GAIA powered AI

AI in Outcast

Artificial Intelligence is one area that Outcast developers attempt to address, claiming that it's an important game facet that is too often overlooked by 3D game designers. Indeed, with so much emphasis being placed on creating "gee-whiz" graphics these days you have to wonder how much the development cycle of an average 3D game is spent on AI. The developers of Outcast call their approach to AI Game Artificial Intelligence with Agents, or GAIA for short. GAIA allows for each character in the game to carry specific behaviors which can be triggered depending on what the character sees or hears.

Just like a polaroid shot

More scenery

Brandish a gun and a timid creature will turn tail and run, while an aggressive creature may become hostile in response. The behavior of NPCs can affect the behavior of other NPCs as well. A timid creature running in horror from an area may cause a mass panic of other timid creatures that see him, while the more courageous ones may run back in the same direction to see what is going on. There are also varying degrees of "emotion" in characters. If you do harm to one, they will remember for a time and refuse to help you, but eventually they can forget, or you can possibly redeem yourself by apologizing depending on how heinous a crime you committed.

Shot of the two moons

Talk interface

The AI in Outcast promises to make it a very open ended game in terms of how to solve problems. You can break into a guarded building by brute force - running at it with guns blazing. Or you can try to be sneaky by intercepting the guards' food/water shipments, which will eventually trigger the guards' hunger/thirst behavior as they wander away from their posts to find nourishment. This would allow you to sneak in without killing anyone.

Lookin' Good

Talking with the natives