To preface, I know very little about the technical side of games. But one thing I noticed in Halo Reach, as opposed to the other games, is that the covenant sometimes had a tendency to just stop fighting and stand perfectly still for long periods of time. This was particularly noticeable on legendary when fighting Elites. Reach Elites generally hop around nonstop and can be difficult to hit. I’d even say they are the hardest elites to kill yet, overall. But relatively frequently they just stop what they are doing, out in the open, and let themselves get shot down, when in past games they would be ducking for cover. While sometimes this small pause would save me from being killed (:p), I was embarrassed to even consider myself playing on legendary. Afaik, the guys at 343i used code from previous halos for a starting point in Halo 4, and they’ve also said that “the covenant will be the least of your worries” or something to that effect. With the possibility that the covenant might be nerfed in order to make the prometheans seem more intimidating, do you think these problems with the covenant AI will be addressed, to make the fighting of the covenant more organic?
I think that whatever the ancient evil wants is way worse than the ‘covie treasure hunt’ therefor the covenant is the least of our worries. Covenant AI will probably not be nerfed to make prometheans seem/be more powerful 
When Frank did the demo at Eurogamer, the Banshees actually flank you. But, theres no way in hell, 343’s AI are gonna outsmart me.
I don’t know about the Covenant, but the Prometheans are definitely gonna have good AI.
Watching the Demo with Frank there were multiple instances where the covenant showed more inteligent behaviour, the Banshee’s flanking the player, the grunt in the ghost reversing as no to be hijacked, the elite taking an alternate route around franks cover which took him by surprise. So yes I believe the covenant AI behaviour is better
> Watching the Demo with Frank there were multiple instances where the covenant showed more inteligent behaviour, the Banshee’s flanking the player, the grunt in the ghost reversing as no to be hijacked, the elite taking an alternate route around franks cover which took him by surprise. So yes I believe the covenant AI behaviour is better
I actually have tried to limit myself from watching actual gameplay, in order to have the maximum surprise factor when I finally play.
My friend played the campaign (yes, shocking I know) and he had to say this about the AI
“Its brilliant, enemy AI and friendly AI although they still can’t drive very well.”
> My friend played the campaign (yes, shocking I know) and he had to say this about the AI
>
> “Its brilliant, enemy AI and friendly AI although they still can’t drive very well.”
You think Marines are gonna ever be good at driving in Halo? That’s like asking Kat to drive straight with a Warthog.
> This was particularly noticeable on legendary when fighting Elites. Reach Elites generally hop around nonstop and can be difficult to hit. I’d even say they are the hardest elites to kill yet, overall. But relatively frequently they just stop what they are doing, out in the open, and let themselves get shot down, when in past games they would be ducking for cover.
Thank you for saying this. I don’t know how many people think the AI are smart when they’re clearly not.
Why just yesterday, I was playing a little bit on LNoS, I found a spot which would trick the General into flanking me. But all the while, he was shooting the stationary shield generator that was between us and he didn’t change tactics at all. He was a pretty easy target for my plasma grenade.
The #1 problem with Reach Elites: they don’t know how or when to change tactics. They’re essentially the people who play Firefight Arcade, hard to put down because they got way more advantages and power weapons.
I can easily dodge concussion rifle wielders and even fuel rod wielders on Legendary (by using crouch in the horrible strafe. Funny how 1 change in my movement easily wrecks the enemy AI lol! Bungie clearly didn’t anticipate players improving the worthless strafe of the crap character) and they’ll just spam their guns all day, taking all my returning shots. But the worst part was that I could easily close the distance and assassinate them (at least in Halo 4, they seemingly have better knockback which should discourage such attempts), provided I managed to avoid their cheap 1 hit kill melee.
While their aggression has increased (mainly because they have bottomless clip and extremely fast RoF), their intelligence has undoubtedly gone down the drain.
> While sometimes this small pause would save me from being killed (:p), I was embarrassed to even consider myself playing on legendary.
I hated taking advantage of Elites that berserked when they lost their shield or when I landed right next to them. They were so op they had to be given a Zealot/Ultra’s flaws to make them defeatable.
It was suitable for Brutes but for Elites, it should only happen when they are about to die, if they have swords, if a specific amount of their allies die, or if their leader dies.
I am very disappointed how the Halo 4 Elite’s surprise animation is still the same as their berserk animation. It just kills enemy behavior when they use the same animation for more than one response.
> Afaik, the guys at 343i used code from previous halos for a starting point in Halo 4, and they’ve also said that “the covenant will be the least of your worries” or something to that effect. With the possibility that the covenant might be nerfed in order to make the prometheans seem more intimidating, do you think these problems with the covenant AI will be addressed, to make the fighting of the covenant more organic?
They are nerfed in health and perhaps shielding.
In intelligence, they are a mix of Halo 3 and Reach afaik. They still behave like in Reach but their dodging, responsiveness, and flanking has improved.
I was hoping they gained new abilities (like jumping at us swinging their swords in mid-air or using armor abilities) but this is a good start I suppose. 343 have added new ranks (Grunt Ranger, Jackal Ranger) that can catch players by surprise not to mention Elite Rangers have a more tactical jetpack, which means they won’t be high flying and won’t be so easy to anticipate.
> Watching the Demo with Frank there were multiple instances where the covenant showed more inteligent behaviour, the Banshee’s flanking the player, the grunt in the ghost reversing as no to be hijacked, the elite taking an alternate route around franks cover which took him by surprise. So yes I believe the covenant AI behaviour is better
Hardly.
They still neglect cover, probably lack the intelligence to abandon their futile tactic when it’s not working, and probably don’t work as a team (meaning it’ll be the mundane prioritization of taking out enemies safely from long range).
