AI Surrender Mechanic in Video Games

[514d3]

I've been thinking recently about different games I've played wherein the AI has the ability surrender and wasn't able to find any threads about it; I know that some more old school games have it (such as Perfect Dark and Jedi Outcast) but why has this not been done in any recent releases?

My first memory of this is Jedi Outcast and I loved it, I used to run around taking the weapons off of every Stormtrooper in the game and leave them with their hands in the air. It made me feel like I had the ability to be a good guy, sparing people rather than just killing them outright, and also gave me a sense of smug satisfaction that I had broken their will to fight me.In any case, it's a brilliant mechanic that should be in more games.

Skyrim has something similar, but it was more of an illusion than anything; enemies would go into a 'wounded' pose and surrender/give up, but as soon as they had been left for a while they would get up and attack again so I don't consider this the same thing.

It would also be able to add an ethical dilemma for what would otherwise just be a standard 'kill x amount of npc's to get to a' quest. You could role play as the good guy and let that pleading npc run away (and you get to feel all self righteous) or you could cut him down where he stands and role play as an evil character. It expands on elements already in place on games and adds weight to decisions that we make in games so lightly.

So whats your opinion on the ability of AI to surrender in games?

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

I like it. Though Im not too worried. It would have been a nice touch if in Halo if you could get the grunts to surrender.

 

[Judgement101]

SWAT 3 had a surrender mechanic where you are supposed to be able to tell someone to drop their gun and surrender but since you die in 2 shots, and it seems like the AI knows this, they just shoot you while you tell them to surrender, then the game tells you that you did a bad job for killing so many criminals/civilians.

 

[DoPo]

So whats your opinion on the ability of AI to surrender in games?

The answer is "Yes". Skyrim always annoyed me with the whole "I surrender!" followed by a desperate attack. I was perfectly willing to let the dudes go the first few time. Well, after I realised they wouldn't actually surrender, I was really disappointed. As fun as killing everything is, I would find it much more enjoyable if I can tell an NPC "Go on, tell your friends how much I humiliated you." so I gain some notoriety. Or in other words, I'd like to have some street rep so I get some respect in da hood.

 

[The Madman]

I really love the arrest mechanic in SWAT 3 and 4, it's just such a novel and unique gaming experience to burst into a room and not be expected to kill everyone contained within but instead be penalized for it should you try! Police can't just go around shooting people after all, they've got to follow the rules and the rules say they can't use deadly force save in very specific circumstances. Ideally your goal is to bring everyone in alive; the civilians, the police officers, and yes, even the 'villains'.

Made for a great multiplayer game as well in SWAT 4, easily one of my favourites. The truly skilled people in that game were the ones that went for arrests rather than trying to kill the other team, meanwhile the escort mode was just a ton of fun.

They should make another of th... no, I take it back. They'd just end up making it like Call of Duty with points popping up over your screen for every 'perp you bag' or somesuch nonsense or like every other game with a 'surrender' mechanic where it really has absolutely no meaning or purpose other than to try and annoy you save when it's during some scripted event.

So done right it's a great mechanic, but I really only know a few games that do and only two FPS that do: SWAT 3 and 4. But the rest of the time it's just a waste of said time.

 

[Ryotknife]

sins of a solar empire will have the AI surender.....pretty quickly even.

AI rage quits faster than a....well...rage quitter. I remember the first few games of Sins where i had won, but had no idea WHY i won.

Course, then you can go the other direction with the AI, where you WISH they would surrender. Like in Empire Earth. Me and my friends typically played on large islands (each player gets their own). The AI have unlimited resources, yet still have 300~ workers. Even a full invasion by 3 players it is hard to destroy ONE AI.

Why? because the AI will rebuild FASTER than you can destroy. I will air dropp in 100 tanks and destroy a small area. Come back 2 minutes later and the entire base is rebuilt. Really really REALLY fricking annoying.

 

[skywolfblue]

People in Assassin's Creed will surrender sometimes. Though they tend to have a bad habit of doing so too late, I'm already 9 guards deep into a killstreak and I've already pushed the button to kill the last guy and at the very last second he goes "I Surrender!" and I'm like "sorry buddy ".

I think people in Red Dead Redemption would surrender if you shot the gun out of their hands. (been a while since I played it so I don't remember exactly)

It's a nice feature, but it's not needed in every game. For example, Zombies trying to surrender would be silly.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

It would be nice. In Skyrim they beg for mercy constantly, and since you can't actually let them go without them immediately trying to kill you all it means is that I get to walk in front of them and get a head stab if I'm using a sword.

