The Problem with Tarkov's Scavs

What makes good video game AI? How do game developers build it? What can we learn from other games? What's wrong with Tarkov's AI? How could we fix it? Why am I asking all these questions? What's your favorite idea? Mine is being creative. How do you get that idea? You just have to think creatively.
☆☆ My Chat with Nikita ☆☆
• A Conversation w/ Niki...
☆☆ Video Timeline ☆☆
0:00 What is AI?
3:34 Good AI enriches the experience
11:48 Designing coherent AI
19:57 Imagining immersive Scav behavior
22:28 Implementing perception
25:14 Implementing vision in video game AI
29:37 Perception in Splinter Cell
31:52 Remembering the player’s perspective
34:14 Balancing and tuning
36:20 Don’t mistake poor design for intended challenge
37:26 Reacting takes time
39:01 Challenges that players must overcome
40:55 Scav aren’t playing by the same rules
41:30 What is fairness in Tarkov?
42:34 Contextualizing my research
45:20 Reimagining EFT AI
47:55 Simulated Inventory
48:53 Abilities and Needs
49:26 Situational Awareness
52:55 Reasonable Responses and Actions
54:38 Who are the PMCs?
55:03 Who are the scavengers?
57:02 Who are the Raiders and Rogues?
58:33 The Division 2’s AI archetypes
59:40 More AI Design Considerations
1:00:29 NPCs should play by the same rules
1:01:31 AI acting intelligently based on limited information
1:02:04 Good AI should let players act and react
1:04:16 Redesigning Killa
1:06:05 Redesigning Tagilla
1:08:43 The real issues vs. the superficial
1:10:51 A conversation with Nikita
1:11:42 Why make these videos?
1:12:48 Learning from Nikita
1:15:00 Summary of our discussion
1:16:37 Thanks for watching!
☆☆ Media Used / Referenced in this Video ☆☆
Getting Tarkoved Playlist - • Getting Tarkoved
Making a Video Essay Playlist - • How To Make A Video Essay
History of Tarkov Playlist - • The History of Tarkov
Tarkov Meme Songs Playlist - • Escape from Tarkov Cov...
Ex Machina - www.imdb.com/title/tt0470752/
Horse Accident - • The Red dead redemptio...
AI Fixing Mistakes - • Red Dead Redemption 2 ...
Following RDR2 NPCs - • Following NPCs in Red ...
GTA V Weirdness - • GTA V - RANDOM & FUNNY...
Tarkov Raid Film - • Escape from Tarkov. Ra...
Halo 2 Behavior Trees - • The Behaviour Tree AI ...
Halo 1 AI Design - • The Illusion of Intell...
What Makes Good AI - • What Makes Good AI?
The Division 2 AI - • Designing the Enemy AI...
Unity AI Vision Tutorial - • Field of View Effect i...
Post apocalyptic game assets - szadiart.itch.io/postapo-land...
Top-down survivor assets - opengameart.org/content/anima...
Splinter Cell: Blacklist GDC Talk - • Modeling AI Perception...
LVNDMARK - / lvndmark
JesseKazam - / jessekazam
Sequisha - / sequisha
AquaFPS - / aquafps
Oblivion’s AI was “Too Good” - • The Video Game With AI...
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[@Onepeg]

Dear KZbin, this video is relevant to my interests. Thank you.

[@houghwhite411]

Hey brother, doing god's work there

[@patc2515]

Lmfao took the words right out of my mouth

[@n8bayonet]

Same lol

[@dyl0wned]

Your suggestion of scavs having a “passive” state where they aren’t constantly patrolling with weapons ready would be so much more immersive. It would make it much more fair for PMCs to tell whether they are aggroed or not. The current version scav vision is plausible as an “alert” state, but it’s ridiculous that all scavs are constantly on alert.

[@houghwhite411]

That's probably coming with battle stance update. Right now we don't have mechanics for lowering weapons

[@SpeedyMckeezy]

They also need to add going passive for player scavs, otherwise it'd be well known that most scavs that are constantly moving are also players.

[@comradesillyotter1537]

Also be cool if they're just up to bull shit at that time. Laughing at jokes. Sitting or something

[@disguisedskull5368]

I both agree and disagree. Passive state won't fit the game world at all, in the state it's in now. No way someone would'nt be combat ready in a area of military conflict if you are on patrol or scavaging for reasources. I can see a passive stance being implemented, but then they need to go out of if. The second they hear gunshots, even if they're far away.

[@markesssssss]

@@houghwhite411 Is this feature actually planned? I've wanted that for the longest time since I've seen the feature in other tactical shooters and it would make so much sense to have different battle stances in Tarkov

[@nekomancer4641]

I've been saying for years that the Tarkov AI needs a complete rework instead of just simply buffing their reaction time and accuracy!

