Examples of good partner A.I.?

[JayRPG]

Persona 3 used an AI partner system... I thought they did their jobs well enough... until boss fights that is. Ugh.

A better example would be most Tales games. The AI partners are really, really helpful. Very reliable, even when I'm in a pinch I can simply hold out and they'll eventually turn the tides (or at least get everyone revived). To this day I have not once complained about the party AI in Tales.

Otherwise... that's all I got.

+1 for tales games.

I haven't yet had any "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING" moments while playing a tales game, even in their earlier iterations.

Recently finished my 100% completion of Xillia and was thoroughly impressed by the party AI at times, especially in the big fights when I fucked up and got myself killed every now and then, Rowen would storecast (he has an ability to stop casting and save it for later) as soon as I went down so he could use a life bottle to revive me, then continue with his assault.

Pretty advanced stuff for AI to be pulling off when lazy programmers could have either made the AI finish the cast before using items or having them prioritize items by cancelling their cast completely.

And I have to give props on how the AI uses linking between themselves too, always set it to "link sometimes" and they just seemed to get it perfect every fight, especially when I was using Milla(me), jude, rowen and elize. They would unlink so they could both spam cast massive spells then rowen would initiate a link to use elize's ability (which is stealing mana and giving it to her link partner) when he got low on mana.

 

[Alarien]

I agree about Dragon Age: Origins. In fact, it's one of the things I liked most: dictating companion actions given specific situations.

You can argue all you want about Elizabth vs. Alyx. Alyx is a loser man-girl in jeans with no personality. Elizabeth is awesomesauce on a stick. It doesn't necessarily matter how useful they were in any given situation (although, Elizabeth tossing me salts was far more useful in any situation than Alyx "might hit something with a pistol... maybe... sorta.") Elizabeth was also attractive and interesting. Alyx was .. well, a loser man-girl in jeans with no personality and a tentative attachment to the plot.

That's right. Alyx is, without a doubt in my opinion, the most obnoxiously over hyped useless POS character in the history of gaming. She sucks. She's terrible. She does nothing useful, ever. She has a robotic dog-thing that is infinitely more interesting than she is.

Ha, it's an opinion, which can't be countered. Suck on it.

 

[NewYork_Comedian]

Another one for Republic Commando. That game really deserves more praise than it gets for being both tactically brilliant and providing an interesting perspective to the Star Wars Universe as opposed to just being another Jedi fighting the Sith.

 

[TheSteeleStrap]

The Left4Dead games have decent AI, capable of choosing different weapons (different characters have different preferences), they heal you and hand you pills, they'll follow you onto objectives and run when you run as opposed to shooting at everything. There are other things but I can't really think right now.

No, they really don't.

I can't even count the number of times AI teammates in Left 4 Dead have stood RIGHT NEXT TO ME and done nothing while I was getting mauled by a hunter.

The Left 4 Dead teammate AI is passable, but it's far from "good."

Left 4 Dead 1 AI is decent, Left 4 Dead 2 AI is crap.

Nah, they're pretty much the same AI. I've had all the same problems with the AI in both games. Sometimes they can be downright brilliant, and sometimes they're about as smart as a brick.

In fact, hell, the AI in Left 4 Dead 2 might actually be better since it can actually use molotovs and pipebombs, unlike the Left 4 Dead 1 AI.

I've had so many more problems in L4D2 with AI partners standing right next to me as I'm being killed by a special infected than L4D1.

 

[Aircross]

Freespace 2 had great AI for your squad members.

They do what you tell them to do to the best of their abilities. They'll even shoot down bombs that are approaching your escort objective!

Oh, and there's nothing like having them all converge on the same capital ship.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

So I've been playing Kingdom Hearts 1.5 lately, and I've come to remember how awesome Donald and Goofy were in battles.

Yep, loved Donald and Goofy in the early games. They're good support roles - but you can forget about them the minute anything of importance needs to get done, i.e. boss fights. I don't remember their participation to be anything close to pivotal in any major battle (or plot point, for that matter). Which is a shame, since Sora (and Riku) end up taking the credit for everything. But yes, I like that the AI is smart enough not to get in the way with wasting items and fucking up moves and attacks. And Goofy's MP Gift is awesome, especially against the clocktower Phantom. Come think of it, that's the one time he totally changed the tide of the battle - if only in a passive way.

 

[Pink Gregory]

The Left4Dead games have decent AI, capable of choosing different weapons (different characters have different preferences), they heal you and hand you pills, they'll follow you onto objectives and run when you run as opposed to shooting at everything. There are other things but I can't really think right now.

No, they really don't.

I can't even count the number of times AI teammates in Left 4 Dead have stood RIGHT NEXT TO ME and done nothing while I was getting mauled by a hunter.

The Left 4 Dead teammate AI is passable, but it's far from "good."

Left 4 Dead 1 AI is decent, Left 4 Dead 2 AI is crap.

Nah, they're pretty much the same AI. I've had all the same problems with the AI in both games. Sometimes they can be downright brilliant, and sometimes they're about as smart as a brick.

In fact, hell, the AI in Left 4 Dead 2 might actually be better since it can actually use molotovs and pipebombs, unlike the Left 4 Dead 1 AI.

I've had so many more problems in L4D2 with AI partners standing right next to me as I'm being killed by a special infected than L4D1.

I have NEVER seen the AI use pipe bombs/molotovs/bile bombs in L4D2.

 

[Brian Tams]

Chalk up another vote for Republic Commando. Delta squad was just absolutely clutch. No other way to describe.

I really really really really REALLY want EA to announce another Republic Commando game Q.Q

 

[Yopaz]

Persona 3 used an AI partner system... I thought they did their jobs well enough... until boss fights that is. Ugh.

A better example would be most Tales games. The AI partners are really, really helpful. Very reliable, even when I'm in a pinch I can simply hold out and they'll eventually turn the tides (or at least get everyone revived). To this day I have not once complained about the party AI in Tales.

Otherwise... that's all I got.

I like those games where they can actually use items automatically since that can be really helpful during boss fights. I've rarely had complaints about Tales AI so I'll agree with that.

OT: Now I am going to mention a character a lot of you think is annoying, this is also from a game where about half of it is an escort quest and your AI partner is more of a target than help in any way (though she does have some tasks throughout the game). I'm talking about Ashley from Resident Evil 4.

Now a good deal of you (me included) complain about her, but why do I think she makes a good AI? Well, first of all when you take aim she covers behind you rather than stand still or walk past you, if you suspect danger you can ask her to wait in a place you think is safer, you can make her hide inside boxes. Basically she's a good AI because she does what she's supposed to well.

 

[RandV80]

Talking about BAD AI's in games, especially shooters, I wonder if you could craft a fun game around micro managing an intentionally incompetent group of soldiers with the challenge being around getting as many as you can through the encounter/level without dieing.

So basically I'm talking about Lemmings meets the modern day shooter!