In Assassin's Creed I usually make it a point to chase down anyone that runs away, no matter how far they run assuming I can't just use a projectile.

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

I think the range of character interaction in gaming is pretty pathetic given the advanced age of the industry. Seems all that's changed over time is the quality of the visuals and the animations. We're still just shooting dudes with guns, for the most part, and what meager attempts to broaden the interactive range have been made (think Fable) really fall flat.

 

[MiskWisk]

sins of a solar empire will have the AI surender.....pretty quickly even.

AI rage quits faster than a....well...rage quitter. I remember the first few games of Sins where i had won, but had no idea WHY i won.

Course, then you can go the other direction with the AI, where you WISH they would surrender. Like in Empire Earth. Me and my friends typically played on large islands (each player gets their own). The AI have unlimited resources, yet still have 300~ workers. Even a full invasion by 3 players it is hard to destroy ONE AI.

Why? because the AI will rebuild FASTER than you can destroy. I will air dropp in 100 tanks and destroy a small area. Come back 2 minutes later and the entire base is rebuilt. Really really REALLY fricking annoying.

Rome total war was another game with dodgy AI surrender. I had one event where the last city attempted to threaten me into given up large sums of gold and three cities as I had two full banner armies about to lay siege to their last city that had barely any soldiers. Meanwhile, another faction would constantly ask for peace then attack the next turn.

 

[Warachia]

I can remember a few games that did this, my favourite way of doing it was the enemy limping for their life, without a weapon to show they weren't a threat, and if they reached a door they'd escape, it's just the kind of little touch developers don't put in games these days.

 

[AgentLampshade]

I Am Alive springs to mind, though I only played the demo, but it seemed pretty cool. You can even threaten people with an empty gun as long as they thought it was loaded.

 

[Ninjat_126]

I love the idea, but execution has been poor. Assassin's Creed does it well, I believe, and I especially enjoy how you can stare someone down with a readied Hidden Gun.

Some games really need this mechanic though. The Darkness, Infamous, Prototype... you'd think that after a while people would start trying to give up. The Militia in Infamous 2 are just regular, bigoted guys with guns and hockey masks, you'd think that after you'd decimated their ranks a bit they'd be a bit more reluctant to shoot at you.

Actually, that really bugged me. I'd electrocute a person to within an inch of his life, beat down and then Arc Restrain his comrades non-lethally and tank or block every one of his shots, but the bastard would just keep shooting. I'd beaten the entire squad without breaking a swear or killing a single man, this one guy was practically dead on his feet... ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK!

This sort of thing could be linked nicely to a sort of morality bar measuring how brutal you are to your enemies. After a point, they won't bother to surrender anymore, but if you're a pacifist who never hurts anyone they won't get scared enough to surrender.

I Am Alive springs to mind, though I only played the demo, but it seemed pretty cool. You can even threaten people with an empty gun as long as they thought it was loaded.

Yeah, I really liked that from what I saw in the demo.

 

[CellShaded]

Payday: The Heist has a surrender mechanic in which you can intimidate the Police/Guards to get to their knees and cuff themselves. I know for a fact you can do that to all of them, but the more elite Police Officers don't do it as quickly or just aren't as easy.

I do kinda wish that it would be used more often, atleast in RPGs or games that go for realism.

 

[Lhianon]

i would actually wish for even more than surrender as a gamplay-machanik, i'd like more logical human behavior in games in general.
for instance, the rich duke you have to kill for the assasin-guild tries to bribe you, while the arrogant and filthy rich dragon does not because he needs the gold to make a comfy bed ^^
or using "surrender" as an infiltration tactic like the joker in "the dark knight".
i hope you get what i mean, i am sure you can come up with more, better ideas <3

 

[WouldYouKindly]

The Total War series of RTS's has some element of it, though it's less of a mechanic than a player choice. Once a unit routs, you can chase them down and kill them or you can let them go. Medieval 2 has a mechanic where routing units are captured rather than outright killed. If you win, you're given a choice of whether to ransom them(hold their lives for a cash payment from your enemy) release them or execute them.

The situation isn't so much moral as tactical for me. If I'm short on money, ransom. If I was defending my own territory, release provided it doesn't conflict with the kind of general who commanded the battle(normally the remaining enemy force will pull out if you thrash them). Execute if I'm on the attack, any soldier released would just end up fighting me again.

 

[Evil Smurf]

In civilization games and Sid Meier's Alpha Centuri, the AI surenders