Diego joined CIG three and a half years ago. He began to work with the vehicle team. He's now an AI Pro programmer in the AI Tech Team. He helped develop the debuff and intoxication mechanics as well. CIG is a very different company, and Star Citizen a very different game to work on due to it being sort of Indie published, and they don't have a publisher and it's a massively supportive community. Yeah, it's worth mentioning that a lot of uh sort of devs that work at CIG if it's not their first rodeo if they've been working for other companies before they all say it's very different from working at CIG because obviously they get to sort of work on this project which is very Grand and there's a lot of sort of like cool stuff going on but they don't have the same sort of stuff with crunch as far as I'm aware. They are sort of uh not having to deal with a publisher. It is a double-edged sword to be sure with development because development can take a lot longer but I just think it's interesting that the way that sort of devs react. I want to see what devs say when they if CIG and Star Citizen was their first sort of Dev job then they move on to another company how does that then compare.
He went on to say that they sort of have 2-hour play sessions with the AI Team every Friday, but he's trying to play more of the game outside that. There are plans to make AI better with a range of difficulties and for a range of missions and group sizes and that sort of stuff because they want different skills of AI. They want them to sort of have Ace pilots and that sort of stuff, military-style pilot, civilian Pilots that Panic, industrial and trade Pilots, all that sort of stuff. And we know they've got different sort of levels of aggression and different tactics, and these sort of can be blurred together in groups. In fact, we know that CIG have been recently working on group behaviors. He went on to say that AI now feature a range of traits such as Reckless and cautious, but we know that there's a ton more behaviors that've been building and pulling in from Squadron 42. Developers have taken inspiration from play behavior in the way they design the AI and the way that they act. Developers are working on enabling NPCs to seamlessly transition between different, um roles and um different sort of scenarios in-game. So some of them may be able to switch between being an engineer and then being a gunner or being a pilot and a gunner and then reacting to a vehicle being disabled. Apparently a lot of the tech is already there for them to do that, and it's technically possible for NPCs to sort of react actor ships soft death and stuff like that. It's just not implemented yet. CIG had originally said they wanted NPCs to be very similar to players and their ability to interact with the world. But they obviously want NPC crew in to be part of the game in the future as well, and the NPC crew potentially wouldn't be as good as like a really good uh player pilot, stuff like that.
Diego went on to say that the AI in Star Citizen is designed to be fun and challenging, but it will not be able to do everything a player can do so that is a I think we expected it won't be to do everything a player can do but I do believe CIG wanted them to be as similar as possible in the things that they can do not necessarily the skill level all the time um and there's obviously different ways that players are going to think and do things they don't want NPCs to always act in their best interest they want it to be a fun and interesting experience not for NPCs to go I am able to evade you in this ship constantly by staying out of your fire arcs and things like that they want them to be a bit of um make mistakes and stuff like that as well they are building interesting encounters for Missions at the moment future updates aim to balance the AI difficulty and this will take into account again player feedback they want to avoid as I said earlier frustrating behaviors and encounters with dog fighting AI Etc. Diego has seen significant improvements in the game over his time at CIG. He believes that open development has been incredibly beneficial as it allows players to see how the game is made and give feedback and have a quick turnaround on that. He acknowledges that there have been delays but everyone there is working hard to try and make the best game that the game can be. There are plans to improve the AI's ability to attack ground targets whether they be players or NPCs and for ground targets to properly detect and fight things that are up in the air. They want to introduce AI-controlled ground vehicles that's something that they're going to be um doing. They made a prototype for um AI ground vehicles last year.
Q: What is Diego's role at CIG and what are the unique aspects of working on Star Citizen?
A: Diego is an AI Pro programmer in the AI Tech Team at CIG. The unique aspects of working on Star Citizen include being an Indie published game without a publisher, a massively supportive community, and a different approach to development compared to other companies.
Q: What advancements have been made in AI development for Star Citizen and what are the future plans?
A: Advancements in AI development for Star Citizen include plans to improve AI with different skills, behaviors, and traits for varied missions and scenarios. The AI team is working on group behaviors and enabling NPCs to seamlessly transition between roles and scenarios. Future plans include balancing AI difficulty, introducing AI-controlled ground vehicles, and more.
Q: What is Diego's reflection on Star Citizen's progress and future plans regarding AI?
A: Diego believes that the AI in Star Citizen is designed to be fun and challenging, while not being able to do everything a player can. The focus is on creating interesting encounters for missions, balancing AI difficulty based on player feedback, and avoiding frustrating behaviors. The open development approach allows for player feedback and quick turnaround on improvements.