[@yourfriendlysniper5g140]

i agree, have you played stalker? if so how awesome was that game and its different interactions and just stuff going on in general, would be awesome to see them dig more into the ai and their intractability.

[@Sabrelake_Corp]

@@yourfriendlysniper5g140 I wanna see scavs around a campfire playing "Soldat" on an acoustic so bad

[@trasher84]

tarkov AI is straight up cyberpunk level

[@forknife326]

@@trasher84 Not going to lie, Cyberpunks AI is better than tarkov. Tarkov people are either being stupid or absolutely smacking with inhuman reaction time. I hope one day this changes

[@trasher84]

@@forknife326 u mean tarkov players or bsg, and yeah i agree although i havent even played cyberpunk

[@manatanks]

This is exactly what I expected. Seeing the perspective of someone who played this game for so long unveils a lot of things that aren't immediately noticeable or you even begin to consider addressing. It's almost like we completely forgot that the game is striving to be realistic and we're numb to what isn't and just say "it is what it is" and just play it regardless of where and how it's going. Given that the game is still labeled as a beta and made in progress I wouldn't have touched this topic with a 10 feet pole out of fear that I'd just be stating the obvious. Props to you for giving the right criticism and proposing solutions.

[@ruipinho619]

Well said!

[@StayFractalesque]

thing is, the AI has been taking a turn for the worse recently.. I feel like during the Halloween event, they made some changes to AI that were awesome, more voice lines and combat manuevers, including peeking corners while crouched and drop shotting .. but it seems they broke something when they added the new code.. teleporting from prone to standing, shooting weapons with high accuracy at full sprint and not ADS'd .. not to mention, scavs also have no inertia, no weapon malfunctions, and never run out of ammo.. they can remedy these things and still make the game a challenge, but honestly, immersion is far more important than the game just being Hard for Difficultys sake.. nothing worse than a game that's only difficult because the game cheats and not because of clever and robust dynamic systems interacting and creating unique situations in procedural ways.. I hope this is all just Unity 19 growing pains because ever since the migration it's like we're playing the game from 3-4 patches ago.. they aren't updating their game correctly if code simply reverts like a bandaid being ripped off..

[@MediumIRL]

BSG are more concerned currently with player progression through the wipe rather than how good the A.I is. If they work on making the Rogues more realistic then players like 2Thy trey24K and Tigz are all gonna be so bored with billions in their stash because they can just exploit the ai like any good player will be able to. I don't know about you but I would much rather a balanced economy than a.i that is ultimately easier to kill, in the context of multiplayer games its so much more difficult to just "make a more realistic ai" because it can completely ruin the experience in other ways and thats not even mentioning the thousands of hours it takes to reprogram behaviour trees to use Interfaces on an engine that was not really optimised for this sort of thing.

[@YobanesCR]

@@StayFractalesque i share your opinion

[@BlackVirtue]

Hey, a guy with 2k hours here and I say that this whole video is silly. Thinking people who actually came up with the idea of the game and scavs, and actually implemented all of that shit don't to have good sense and imagination and really lack advice from some nerd gamer who likes to overexplain shit is pretty arrogant and stupid. The problem is not the lack of vision, ideas, basic imagination or intellect. The problem is work hours, computing power and net-code.

[@VeritasGames]

Did you learn anything new from this video, or maybe get a different perspective you hadn't thought of before?

[@TurboChad2423]

Learned a ton, really informative and interesting as usual

[@MrOGFishStick]

*cough cough* new *cough cough*

[@bryangoodwin6579]

Excellent video essay on AI and how it applies to EFT. I never thought about AI goals, only that these scavengers should not have military knowledge and skills. Also my wife just left a well paying job to pursue a high risk entrepreneurial job as well. Good luck to you!

[@crstalli]

Perspective is the same, though thoughts much more organized with more details and examples. Got a good feel about what I need to learn more about. I wish you went over all the aspects of perception. Like why are scavs just chilling right next to a burning gas station, or chilling in a bathroom in factory all raid.., (smell). intertia and weight, temperature, footwear (Touch). Taste could make them do random things like vomit from chugging vodka. One thing I didn't remember was if; memory, instinct and intuition was covered explicitly. I know you covered this by the "same rules" topic, buy what about how they just appear at points in the raid? The should be there but just maybe not in their typical spots: sleeping, moving to that place, etc. All in all excellent work Veritas.

