**[PAID/CONTRACT] Looking For Developer To Create Advanced, Intelligent Combat Shooter NPC AI And Behaviors - UE 4.27**

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I’m Kami, the lead developer and founder of Simulated Minds LLC, a game studio focused on advanced AI NPCs, immersive combat-based sandbox/strategy games. We released a VR game called Plastic Battlegrounds that reached #4 Top Seller on the Meta Quest Store! We have a strong foundation and systems that run well on low end hardware as well as a solid team comprised of about eight members who have been working together for a long time.

I’m now looking for a developer who is as passionate about advanced combat NPC AI as I am to make AI that behaves intelligently in combat scenarios. For a very long time I have been fascinated by smart AI in games like FEAR, Stalker, Halo and many other games that have dynamic NPCs that can react to the player in ways that are unpredictable in every combat scenario and allow for incredibly emergent gameplay. Up until now I was the primary programmer for AI but due to having to manage the company and handle other urgent development work, I’m hoping to find a developer who is as excited as I am about intelligent AI NPC behavior.

AI features you may be working on:

  • AI that can flank enemies
  • Take cover out of sight when fired at
  • Coordinate assaults to attack simultaneously with their friendlies
  • AI that can operate in varied environments (since the game is a sandbox involving many different contexts) from open fields to indoor close range battles
  • Awareness: optimized perception system that can take into account their sight, sounds, etc
  • Suppress the enemy (full automatic) at their last seen location
  • Can panic and retreat or surrender if in an overwhelming situation
  • AI Director/AI Commander: can manage squads of AI to tackle objectives
  • Throw grenades if enemy is not visible or behind cover
  • Can take into consideration various conditions like: how much danger they are in, number of enemies relative to allies, and behave accordingly (be more aggressive or defensive)
  • Squad behaviors: can move in squads and tactically coordinate
  • Mounted vehicles and weapon systems such as mortars, artillery, wheeled military vehicles with turrets, aircraft

How we program our AI and Project Notes

  • It is done entirely in BP, although am open to C++ as long as it can easily be interfaced with within BP to allow designers and myself to modify it
  • We do not use Behavior Trees, EQS, character movement component, or any Unreal Engine AI tools in general because these systems have an inherent performance overhead
    • For example, AI in our game move using Find Path to Location Synchronously
  • The AI should perform optimally even in large numbers. This is meant to run on the Quest 2 which uses a mobile chipset. This is very important to maintain.
  • We work in UE 4.27, we are likely to stay in 4.27 due to the faster performance of UE4 and compatibility with various plugins we need for the game

Skills Preferred:

  • Someone who listens to feedback well and is open minded. Willing to collaborate closely to make great NPCs
  • Communicates consistently, with honesty, with regular reports and progress
  • Clean scalable code that is easily read and tweaked
  • Having VR is optional since the AI can be worked on without it, though it is nice to have to test fighting against them as a player

Bonus Questions: Include responses to these questions in your message for stronger consideration (answer some or all of them):

  1. What AI in games fascinates you most and why? Can include games I mentioned already.
  2. In general what makes you feel like you are best suited for this job?
  3. Choose one of the following questions to answer: From a high level, how would you approach:
    a. Making AI that can flank enemies
    b. Creating an AI director that can coordinate squads to attack an objective, for example capturing a fortified bunker
    c. Making soldier AI that is compelling and intelligent to players, what would players expect to see when fighting against them?

If interested, email us at:

Simulatedmindsinc@gmail.com
Include resume and portfolio of prior work if relevant.

Looking forward to talking with you, if we work together I would love to see us pushing the envelope with AI behaviors in games!

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Ambitious, I don’t think any game has mastered the AI complexity properly yet :slight_smile: . I’m not 24/7 into behavior trees, but I see your implementation is all custom so we can connect regardless :wink: .

I’m the creator of Road To The North, the mod for Stalker. (Seda145 is my personal acc), so I know a lot in general.

Seeing you already mentioned Stalker, I’m sure you know all about the AI system there. What I found most interesting about Stalker is that large environments are filled with creatures that can move from place to place simulated, but once they arrive in a sub environment (a bar, a cave) their AI are (conditionally, partially) controlled by the environment. “Hive Mind” (as you call it AI commander). Like people sitting down in the bar but getting up for combat. It was the simulated part that made the whole feel alife though.

The Stalker AI always had to be carefully adapted (see how mods differ), so that AI won’t grenade spam a location or see you at a long distance at night. Manual configuration isn’t “smart AI” but fine tuning leads to control and more interesting situations as well. Overcomplexity on the other side (trying to create one smart AI running all cases) doesn’t lead to great results.

The times AI got me in games was where I did not know beforehand what to expect. In Stalker I knew how to move or hide so that enemies of specific types would come closer or run past me. Once such details are known to a player, the AI stops feeling “smart”.

In other games, like Half Life 2, I’m pretty sure I saw enemies hide behind cover and just place their weapon on top of it to shoot at me, surprising me (of course, if they don’t do it 24/7!).

In The Last Of Us the characters around you would stop at places and interact with eachother (have talks, play darts or soccer, love it!). Overall I think it’s combat AI was OK as well. Squads would talk to each other and decide who walks where, and search for the enemy as a squad. At times the combat AI was clearly dumbed down, for example when someone in your party runs past them they are not heard or seen, simply because they would initiate combat all the time otherwise. That’s my one big complaint. (having played it 17 hours straight, then finish it 2 times more the next days).

What bothers me more is simply poor AI in successful games, like in the Cossacks series. OK, mostly caused by bugs (The same ones present in all of em, facepalm), the enemy AI would not even build walls to keep out my 400 hussars from running in and raiding… everything.

In your situation, from combat in large open areas to smaller indoor spaces, fine tuning per location is everything. I’d use a “hive mind” AI to collect and command environmental / squad / pawn stuff, yet leave fine tuning input to the environment itself (bit like stalker eh).

To clarify: Stuff in the environment beams up info to the environment controller (I am cover, I have 2 slots left where people can sit). The environment controller (an area) contains your fine tuning (play aggressive, 2 rush in, no grenades indoor, can use smoke here and there, etc. etc.), making the environment controller act different from the area elsewhere. Of the “hive mind” there’s just one above the environment controllers. Think of it as the commander playing cossacks that moves its squads around.

Already said I’m not 24/7 into AI but would love to discuss the stuff. Actually made a little plugin a while back that you might find useful. It’s a central system that collects information, + info listener components that automatically call functions for certain info combinations. It’s inspired by how Stalker uses “infoportion” data to manage its mission system and environmental AI per person.

Documentation - Plugin: Event Manager