Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - Suggestions and Feedback Specific AI Improvements thread

If you notice the AI doing something odd and against their own interest, note it here, and what they should be doing instead. For instance:

- If an enemy is going to follow-up Tactical Retreat with an attack, they should not retreat away beyond attack range. It just exhausts their AP when they run into range. It seems like they always retreat to maximum distance despite their next action (I could be wrong about that).

- I've seen many enemies attack a couple times, then, as their last action for the turn, apply buffs. If an enemy is going to apply buffs, they should do so before attacking.

- I've seen a few times where an enemy throws a grenade, but it doesn't quite make it to my characters, however it does hit other enemies (supposed friends of that guy). There might need to be a range check before tossing grenades to make sure it'll actually hit the intended target. Also, they should try to avoid hitting their allies in the blast.

- I've seen quite a few times where an enemy will go up a ladder, then immediately go back down the ladder. I have no idea why they do this, so I don't actually have a suggestion here. I'm just pointing out that they do that, and shouldn't.

Please contribute. I don't expect everything to get fixed, but maybe the devs will see something, and go "I bet I know why that's happening" and then fix it. Any improvement is an... improvement...

- I have seen Paladin Cork freezing himself with a Frost grenade to freeze the guy next to him.
- One of the mages in the huge boss fight, attacking with his fire element staff someone who it immune to fire thanks to Phoenix dive.

- Sometimes burning enemies are running through poison and oil to my characters, even if cost to avoid it is like 1 ap. I don't know if that suicide way of attacking was intended.

Now that you mention it, in Arena, we were playing a 4-team FFA with one AI team, and when one of the player's warriors was about to die, the AI was up, and it used its entire turn to attack the warrior with its wand, even though each attack healed the warrior. Warrior was back up to full health at the end of the AI's turn. The AI really needs to realize when something's not working to its benefit.

AI uses displacement abilities poorly, in particular, Tactical Retreat.
I have often seen enemies use Tactical Retreat as action 1, and use the rest of their points to run back in the direction they retreated from.
Obviously, they should retreat to the exact place they want to be, and use bow attacks for the rest, etc. Using all action points to end up in the same place is very silly.

AI will run large distances to avoid moving barrels in their way or barrels blocking ladders or stairs. Have them consider moving creates/barrels out of the way, when optimal.

Enemies behave very poorly with sneak. Enemies with grenades or Phoenix Dive have pinpoint accuracy to target stealthed players in range of them, even if they didn't see them move to that location.
Enemies without AoE will stand completely still as long as you sneak behind them after each turn.
For both situations, AI should perform the "searching" AI they use when someone is murdered near them, if they can't find anyone to attack.

Completely outmatched peasants will challenge a full party of level 8 players to a deathmatch over a stolen potato, if they catch you stealing, or you refuse a search. Perhaps they should just disapprove if you refuse their demands.

Some enemies do not react to being shot if done from far away.
Radeka will always allow you to shoot her repeatedly from full to dead with no reaction, if you do it from maximum range. She should turn hostile and search for the player to fight them.
Killing an enemy with Snipe should alert their friends to search for the killer and pull the player into combat, this is often does not occur.

Has anyone seen the AI use any combos?

For example, anything as simple as Fossil Strike then Fire?

It would be neat if they could do smart things like teleporting a player on top of his allies and then using an AoE spell on them all.

Perhaps none of the current enemies have the abilities for these kinds of things; but I haven't seen them doing them either, and it would be in their best interest to.

AI should not use abilities that only apply a status effect (that being they do not deal damage) on characters that have the appropriate armor remaining to block it. For instance, if I've got 1 magic armor, that's enough to block Decaying Touch, but the AI will still use it on me, even though it will have no effect.