[@MisterBoat1]

Great video, thank you. I really appreciated the detailed reflection you gave on the fundamental premise that the NPCs need to have plausible goals given who they are, the resources they have, and the situation they are in. I always thought that the scavs, as a faction, are shortsold as mobs. But really; they’re Tarkov. It’s their city. Out of stubborness or greed or desperation, they are the locals who stayed behind. They may be hungry, disorganized, out of shape, poorly equipped, and decades past their time as conscripts. But it’s their neighborhood; paying attention to the what the scavs are doing, where they go and where they avoid, where they look and where they loot should be an important way for a PMC from some other part of russia, or a foreign mercenary, to learn about where they are. So I really liked it when you pointed out that the scavs are a huge opportunity for environmental storytelling with both atmospheric and gameplay relevance.

[@Kontroll343]

One thing that I feel is missed is that after AI finishes it's "objective/s" it should attempt to leave the location through an exfil location. There is a mod for Stalker Anomoly that cause AI to patrol and migrate through the entire world just like this. Having some AI set up camps and some passing through a location, alone or in groups even up to 10 would create even more of a sense of the fact that Tarkov is a real living world. Especially bosses for events. Reshalla could be running weapons through the landscape from customs to lighthouse and could be moving between all the different maps in between, moving from one extract to another on the other side of the map with his entourage.

[@Josh-fh5ox]

Probably best would be to have predefined locations they can hunker down and defend, and wait for everything to blow over. Turning small small buildings into fortresses, once they are content with their own, or their groups supply of food, water, meds, weaponry. I don’t agree that scavs should be useless as suggested in this video. Those that survived in Tarkov for raid start obviously have half a brain. Those that spawn in late game are those that are really quite smart, don’t forget some USEC, BEARS, and ex russian military will be sprinkeld in. Some should be useless though.

[@keegans.969]

@@Josh-fh5ox And backstabbing scavs. One would certainly have those. In a city where anything can happen and it's a constant struggle to survive, there would be a certain benefit from betrayal. You'd have to be careful of course, and some would be certainly against it, but it would still be a thing. I'd say about... 25% of scavs you come across on the field would be backstabbing.

[@pakekify1799]

@@keegans.969 1/4 scavs shooting at you for no reason would be terrible. I think that it should be a lower chance based on scav rep and also the total worth of your gear. For example, if you killed a few chads and you have really good gear or expensive items, a scav is more likely to backstab you. With that said, I'm not so sure about a random mechanic in the game like that.

[@keegans.969]

@@pakekify1799 Honestly, I can see that. That's likely a very good idea. You could also give each one "personalities" for how they would behave, but I like this one more.

[@Talishar]

@@Josh-fh5ox The scavs should be nearly useless in combat though. These are regular civilians turned scavengers. They can defend themselves when cornered, but when the gunfire starts, they should be trying to be making themselves scarce or hide to at the least, ambush a PMC that got too close. The scavs that are ex-military or PMCs are raiders or working as guards for bosses or bosses themselves. Realistically IRL, players shouldn't be seeking firefights either unless they have a massive advantage. To change player behavior, the medical system needs to be heavily redone to not allow easy fixes but this would require a complete AI combat overhaul to fix them from being intermittent terminators.

[@MamaGrell1992]

Honestly this really makes me think to my times playing stalker, including Anomaly. The AI while can be buggy, dynamically roam around, complete their own tasks, get into fights with other factions, and use actual tactics such as flanking and suppressing fire. It almost makes me think about how much cooler lighthouse could be if the AI in Tarkov was like that. What if some raids you came across a band of scavs harassing one of the groups of rogues, or a patrol of rogues was wandering around, gathering supplies for their base and getting into fights with scavs as they did so. There is so much potential there and it would further ad to unique raids as they continue to add more AI factions to the game.

[@ScavsAteMyLegs]

Inb4 Reshala and the boys gain sentience

[@houghwhite411]

Dude, reshala guard totally moves like how player does, pretty creppy

[@LeaveMeDead]

Surprising ending, didn't expect that. Hope Nikita & the boys come through on this, thanks for the video as usual Veritas

[@1tzkilla_]

This is so under rated its unbelievable, i feel like people shit on you because they dont grasp the full context of what you talk about or appreciate the knowledge you can bring from an analytical point of view. People think youre being condescending but to me its more like your the canary in the coal mine saying “hey, there are serious cracks and if we just keep putting bandaids on the problem, when we get too deep and it collapses were all fucked”

[@strahaironscale571]

people who shit on him do so because they realize Veritas is brilliant and they are not. It is that easy.

[@woodypride1750]

I know I'm late to the party, but I love the long form content. I don't always agree with your viewpoints, but I have no doubt that you make yourself very knowledgeable about a subject before taking a strong stance and I have a great respect for that. You being optimistic about the future of Tarkov gives me optimism as well.

[@baron7562]

Been hearing about this in PogCast. Cant wait to see another glorious masterpiece!

