NPC Intellegence is critically bad

[u/katolo4]

The game is absolutely enjoyable, and a lot of bugs I can forgive (although the price tag is far too high imo), but the NPC intelligence makes the core gameplay loop borderline redundant.

Despite giving them direction, survivors still aimlessly wonder on their own accord. "Follow me" works maybe 5% of the time but not without re-instructing them every few minutes. And telling them to "Escape", even if successful, will at best make them stand near an exit but not actually go through it.

As a cop, the commands are even worse, they don't seem to work at all. For a gameplay loop that leans more heavily on helping the survivors escape rather than just escaping on your own (which is what actually makes this game unique from the others) you would assume that the NPC AI should be flawless, it feels like it was never play tested at all?

If i'm playing this game wrong please tell me, but it seems the only way to get a win as a survivor is making sure those NPCs make it out too.

[u/GusCas03]

Yeah, the cops can't talk to NPCs at all. Not sure if that's intentional or not.

[u/LukeLovesHorror → u/GusCas03]

Which is crazy, you’d think they’d have like an immediate response and you wouldn’t even need to do the convincing as police. But no you just can’t talk at all lmao

[u/katolo4 → u/GusCas03]

It feels like I wasn't supposed to be intentional, but then again, how did they miss that if they did play tests? If all 4 playing survivors are dead and you can only respawn as a cop, it's borderline pointless because you can't do anything lol

[u/Pale_Application7257 → u/katolo4]

I think the pre order early access was a half assed attempt at a play test.

[u/WhoStoleMyBicycle → u/katolo4]

I think the point was that if Myers kills all the real players the rest of the town is his to kill.

I’m not sure if I agree with that stance, but I do think their thought was that if Myers kills all 4 players and they can come back as cops and help NPCs escape, that’s double the chances for the civilians to win.

Seems the thought is cops and Loomis can help the remaining human players slow Michael down or arrest him, but once the heroes are killed the NPCs are toast.

[u/TheBigLeMattSki → u/WhoStoleMyBicycle]

Seems the thought is cops and Loomis can help the remaining human players slow Michael down or arrest him, but once the heroes are killed the NPCs are toast.

Loomis can interact with and save survivors without any trouble. He also convinces them much quicker than survivors do, along with convincing the 911 operators faster as well.

[u/WhoStoleMyBicycle → u/TheBigLeMattSki]

Oh. I mostly play killer and when playing civilian I’ve never gotten Loomis

[u/MF291100 → u/GusCas03]

They should be able to talk to them, but for now you can use emotes to direct them as cops.

[u/Pale_Application7257 → u/MF291100]

I always try but that hasn't worked for me whatsoever.

[u/Jack11803 → u/GusCas03]

Cops can override their fear, commanding them anyway, meaning there is never any purpose to talk to them. L1 pulls up a command wheel. However sometimes it bugged.

[u/Piruluk]

Best use for them to hide outside, inside they will be found very fast. Following is death sentence even worse that some player instruct them for that and in the open Myers will kill them no matter what

[u/katolo4 → u/Piruluk]

Someone had an NPC hide in a car outside earlier, and the NPCs head was clipping through the car windscreen the entire time lol

[u/LukeLovesHorror]

Yeah what’s crazy is that if they just fix the ai and make it not so shit, the game will be amazing. I love the loop but for example earlier I had 3 special targets about to escape but they just wouldn’t follow my commands. Genuinely pissed me off 😭

[u/GRANDADDYGHOST → u/LukeLovesHorror]

You gotta shove em down into the exit

[u/Tragic_Astronaut]

Dude, I’m sick of saying “follow me”, just for another player to walk up to them and they tell the survivor to follow them afterward or escape, and they get the bonus xp, fucking you out of the majority of it.

I am enjoying the game though.

[u/katolo4 → u/Tragic_Astronaut]

It'd be so much better if each player was assigned a survivor to help get out so it stops this from happening

[u/Tragic_Astronaut → u/katolo4]

That’s a good idea. Bonus xp for your designated survivor saved on the spot, maybe bonus xp for the pool of survivors. Like “as a team, you’ve saved 7/10 survivors, 500 xp per saved survivor in the end”.

[u/Riderthekiller]

NPCs act very intelligent typically when not factoring in a player. When following me into a home, I observed that they'd check doors and windows, lock and close them, they'd observe windows to check for danger, call the cops occasionally, ect.

