MMORPG AI Improvements

* See also BioShock_MMORPG_Programming
* See also Player_Created_Asset_Collaboration_System and Player_Created_Assets
* See also Team AI
* See also Game_of_this_type_-_Difficulties
* See also Better_Combat
* See also %27Make_A_Better_Game%27_-_Andrew_Ryan
Artificial Intelligence : The theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages.
New MMORPG Games Need vastly improved Artificial Intelligence ( the perception and decision making operations of NPCs/denizens ) to move forward.
Solo games (like Infinite) can have situation specific programming for their static/choreographed scenes ( most of which is NOT AI at all - just quite limited scripting ).
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Quality Over Quantity :
Imagine if MANY game Opponents were each like a 'Boss' ...
Beating ONE opponent instead of 20 should be a challenge most of the time
Having more-Unique/more-varied Tactics/Weapons/Directed Minions, 
More complex interactions, Player having more impact on 'Story'
Settings ( most Bosses have 'Lairs' after all )
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The Touted 'AI' by Infinite BS Gamemakers :
It takes ALOT of complex scripting to make a NPC versatile in their reactions to the many things the Player might do ( and even more to coordinate several NPCs which react in concert ).
Various commentors on the Interwebs mention the game weirdness of having you sometimes filch stuff right in front of an NPC (ie- CASH register) and getting no reaction at all (dumb mannequins), yet getting INSTANT reaction in other places when the game plot desired it.
Even the 'much touted' Battleship Bay Beach Scene scripting ( 'mo scriptin than evah done befo !!!' ) were largely one-shot activations ( of meager dialog/monologue and/or some pretty animated action ) -- After which most of the NPCs stood like drooling morons having done their little spiel. Note - You are NOT allow use of a weapon at that point, nor to do anything more than walk around til you get to the one exit. It was simply that AI cannot handle much variation of the Players actions. Elizabeth's actions are similarly pre-canned/staged. THAT SIMPLY IS NOT really AI.
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Infinite BS Game SIDEKICK Elizabeth 'Staying-Out-Of-The-Way' Was An AI 'Improvement' ?? Hardly :
It was just Simple/Easy/Primitive NPC Enemy logic which just doesn't fire at her, and in the game mechanics, stray bullets/explosions are not to touch (or effect) her. That is NOT Artificial Intelligence. When the situation is choreographed (simply scripted) 'Canned' its even less. REAL intelligent behavior ( some real gaming improvements ) might have been done ( and some proper reactive actions by here being made ), but sorry it wasn't. 
You cannot really point to much AI in Infinite BS ( which touted the alleged massive scripting of behavior so much in the interviews -- but that's NOT AI either ). All the enemy behavior relied mostly on their preset start positionings to then play out their limited repertoire of basic firefight moves. 
So what made Elizabeth special at all ? - She should have been endlessly shot at/hit and Plasmid zapped many times in this little walking-sim tour ( or just stray bullets/explosions trying to get Booker ). HAVING TO rescuing/safeguard your precious sidekick MIGHT have made the game more interesting. Hard Mode could have her walk blithely right into firefight zones. Leading her to a sheltered spot (and telling her to "STAY THERE" might have been a tactical consideration.
But no. Bullets/flames/rockets flying EVERYWHERE and she doesn't get hit ... So it is all a delusion AFTER the Trans Orbital Lobotomy ... ( Struck by just one bullet, a shriek at the shock of impact and fiery pain -- life's blood flowing freely out and her knowledge that this is death looming upon one. Booker just shaking his head saying " Bullets can kill you, girl. They didn't teach you that in those fancy books ?? Well, them Luteces didn't say I had to deliver you ALIVE ( or did they ). " ) 
That's AI ? NO. All just Hype. 
For the MMORPG It needs to be PROPER NPC AI.
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Infinite's Alleged Improved Script Behavior Programming was Largely Hype :
Oh yes, there probably WERE many thousand of lines of scripting ( and lots of time spent creating them ). That is what happens when even moderate NPC behaviors are largely custom hand-coded. Genericizing the scripts to be more efficient can take a great deal of work and design know-how, even for something as simple as those limited talking/dancing mannequins mini-scenes (You did notice how little they really did - Doing their little 'canned' spiel/action before you moved on to the next one.)
Unfortunately, versatile Player activities in games requires a great deal of capable scripting skill/ability and effort to make the situations more reactive, instead of just being just a pre-canned playback puppet show. The Much-Touted Battleship Bay experience itself wasn't all that much an achievement, as it consisted of small one-shot play vignettes, which left the NPCs standing about looking at you dumbly (a repeating animation) once they made their limited statements/movements they were programmed to make. With this general meagerness, besides you watching simple proximity-activated (and still too far-between) NPC puppet shows ( That's ALL the NPCs, not just Duke & Dimwit ), and voices remotely talking AT you, there is really little else to DO but Shoot or "Bin Dive" in the game.