For Elites to improve, it is important to revise the current ‘higher the rank, better guns and armor, same behavior’ formula, which was introduced in Halo 2. CE Elites didn’t need that -Yoink- to kill us. All the ranks were distinct and had noticeable behavior changes. Minors sucked but could still be challenging, Majors fired in short accurate bursts and were always on the move in combat, Spec Ops never berserked, could throw grenades, and sought cover immediately, Zealots had a tendency to berserk, were reckless, and had an overwhelming RoF.
Nowadays, the Elites rely on numbers, high damage, and bottomless clip. Reach Ultras on Heroic barely fire their guns and rarely move unless they’re shot at. It’s not interesting at all.
> > Watching the Demo with Frank there were multiple instances where the covenant showed more inteligent behaviour, the Banshee’s flanking the player, the grunt in the ghost reversing as no to be hijacked, the elite taking an alternate route around franks cover which took him by surprise. So yes I believe the covenant AI behaviour is better
>
> Hardly.
>
> They still neglect cover, probably lack the intelligence to abandon their futile tactic when it’s not working, and probably don’t work as a team (meaning it’ll be the mundane prioritization of taking out enemies safely from long range).
>
> For Elites to improve, it is important to revise the current ‘higher the rank, better guns and armor, same behavior’ formula, which was introduced in Halo 2. CE Elites didn’t need that Yoink! to kill us. All the ranks were distinct and had noticeable behavior changes. Minors sucked but could still be challenging, Majors fired in short accurate bursts and were always on the move in combat, Spec Ops never berserked, could throw grenades, and sought cover immediately, Zealots had a tendency to berserk, were reckless, and had an overwhelming RoF.
>
> Nowadays, the Elites rely on numbers, high damage, and bottomless clip. Reach Ultras on Heroic barely fire their guns and rarely move unless they’re shot at. It’s not interesting at all.
Remember, though, he was playing on Normal in the demo, so top-of-the-line enemies aren’t to be expected.
We’ll find out if they’re good enough when the game comes out.
> > > Watching the Demo with Frank there were multiple instances where the covenant showed more inteligent behaviour, the Banshee’s flanking the player, the grunt in the ghost reversing as no to be hijacked, the elite taking an alternate route around franks cover which took him by surprise. So yes I believe the covenant AI behaviour is better
> >
> > Hardly.
> >
> > They still neglect cover, probably lack the intelligence to abandon their futile tactic when it’s not working, and probably don’t work as a team (meaning it’ll be the mundane prioritization of taking out enemies safely from long range).
> >
> > For Elites to improve, it is important to revise the current ‘higher the rank, better guns and armor, same behavior’ formula, which was introduced in Halo 2. CE Elites didn’t need that Yoink! to kill us. All the ranks were distinct and had noticeable behavior changes. Minors sucked but could still be challenging, Majors fired in short accurate bursts and were always on the move in combat, Spec Ops never berserked, could throw grenades, and sought cover immediately, Zealots had a tendency to berserk, were reckless, and had an overwhelming RoF.
> >
> > Nowadays, the Elites rely on numbers, high damage, and bottomless clip. Reach Ultras on Heroic barely fire their guns and rarely move unless they’re shot at. It’s not interesting at all.
>
> Remember, though, he was playing on Normal in the demo, so top-of-the-line enemies aren’t to be expected.
>
> We’ll find out if they’re good enough when the game comes out.
The difference between Normal and Legendary has been mainly RoF and projectile speed since Halo 3, never about movement.
Also, I’ve seen Spartan Ops Legendary gameplay footage from SDCC. They’re mostly unchanged.
Nonetheless, I don’t even have to see Legendary gameplay to know.
> When Frank did the demo at Eurogamer, the Banshees actually flank you. But, theres no way in hell, 343’s AI are gonna outsmart me.
lmao, reminds me of the elites using armor lock, ahh, good times…
The legendary AI difference does incorporate movement. Enemies in Legendary have Sixth sense, if you aim at them they will move, even at extreme ranges, and they don’t need to “see” you. they also almost always dodge grenades especially with a LASO going. In reach the AI is less idiotic than in 3. Where you can almost gaurantee an enemy will run up on you. but in Reach they don’t take the chance, making it annoying to get them in a LASO to asssassinate them in co-op (or using holograms).
Quite frankly (lol), I hate to say it but our main man beamish was pretty terrible at Halo 4, maybe he was just trying to show the different Effects so he was just playing poorly on purpose, but it’s hard to guage enemy AI on his playthough. I personally feel Halo AI has been the best Enemy AI in any game I’ve played so I am not going to complain, Most AI’s in other games are highly scripted and fairly predictable (Gears of war for example), and offer almost no randomness to any encounter. I think the AI will be on par if not mostly the same as previous Halo titles, at least concerning the covenant. It’s the Prometheans you gotta look out for.
> > When Frank did the demo at Eurogamer, the Banshees actually flank you. But, theres no way in hell, 343’s AI are gonna outsmart me.
>
> lmao, reminds me of the elites using armor lock, ahh, good times…
Or Brutes. Those must be some high-tech loincloths they’re wearing.
I never understood how a Brute dressed as Gollum could pull off a armor lock? :S
Reach AI was amazing.
> > > When Frank did the demo at Eurogamer, the Banshees actually flank you. But, theres no way in hell, 343’s AI are gonna outsmart me.
> >
> > lmao, reminds me of the elites using armor lock, ahh, good times…
>
> Or Brutes. Those must be some high-tech loincloths they’re wearing.
forgot how fun the forums are, might make a topic involving this