Heroes of the Storm has already surprised at launch by having absent players replaced by bots playing for them. Now, the AI is getting an overhaul.
AI – an important part of the game
The artificial intelligence is necessary for many things in Heroes of the Storm. It determines how minions behave and how predictably bosses and mercenaries move. It is also fundamental for the behavior of bots – whether they are replacing a player in PvP or acting as opponents/allies in a match against the AI.
It is important that they truly live up to their name as “intelligence.” However, two things need to be considered:
- On one hand, minions and mercenaries need to be predictable so they do not become a random factor.
- On the other hand, bots must be able to “decide,” behaving like players. They should do the right thing at the right moment.
Blizzard is now working to improve exactly that. In particular, computer-controlled heroes should behave more realistically. They should act like players and have the same information as the team – without cheats!
What exactly will change?
Speed
- The AI should decide faster than before. More decisions can be made in a shorter time, allowing computer heroes to act a bit more fluidly. They use abilities more frequently and react faster to dangers. This even positively affects the frame rate.
Tactics
- Instead of mindlessly strolling into a group of enemies and being leisurely torn apart, bots now try to stay outside of danger zones. They no longer seem confused walking into the range of towers or enemies. Instead, they calculate where enemy groups are located and try to anticipate movements. At the same time, they optimize their attacks to fight as effectively as possible.
- The AI now also masters the so-called “stutter-step.” This means they move between two attacks to avoid falling victim to area attacks and thus optimize the cooldown for two (automatic) attacks.
Strategy
- Computer-controlled heroes will more often try to do the “right” thing. To this end, certain actions, such as capturing a mercenary camp or fulfilling an objective, will be assigned numerical values. This will calculate and maximize the winning chance of their team, leading to the final decision.
- Bots will also increasingly seek targets that are easy to defeat – like injured players who are alone and exposed in the wrong place. One will be ignored less often and is now more likely to be overrun if careless.
And how does this happen?
Blizzard has implemented an AI editor specifically for optimizing the AI to help developers transfer the improved intelligence to the heroes. Each hero gets their own adjustment to fit their respective playstyle. Behavior trees will determine each decision based on specific criteria.
The hero Garrosh has already been implemented with the improved AI, and more heroes are set to follow soon, so that eventually the entire hero roster will be “smarter.”
In addition to better AI, two new heroes and a new map are coming soon!