The MMORPG will have 'magnitudes more' Multiplied amounts in powers of increase - X10, X100, X1000, etc... such 'scenes'. Implementing reuseable logic to cut down the huge scripting task would be a key element of the MMORPG.
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Programming of NPC Behavior For The MMORPG :
It is a Simulation - It is not Artificial Intelligence. It instead is a performance intended to give the Player(s) a sufficient Perception and Feeling of being in the that Rapture place and dealing with 'somewhat real' people/things.
There are always limitations, but major improvements can be made well beyond what current games are willing to do.
Attempts at consistency -  Players come to expect that 'things should work the same/normally' and one thing you do shouldn't have incredible amounts of detail and interactions, when others are barely a static 3-D 'Box' with a face texture on it just there to 'fill in'.
Things should behave and react the way they are expected to (so Players don't have to Double-Think everything, and the learning curve of game play will leverage real world 'X works like this' knowledge.)
DO you want to be able to take samples of the fluids from the Splicers Bleeding Gums ??  Uh no, is that important to the gameplay ?
In the Solo Games you are just passing through, and have the darkness and closed-off doors to hide the false walls, and to channel you between the few more detailed "canned" performances played out for you.
Tedium is not a replacement for adventure.  So lots of interesting stuff is the goal for a MMORPG where you will repeatedly go to many places and out into the wider 'wild' parts of the City.
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Opponents (NPCs) You Can Relate To :
It is interesting that they made (in BS1/BS2/DLC/BaSx) the Splicers mostly human ( compared to many of the concept art proposals, some of which were real horrors ). Thus they didn't go much for the Empathy/Sympathy angle possible there. The few times they get shown as being tragic figures didn't stop you from shooting them in the face. It being a 'Shooter' game, it was simpler to just have them attack you on sight, rather than also have some other interactive activities/behaviors -- like a more complicated 'running away' ( not that complicated actually to program ), or opponents you were given more ways to avoid. Most encounter situations were structured using an initial scene setting/placement/verbage, which then devolved into the "Scream and Run At You Murderously" standard NPC behavior.
 
In the MMORPG, far more complicated situations/behaviors can be encountered/explored. It does take a great deal of Effort, Skill, Imagination, Time, Planning and Coordination to significantly personalize/humanize Splicers. Asset Creating Players and Process could do that - to fill in the huge bulk of such detail which Solo games (and even most MMORPGs) just don't have.
In The MMORPG there will also be MANY non-opponent NPCs to interact with, which means that they have to be more versatile for all the additional interactions which would take place.
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Some Enemies Should Run Away In Fear :
It takes ALOT more intelligent scripting to have them run/dodge and hide or fling stuff at you in an attempt to get away ( or even TO HAVE a place to try to get away to ).
Unfortunately, MOST MMORPGs are organized like a shooting gallery, where the ducks are in a neat row there to be slaughtered with little effort/thought/skill. A standard one dimensional strategy is Activate->Run-at-player->Melee-til-Dead. It is highly repetitive and tedious and mindless.
With this MMORPG's Player Intent to be a bit more complex , with OTHER motives and actions beside killing everything in sight ( like wanting to Save Splicers ), it will take alot of that "intelligent scripting" to accomplish.
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NEEDED - Better Behavioral 'Scripting'  :
MMORPG to have 'Normal' NPCs which actually act intelligently instead of being the usual 'boring' repeating/pre-recorded mannequins (which you saw in Infinite BS, in most MMORPGs, etc..), or which didn't exist in BS1/BS2 except as psychotic killers doing mildly interesting things while fighting you.
Good believable behaviors take lots of work in game scripting ( that's why you didn't/don't see much of them ). That's why the Player Creation aspect of this game system could be a major advance -- a BULK of scripting for all kinds of things you don't find in commercial Games now because of their Cost.
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That lame Infinite BS Beach scene : Sorry, that's not 'intelligence' - Its simple activation by proximity.  They don't interact with the Player beyond a simplistic recorded (canned) player-viewed playback.  Most of the work was the unique animations and a little choreography -  nothing 'intelligent'.   IT might've been a bigger achievement if the ENTIRE game was consistently filled with equivalent actions/reactions. But they likely found just that one small 'walking sim' concentration of scripting TOO costly in effort to do across the whole game. ( It also would have been rather incongruous to have prattling and dancing NPCs, while Booker was 'shooting up' the place. )
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Typical MMORPG Opponent AI :
I've seen Dust Bunnies with more intelligent behavior than many of these games have for their NPCs.