[@Dova416]

Absolute banger of a video, I can't stress enough how happy I am to have you as part of the community for this game and how much of your time you dedicate to it to make it better every day. Big love and keep at it

[@macstrong3106]

No wonder Veritas has been so ornery about tarkov on the podcast, he’s completely been immersed in EFT’s biggest flaw for 2 weeks.

[@VeritasGames]

Underrated comment tbh

[@InTake]

that idea of scavs sitting around and such sounds amazing. It would be funny, cool to surprise, interesting dynamic with tasks or just interactions as a whole

[@forknife326]

This video really nailed most of the major problems with tarkov's AI. I hope one day we can see a game like this

[@ze9h]

Amazing work brother! Someone trying to learn and better themselves rather than complain and not off a solution. Truly sets you apart. Thank you for taking the time to dumb it down and explain it to the masses. You’re awesome!

[@misko933]

Always great to see more solutions and advice for problems that BSG encounters in their game. Videos like this are gold and should be pointed out to BSG. There is no toxicity, there is no unnecessary comments or discussions, even though It's 1 hour long, its 1 hour straight to the core of the problem we currently have with AI in Tarkov. Every bit of this video is probably very helpful for BSG devs as well as Nikita. I really hope they see this, especially Nick who you talked to for 2 hours out of nowhere. If he could do that I'm sure he couldn't wait for you to release this video for a good reason. Everything here is logically and chronologically well explained and pointed out, we all appreciate your devotion and your hard work V, amazing job and keep it up. We love you and your videos!

[@Talmarn]

There is so much about this discussion that rings true for so many games, not just Tarkov. Thank you for taking the time to present such a challenging issue in such a succinct video. Will share this video around for sure.

[@user-co9jo2mm6n]

You are a gem, V!!! Thank you very much for yet another one entertaining video, filled to the brim with carefully structured and prepared for easy digestion knowledge! All the best in any and every future endeavours! Looking forward to it!

[@bayze2449]

Veritas, great video man. Learned so much and so excited for the future of Tarkov if they implement some of this stuff you mentioned. Look forward to the next video.

[@NautiOG]

Thank you! The quality & thought you inject into your work is second to none. I’ve learned more about video games from a handful of your videos than anyone else on YT. Your ability to take complex topics & break them down into bite sized nuggets of goodness is much appreciated. 👍

[@elderhickory0776]

Bravo man :) bravo. This video is a prime example of a content creator who actually not only cares about the game and his viewers but Himself too. I find that in content these days creators tend to really try and make about either the game they talk about or the viewers. More relevant to the conversation I thought about an idea which may have a completely easier way to debunk. What if you used a neural network to sample a large set of players games. Not in the form of video but in the actual game itself. Now of course this just a hypothetical. I am curious tho what would this achieve. Assuming the neural network has all the information of the game and how the players react to the game. From there it would start to learn things audio is important and how loud that audio has to be before a player reacts. This is just an example of my hypothetical AI. Once again thank you for the video. You are blessing to this community.

[@VeritasGames]

I've thought about this a bunch and honestly don't think any sort of ML or neural network makes sense in the context of scav behavior. My gut tells me it would obfuscate their decision making process even more for players and be harder to debug. I'm definitely open to having my mind changed on this though!

[@elderhickory0776]

@@VeritasGames actually I think you are correct I’m about the bugs. I’m still thinking about the neural network and what goal it is trying to achieve which I think is “how do you make the A i more player like.” Which I think now isn’t the answer. The problem with neural network; is that no matter how big the sample size there will always be a bias in the ai. Meaning that even at the end of the day you may create and Ai that plays like i human but for example they won’t voip like a player scav. Which would definitely be a problem in the sample size cause it might learn that standing on the other side of wall and pressing the voip key a couple of times might get it out of trouble. This is a single example of an bias in the sample size. So I think you are correct in the video by instead trying to make the Ai more player like make them more scav like.

[@bobdobsin6216]

@@VeritasGames I could be wrong, but I think TF2 bots were put together from an agglomeration of player data. I don't know if it was using a neural network. It was interesting because when I last played, years ago, they would look at me and wiggle like players would, but their decision making was still horrendous. If somebody knows more about the TF2 bot AI, please correct me. I'd love to know more.

[@conker4311]

As always, an amazing, detailed and insightful video. Looking forward to the next one.

[@jackferguson7618]

Gonna be honest, I forgot this was a tarkov video until after the intro. Simply entranced and engaged with the ideas of good AI. Great video as always

[@petard100]

This is so well explained and detailed! Im definitely not gonna see games the same way at all now that you pointed out all those little details i would have never thought of.

