Notes

• Unpredictable does not mean random

  Random factors in behavior are rarely good

  they are confusing because they cloud the issue

  they make it difficult for the Player to analyze what is happening

• Unpredictable means "not repetitive"

  For reasons of intelligibilty and interactivity we talked about already, we want the AI to be predictable

  Ideally this means that the player is the only unpredictable element

  he is going to do slightly different things each time

  We used this in Halo to trigger a cascade effect

  Unpredictable player

  puts the AI in unpredictable situations

  which causes unpredictable reactions

  and this leads to a unique experience

  
  This causes a feedback loop because the unique experience leads to more unpredictable Player reactions and starts the cascade all over again

• Analog reactions

  Script driven encounters are very predictable because the inputs available to a script are very digital

  Is the player in the room or not?

  Is the AI dead or not?

  In Halo the encounters are driven by the Code, which has much higher resolution of inputs

  Exactly how far from the Player is each Actor and does it have line of sight?

  Exactly how much health does each Actor have left and how far is he from cover?

  This allows small changes in the situation to be amplified by the AI to yield large changes in behavior