with the one, two of the Grunt's broken english and Elite's reversed dialogue that Bungie will never, ever be able to top it. But beyond that, Destiny's enemies do all the things Halo's did with many having alternate attack and defensive moves where most Halo enemies did not. Sure, there are a few unique things between the games. Destiny doesn't have anything quite like Suicide Grunts or Flood taking over units, while Halo's enemies can't lean out from cover or teleport right up in your face, but on the whole they are very similar.

I'd wager if we somehow reduced both games to stick figures and unmodeled spaces you'd be very hard pressed to tell the difference. It would come down to recognizing weapons and firing patterns and not how the AI actually fights or moves.

I remember a good talk some people from Bungie gave a while back on communicating enemy AI to the player. I mostly agree with you, and I think that communication is what Halo had that Destiny needs. In Destiny, the enemies mostly just roar or make random noises that are pretty indistinguishable from one another. The Fallen probably come the closest to actually communicating intention, and the Vex Hobgoblins at least have a predictable behavior that helps them stand out. But Halo's enemies had much more iconic emotes and sounds, and had the advantage that there were usually a wide variety at one time, interacting with each other in understandable and interesting ways. Grunts are a good example of this, and their responses to elites. Destiny really needs to work on developing interesting relationships like this, and even more important, finding ways to clearly communicate what's happening to the player, even if enemies aren't speaking English.

Other than that, I do think they overuse the popping out from cover behavior. I feel like I'm target shooting at a carnival sometimes, especially since some of them don't fire more than a couple times, but just lean as far out as possible like they are asking you to shoot them in the face.