[@MrGochira]

Imagine a 2 phase killa, he slow walks around just generally being terrifying but if you zero out or significantly damage his armor he ditches the armor and behaves Luke he does now sprint sliding around corners and moving at Olympic sprinter speeds

[@tropical95]

no other words (or much to many) are left in my mind after watching this, other than: Much love! And the madest fo respect for what you do and did right there. Keep doing what you do and "keep being" who you are, and I will always be entertained and gladly listening to you in awe of the knowledge I might be able to gain through your content. I wish you all the very best that can happen to a man, as noble as you are

[@mcmatrix58]

Wow! V, You are going from strength to strength with these excellent vids... intelligent, well argued and obviously very well researched. Really appreciate such high value content. Well done yet again!

[@ThePoisonchicken]

Good job on this essay Veritas the quality of your work has yet again blown my mind!

[@CrossBreedTacoHD]

Yeah, the "Superhuman" additions to the NPCs that artificially increase their difficulty annoys me quite a bit. Like why is this scav able to drop to the ground at mach 10 and then stand back up at mach 20 and then crouch shot your face at mach 30? And that's just mentioning one aspect of their bizarre movement. Never mind other forms of movement, their health pools, their aim, their overall awareness that peaks from new born baby to John fucking Wick, and lets not forget the NPC's greatest ally....Desync. Their difficulty should come from their numbers in my opinion. Which brings me to what I would most like to see from an overall balance change. MORE NPCS.

[@glaiydan]

tarkov is laggy enough tbh lol

[@disguisedskull5368]

@@glaiydan laggy? its desync, but its not lagging. sounds like you need a pc upgrade. It runs perfect at 100+ fps with 32gb ram 2060 ti, i9-9900k at 5.2 ghz, game is on a M.2 ssd

[@egeerdemsitepr0]

@@disguisedskull5368 Lol that's a really good computer and tarkov's required system requirements are stated miles down that. Not everyone has enough money or opportunity to buy a computer like that and the game should run perfect with a mid-upper level pc since the developers say that. The game is just unoptimized as shit.

[@glaiydan]

​@@disguisedskull5368 First of all, expecting everybody who plays tarkov to be on a beast of a PC is ridiculous. As for me I'm using an i7-12700k with a GTX 1080, 32gb of ram and I'm using an M.2 and the game still runs like shit on the larger maps with the AI amounts that we have now. Tarkov is a CPU intensive game, and it's because of the AI. Increasing the amount on top of what we already have will tank performance, let alone making them more complicated.

[@paparoach007]

@@disguisedskull5368 Too be fair though it's a mixture of desync, lag and it's not effectively optimized, not in the slightest. I've done quite a lot of performance tests with the graphics in Tarkov and us gamers will know or should know that shadows is a huge performance taxer and I tested this at Ultra & High, the result I got was more FPS gains at the higher end of the spectrum than at the lower end, just using this as an example. I have a high-end PC (I won't type it all up it'd take me forever on my phone lol) there's rarely any games that would give me better performance on a heavy taxer like Shadows, SSR and HBAO etc.. there needs to be a significant change in Tarkov's engine for sure.

[@snoogie2k]

Again another awesome video Veritas! Breaking down the problems, analyzing with sharp skill and explaining everything to the viewer so the observations line up with the conclusions -> brilliant. Thank you for this awesome series!

[@caged3249]

Veritas videos are always some of the best Tarkov related content. Awesome deep dive & looking forward to the excerpts of the conversation with Nikita

[@goodspeedko1]

Commenting for the algs but also excited to see the interview coming soon.

[@darksangel56]

Incredible video. Thanks for all of your research and thoughtful feedback. I really enjoyed hearing your perspective.

[@AnthonyTLKR]

Extremely happy to hear that Nikita is on the same page with the concepts. One of my biggest gripes with Tarkov has always been the AI, I’m excited to see what the future of Tarkov is as we near closer to 1.0, I’m taking a much needed break from this wipe and I’m hoping to jump back in sometime soon, but I don’t want my mind set to ruin the experience when getting “Tarkov’d”

[@thefrankyb]

Excellent content. Thank you so much for taking the time to create these interesting essays and educating me on so many different things. SO happy to be a part of this community, working with Pest and the player base to make this game as great as it has the potential to be

[@TheBen9701]

Great video! Thanks for vocalizing everything in it as well since I like to listen on my headphones at work instead of watch

[@Zeraphor]

I love your in depth high quality videos, I wish more influencers put out your quality type of content.

[@LumpyPancakes]

Very interested to hear that interview! Really cool that Nikita decided to talk about this openly

[@capthill9694]

This makes so much sense and the way you broke it down is just brilliant. Keep up the great work bro. I enjoyed the whole video.

