“AI is one of the great challenges” says The Division dev

Executive producer on Ubi’s upcoming Tom Clancy title, The Division, Fredrik Rundqvist, has told ArabicGamers that getting the AI right is one of the hardest parts of development.

“AI is one of the great challenges for any developer. And it’s not just the logic itself, it’s often how it’s visualised that makes it believable or not. So you have to work with both the logic; the pure programming of the aspect, and also then how it’s visualised.”

Rundqvist said more considerations than just algorithms needed to be addressed and that it was the developers’ job to make sure the game was still challenging and realistic without it being too realistic.

“You need a lot of variety, you need a lot of different logical patterns, but what we’re proud of in The Division is that we created what we want to call a ‘dynamic, living world’.”

And it’s in that ‘dynamic, living world’ that all the AI works within. Rundqvist said, regardless of how and when you play, the AI will continue to progress in the background. The city, being alive, is always populated and that the events in the world aren’t necessarily triggered by your movement, but rather from the world itself.

So you have all these different factions that are also linked to time of day, weather, reacting differently to wildlife, to the civilians that are left in New York and to other factions. So even if you’re not around, it’s a living city and stuff happens. So if you turn a street corner, there’s already things going on. It’s not like you’re triggering something to start play as you move into a new street.”

This, says Rundqvist, allows you to change the way you play and what you experience in the game; “you kind of insert yourself in that world and you try to alter the toy box, or alter the world in a direction that’s good for you and your character.”

Earlier this week we heard about the way The Division was trying to break away from the traditional, linear RPG. You can find out more about that here.

Keep your eyes out for our full interview later next week.