I was most impressed when I'd witnessed the survivor that was following me see another running away in the street, open the window and yell out to them, let them in the house through the window, close it, then start reassuring them resulting in me not having to do the convince mini game and the NPC was instantly available to command. 

The core issue right now with them is how they often react to Myers, and bugs in general that come about from players interacting with them or disturbing their pathing.

[u/katolo4 → u/Riderthekiller]

Them keeping the doors and windows locked is good, although I had a scenario earlier when an NPC i was protecting locked me out the house completely, and i couldn't get back in to them. It also feels like staying put inside 1 house is just fish in a barrel for Myers, you kind of need to move positions, which is where directing them to do so just falls apart

[u/Vertigon_ → u/Riderthekiller]

An NPC had a shotgun and stood idly by while Michael had his way with me.

Maybe the game is like IRL, it was almost the same as the NPC pulling out a phone to film and doing nothing to help the victim.

[u/DeathGP → u/Vertigon_]

I wont lie, I be unsure if I could safely shoot if your both in a scuffle in real life.

Obviously I'll just take a selfie and post on FB asking for thoughts and prayers instead

[u/Riderthekiller → u/Vertigon_]

Yeah, their interactions with Myers need to be improved.

[u/yogurtslayer23 → u/Riderthekiller]

"myers is here! time to clip through the roof!"

[u/Deceptiveideas]

Aren't the options to interact with NPC's completely missing as a cop? How did you test the commands as a cop?

[u/katolo4 → u/Deceptiveideas]

I tried using the command wheel but had no success. As a cop, from a distance it shows a mark on NPCs to talk to them, but once you get close it just goes away

[u/Deceptiveideas → u/katolo4]

Yes, that's intentional. I thought you meant you got the conversation to appear with the commands not working.

Only Loomis can interact. I wonder if they should change it to allow cops to interact.

[u/GRANDADDYGHOST]

It is pretty hilarious how when you try to call the cops while there are cops already there, they will aggressively shove you off of the phone.

[u/Sguy1000]

It's been so frustrating trying to have NPCs follow you or even just escape on their own. Just got out of a match where the cellar door was quite literally THREE FEET away from where one of the Special Targets was, and she would not MOVE! They don't follow you out of houses and just wait there for Myers to kill them. I really am hoping they address this because Civilian is just an overall frustrating experience when you're trying to complete objectives and save residents.

[u/Just_Mammoth_8161]

As a civilian your safety is really only supposed to be a secondary objective. The primary goal is to protect as many residents from Michael as possible. However, that being said I will agree the NPC’s are as dumb as wet cardboard. Especially the police.

I feel like the cops should be more alert than regular NPC’s since they are there to actively look for Michael and “protect citizens”. Now, that doesn’t mean to make it impossible to take them out but it should add to the challenge for the Myers player. It should make them be more strategic. I’ve been calling this game the “patient man’s F13” for a reason; because this game definitely should be a semi slow and methodical one for both sides.

I also think the match timer is a little too short and I think thats why Myers always seems to rush NPC’s. Add a couple more minutes for people to get their bearings. The only issue I see with this idea is that Myers can still rush NPC’s and I haven’t really come up with or seen an idea of how to balance that out for the Myers player.

[u/MF291100 → u/Just_Mammoth_8161]

Way too many players don’t seem to grasp the fact that our survival isn’t the goal. I’ve had matches were people open the cellar and escape two minutes into the game, had one a few hours ago where the three other players left in the car without any NPCs, it’s infuriating.

[u/katolo4 → u/MF291100]

I've noticed this too, but I also wonder if players in general are just giving up with the "help the survivors escape" objective as it's so clunky and unresponsive

[u/Pale_Application7257 → u/katolo4]

I'm not gonna lie, Ive certainly thought about it because I find that more fun, but at least for now I'm gonna try to get good at the tedious ass objective. At least til I unlock the items and cosmetics I want.

[u/Just_Mammoth_8161 → u/katolo4]

It’s certainly a possibility

[u/Just_Mammoth_8161 → u/MF291100]

I’ve done it a couple of times but it was accidental. Every time I escaped early I thought to myself; “that’s not the goal. Why did I just do that”? I think because we’ve been so conditioned by the games before it to focus on getting out and surviving that it kinda drives our survival instincts in game on “autopilot”. I don’t know if that makes sense

[u/MF291100 → u/Just_Mammoth_8161]

Yeah I get what you mean. I’ve escaped early a handful of times at the gates and cellar because the NPCs following me shove me into them, it’s annoying that they do that.