[@chrisw6076]

More just commenting to contribute to the algorithm but it was a fascinating watch, your passion for this game and your choice of changing careers to do what you love is admirable. I'm excited to start listening to the interview with Nikita right now

[@Flacoon1]

I hope Nikita is taking this video serious. And I love the fact, that Tarkov is in a state, that the AI is now one of the worst things in it. (It always has been, but the game made a huge step in de right direction in the laste few months - the AI hasn’t)

[@2e826]

Nikita ain’t watching a 80 minute video boss

[@GoodRNG]

@@2e826 yeah I doubt he’s taking notes on the opinions of gamers/streamers as it relates to game and in-game AI development

[@paparoach007]

@@GoodRNG I vaguely remember Nikita talking about listening to players and streamers in a podcast last year with Pestily and some other streamers (sadly I forgot there names) but Nikita most certainly does listen to his audience if they have constructive criticism & feedback and not blatantly complaining about the game. Veritas has no bias or straight up negativity about BSG and Nikita, he just wants the game to be the best that it can be and I think more people in the Tarkov community need that kind of attitude, that's my opinion anyway.

[@nailz420]

Did you watch this video to the end? Veritas had a 2+ hour conversation with Nikita on AI after this video was made, which I am sure covered most of the topics in this video.

[@Flacoon1]

Wrote this before the video aired.

[@witpickles]

Absolutely loved this video, big ups Veritas. I can't imagine how much work you put into this. An absolute masterpiece. I very rarely sit and watch anything on KZbin without other distractions. I did this video and was completely enthralled.

[@firedirewolf]

This is a good outlook and I like the ending with Nikita and so much to look into other games futures

[@vincemanley9001]

Veritas again demonstrating he has an industry-leading understanding of development and long form creative projects. The passion always comes through in these videos, and I really believe he acts as a beacon for the moving target that EFT seems to be.

[@joetriccas]

Love your work here. You earned my sub. I’ve also a background in software development and love how well you communicate the challenges of constraints. Nikita and the BSG team have done an absolutely incredible job and it looks as if things are only going to get better

[@frankfochtman4800]

Amazing video. Quality, the way you put things in bite size pieces, and everything is perfectly measured. Keep up the good work.

[@Ryukushin]

Fantastic video, loved the editing! It felt personnel and clean

[@leohoudry1136]

That's fantastic work V ! Thank you mate for this really great video ! ❤❤❤

[@scrpnsting8276]

Probably the most in depth video on AI and how they should and do react. Great job.

[@Christian-wi6hn]

Fantastic video, I appreciate all of the effort and thought to make truly quality content.

[@RangerColinLZ]

Fantastic work as always! I love these long form videos

[@77702935]

Thanks for shinning some light to this subject and educating us about it

[@michaeldwyer3466]

Veritas, Thanks for putting out a long, long video on an issue that bugs me quite frequently. I truly appreciate the effort that goes into such a long and thoughtful video.

[@deurikin2466]

STALKER's A-Life is in my opinion the goal anyone should have when making AI. its astounding how good it is, yet can still be perfected.

[@Montgumerz]

I think Tarkov's immersion would greatly benefit from A.I actually utilizing the Some other voice lines already in the game, instead of just screaming "I SEE THE ENEMY" or "cheeki Breeki". I wanna walk up on scavs having conversations, hear the battle chatter of raiders and rouges, flanking and suppressing my last know position. Tarkov is only geeting better with time. Great video my man

[@Myshowbro]

This content was amazing so well put together and thought through my advice would be don't get discouraged and burnt out you have top tier content my friend

[@morrowmorrow4811]

Amazing work, V. Such a well talked through and thorough video. Watched the whole way through and right there with you. Hopefully a lot of the stuff you talked about/suggested ends up getting implemented in the near future. Tarkov would be so, so much more than it already is. Fingers crossed! Thanks for the work you do.

[@arattactician5697]

Love these in-depth videos, they are super fascinating to listen to and learn from, not only that but these get me super excited and really thinking about all the possibilities and the potential the game has, especially regarding the NPCs. These kinds of videos are definitely the ones that I enjoy consuming the most, they're not just entertaining in their own right but heavily informative too. You're easily up there with Smarter Everyday and Stuff Made Here, at least for me. Thanks for making these videos and for all the effort you put in to make sure a smooth brain like me can follow along!

[@eyecheech]

Another incredible video man! The amount stuff I've learned from your videos and stream is insane, and half of it's not even about to tarkov. You literally make learning fun, keep up the amazing work !

[@Hawkinsowo]

Man! I watched the end and it shocked me how little I knew. Now I look at the whole AI in Tarkov quite differently. Thank you very much! You opened my eyes.

[@Birnasuc]

Very nice to hear that you talk with Nikita and that he cares about this stuff!

