Question about group AI in RPGs

[Madscientist]

I saw this a long time ago in Gothic and now I play Fallout:NV and I see it again:

 

There is a group of enemies. If I cause damage to one of them, all attack me. So far, so good.

But if I kill one of them with a single hit from a large distance the others do not react at all.

I can one after the other without problems as long as each attack is a kill.

I remember this behaviour for wolfs and scavengers in Gothic 1+2 and coyotes and dogs in Fallout:NV. There might be other examples.

 

Can anybody explain this?

 

At least I can guess why it happens mostly to groups of animals and not for hostile humanoids:

Animals are often relatively peaceful and you have to get close to them until they attack. Other enemies attack you when they see or hear you from a larger distance.

But in Fallout:NV it worked sometimes for humans as well, if I kill them from a really large distance with a sniper rifle.

[Lexx]

Well, I guess it's simply because the ai doesn't detect dead critters. If you damage one, he "calls out" to his buddies that there is an attack going on. If you kill him in one hit, he can't do that, therefore the other ai doesn't know an enemy is around unless it "heard" the attack happening / player is within a certain range and just acts as usual.

 

I wouldn't interpret some real life theories into it. The games simply don't have good stealth mechanics.

Edited July 11, 2017 by Lexx

[SonicMage117]

Poor design in some games. Some games have better ai reactions/responses than others. GTAV has some amazing ai designedfor this.