[@iodred]

After seeing numerous bits and pieces of this video teased on the stream I was so excited about it, and now that I've sat here for an hour, I have to say it was rightly so. Amazingly well done and well worded. Even though I may agree on some points more and some less, this has definitely been a very well put-together essay about the state of the Tarkov A.I., what it could be, as well as very uniquely educating experience even as a programmer with experience, and I would hope, even more so for people who are not. If it was one thing I would give 10 stars to for this video it would be the perspective and how you managed to cover virtually all the bases in such a (relative to the hours of research it took you or would take someone) short amount of time. Also the part with the interview with Nikita was a complete surprise, and honestly a very welcome one, it actually put a grin on my face. Thanks for putting in all the effort, love the content, and keep doing what you do. Cheers V

[@hjordinl1936]

Must say i really love your vids with these deepdives cus i can always learn something from it.

[@larssarbkkristiansen5665]

Phenomenal video Veritas. Well thought out and executed. As it turns out things are always more complex than they first appear. I also learnt a great deal about video game AI through watching your video.

[@tobyzieglerrr]

Incredible work. There is soo much to say but i'll leave it at Thank You!

[@mikhaillopez8731]

Very good man. I was informed at something I noticed, but did not speak about. I too have encouragement thanks to your video and the upbringing meeting you had with Nikita. I enjoy this game, and attention to detail with bosses, scavs, etc. are much needed. Great video, and I hope BSG sees it. You are doing great for our Tarkov community.

[@Tarducks]

Great video man! Always has such a professional touch!

[@hiTocopter]

This is the best essay you've made so far. Well said!

[@whisk3yriv3r41]

Honestly Veritas I would thoroughly enjoy a rundown of ALL the bosses and how you think they could each have unique traits. I mean by face value most of us could but I loved the format and points made for Killa and Tagilla. Overall love this breakdown, scavs this wipe had me sort of burnt out more so than the pmcs on the map.

[@BlackOpsHR]

This is exactly what the game needs, scavs currently don't fill much of a role at all, if anything they are only annoying with predictable spawn locations. If they could be anywhere on the map doing something that fits it would add such a dynamic to the game...

[@nagydeak]

V! love these vids. thanks for going into this admittedly little understood topic.

[@starp6650]

Just finished the entire video! That was awesome, pure good, informative, gold and incredibly done video, comparing games, explaining AI, Awareness, i can't even remember everything, but i loved the video and i'm for sure gonna watch it a lot of times in the future, i'll try my best to do something people like and be like nikita, who goes out of his way to keep the community informed and know what is happening. I hope my horror game with a single Enemy AI, that terrifies you and the other friendly AI's, can be so good, you can make a video out of it!

[@prestonlyle]

damn, as always your longer videos are amazing. keep up the great work my dude

[@everythingexplained]

First time viewer and I really liked your delve into game AI dev. Fascinating Splinter Cell GDC talk. Really glad I'm just a backend and DB dev. Looking forward to seeing your interview with Nikita.

[@ridearocket]

Nicely done! High hopes for the devs to pull through and bring this game to its full potential

[@AngryChris9215]

Great video. Your content is very in depth and insightful. Thanks for being in the world!

[@lwwarren]

I've re-watched this video 3 times and I keep finding info and nuance that I missed the previous watching.

[@Winasaurus]

I remember the "different animations to show expertise thing" when I first saw it properly in MW2019. Instead of the previous games, where Sleight of Hand makes you play the reload animation but just faster, it's typically a significantly different animation that shows more experience with the weapon. Using the slide release instead of manually racking, tipping the shotgun over to load shells easier than holding it up with one hand and lifting the shells upwards, and with the belt-fed LMGs, clearly significantly more practice, because the original reloads would have the belt needing adjustment, and the box slapping into place, and having to hold the whole weapon differently. But the sleight of hand reloads were clearly of a much more experienced shooter.

[@Nacalal]

The way you described the issues with a lot of solutions and how people come about them is something I've noticed in a LOT of places. I've heard a few people refer to it as "fixing the symptom to ignore the problem".

[@esparttt]

In reference to the Killa balance, its actually not too difficult to full sprint with a Maska, plates, and a gun, as someone who's done that. Also considering Killa used to be an athlete, mobility seems like a good part to make him a solid fearsome boss. The Maska in real life also isn't that bad to see out of at things ~15m-20m away, though any distance before that is irrefutably bad. There's also the fact that a cheek-weld is impossible with the face shield down. The main thing that makes the Maska awful indoors, though, is the lack of the ability to turn quickly and to check corners effectively. A full head turn, and more often, a full body turn is needed to actually see the scope of a room, and trying to turn in the full kit isn't as easy as running in a line. Killa's downfall in this newer vision model could be his awful peripherals and the lack of an ability to properly aim down sights. At medium to long-range, while a cheek-weld ADS isn't really an option, you could definitely pull off a more focused version of the forward-ready. Not accurate by marksmanship standards, but a tight enough grouping that you can pin someone down. At close-range, however, that forward-ready is too directional to realistically be able to turn and track a close target with, instead having to adapt a true Rambo-like hip-fire. Completely inaccurate by any measure other than pure firepower, and nothing but lethal straight ahead. I would say it's fully within the realm of reality that under 5m of him you could be able to literally run out of his field of view before he could turn to catch-up. A scenario that would be realistic would be lets say you break line of sight to heal by running into a room and crouching in a near corner. He could run in to look for you, and unless he were to angle his body down and towards the corner near the door, along with his head doing the same, you would be completely invisible to him. Then when he advances into the room to clear it you could use that moment to escape or to ambush him. Killa would be semi-similar to the proposed Tagilla change. Instead of keeping distance with him, and having him play a game of frogger in order to get closer to you, you essentially would have to bait Killa into getting too close to you by breaking sight-lines forcing him to reposition. The Tagilla idea is great though. That sounds amazing having him be silent stalker type. I can imagine how iconic the Tagilla-jumpscare would be, it would probably turn into a write-of-passage for new player to shit their pants at suddenly being ambushed by a faceless maniac faster than you wielding a hammer.

[@tamelessGG]

Great work! enjoyed the whole thing, learnt alot to.

[@stephenhowe1677]

Another great video. I appreciate the effort you must put into conveying a not so simple concept to everyone in a way that can be understood and also be entertaining. Listening to this vid made me want to immediately spam all my ideas for Tarkov Ai but that prob wouldn’t do much. Hopefully some changes do come soon. Even simple things like inputting specific reasons for certain ai to be in certain parts of the map, how alert they are, what are they attempting to achieve, and then obviously adjusting all the combat specific touches you mentioned as a far as having awareness and gun skill limitations that players have to deal with, would go a long way. Kudos again for a great vid.

[@ChrisShanks2709]

As always a very well put together and well presented video

[@matthewlozy1140]

Well done, I came from your 3 hour Tarkov audio video and can clearly see a pattern here. You talk about topics and lay out information and examples really well. I have to admit being a new Tarkov player it is kind of discouraging hearing all the ways Tarkov can be better. It kind of hurts my view of it, however seeing the ending I am hopeful and excited. I love Tarkov, it's a really amazing game and I can't wait to see how it continues to evolve. I agree with you on all points, the AI can not only be better but be really immersive and add so much more to the experience.

[@ranulfwulfric6595]

Thank you, that was informative and very interesting to watch. I agree with a lot of what was presented.

[@chuck_stones]

Absolutely awesome content, once again. I think your getting Tarkoved series has been one of the most enjoyable things I've watched in recent years on KZbin. I love how considered, researched and well presented your theories and arguments are and the fact that you propose meaningful suggestions for improvement. These videos deserve way more views and the entire Tarkov community would benefit if more of it had the understanding of the game that you do from making these. You're awesome dude, keep up the great work!

[@peterweaver326]

really great content. Always eye opening and very well put together

[@thechikage1091]

Absolutely incredible video once again- super inspiring motivations and perspectives always jump out at me when I watch one of these. Also, that Jesse clip during the terminator scav compilation at 41:24 is exactly something that happened to me playing last night- the scav one-tapped me as it sprinted around a corner. They definitely play by different rules.

[@rubberslugs3454]

awesome video and insight i have never stopped to notice

[@KCHUPSTUDIO]

they need to start taking data from player movement/action etc and use that information to implement a road map for scav ai to copy for each map

[@RedTheSniper]

Great work dude, this is defently a great topic, and i love the way you delivered it :)

[@hiramyoung1378]

Very well thought out man keep it up!

[@benjaminbreeg6214]

Opportunistic AI was my bane of existence in Anomaly, AI sneaking up on you when you're distracted before going full auto to make sure every bullet hits

[@NicholasLaRosa0496]

Great video. You clearly put a lot of thought into it.

[@Bl00dyImpact20]

Great video, as always Veritas! Love it.

[@baichuanren885]

Now that's some well researched and well produced content we all needed in EFT.

[@sigataros]

these are still the days of reshala merging with his guards, forming an ultra reshala

[@solarhawk77]

Informative video, and a wonderful twist ending. You made some fantastic points, and all I can say is... I agree. Making AI "feel" like players isn't the answer, but more about an immersive world where some roam and patrol, some are actively scavenging and looting, they all have some level of agency and motivation beyond simply YOU DIE and have a sense of self preservation. Thank you so much for the time you spent not just making this video, but the learning and formulating and research into it so that you could even have a meaningful conversation with Nikita.