They (Non-Player Opponents) often stand around (and don't move) out in the middle of nowhere, forever, in what is best described as a minefield pattern.  ( So many needed because 'Mass slaughter' of the few 'stupid' opponent types replaces having to program challenging AI-driven NPCs ).
Many Activate at a ridiculously close distance (even when (LOS) Line-of-sight perfect) as if they are blind (As well as stupid).  Some are like this because you can hardly go in a straight line and not hit one after just 15 seconds, so to allow moving across the vast terrains they had to trigger them at absurdly short range.
They Activate, but any adjacent (nearby) NPCs do not (when outside of Player activation range -- no  inter-communication, which if the NPC's move can at least allow a little tactics of waiting on enemy position and players picking a careful path past them).
Some games NPCs when they spotted you would make a beeline for you and would get stuck on scenery features (no pathfinding) and that became a loophole (saw one MMORPG was like that for YEARS until they finally fixed it ... really really pathetic).
NPC opponents who respawn again within a very short period, including LITERALLY right ontop of the player.  Combined with 'the NPC minefield' this means player often has their retreat path cut-off because the path already fought thru automatically gets repopulated within a very short while of engaging new opponent to the front (retreat and all you do is get more and more enemies after you so their is little possibility for 'tactical retreats').
Shots that go through corners and obstacles (worst when YOUR return shots/actions ARE blocked) - that is a simplistic hit box issue.  Clipping the scenery when moving and being stopped dead (instead of sliding or turned) - really annoying.  Similar are one-step-up terrain changes where you stop dead (supposedly an obstacle) when in other places (like stairs) you automatically can pass  much taller 'up steps'.
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Challenging NPCs (Smarter, More Versatile, More Interesting) :
Multi-Player in BS2 (real Players) gave you an idea closer to what real Splicers might be like to fight (but really NPCs cannot act that varied/imaginative in currently made games).    Many Players do not want to face such fast moving/reacting/tricky opponents in these mindless turkey-shoot/shooting-gallery/blast-fest type of game (you would die way too easily from competent opponents, over and over).   In such a game's "Hard" mode you would not have time for the puzzle solving aspect or the set piece trap-laying situations, as at any time you could be ambushed (forcing you to be very wary all the time).  That would detract from the sightseeing part of the game.   Many Players like a game with easy high body-count to prop up their self-esteem and feed their delusions, thinking is too much trouble.   More challenging also would mean more FAILS (save and load) another ego-deflater (and getting stuck can also get boring/repetitive).
For the MMORPG creating much tougher/tricky NPC Splicers would be a goal.  There still needs to be a difficulty spectrum setting because not all Players want so much continuous hazard (and they should often have the choice to avoid it).   So many less hectic/dangerous scenarios need to be provided to offer a wider range of play-styles.   Difficulties should be there for when the player feels like being challenged.
Players would also have more mechanisms/actions/strategies to counter/avoid the dangerous situations (simply getting sufficient warning to avoid them helps).   There should be alternate tactics, more ways to get things done - employing the players imagination.   Having a wider range of outcomes (versus the usual win or die) also would be interesting and lead to more varying consequences, which could be interesting to solve/adapt to.
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How To Allow NPCs to Act Smarter :
Server resources to be expanded for NPC AI - Much more processing (magnitudes) compared to you typical 'dumb NPC' MMORPG which has very simplistic scripting and NPC behavior. The detail level of behavior will have to interact with a more complicated 'world' (more interactive objects and terrain and other NPCs).
AI processing nodes (Server CPUs) will operate similarly to a Client node getting detailed information about an area and updates as NPCs and Players do actions and cause changes in that area. A Player Client usually gets alot of data about the area around the Player's avatar, in order to display it and have the Player interact with it.
The AI nodes would do similar, with each node controlling a local area (memory limits and complexity limits as to how large an area). Control of an area may be fluid, as Players moving around they cause the local AI to go into 'high gear' and then slow down to process in more abstract detail when there are no Players around to see it.
Player 'Team' NPCs may be able to be directed by AI running in a Player's Client machine (the GPU does most of the heavy lifting for the actual game, often leaving extra 'cores' largely idle much of the time). Team NPCs will need ALOT of smarts (processing), and if Client-based, may enable alot of optional modding and plug-ins. They also would take significant load off the central game Servers (the situation data is largely what is being sent to the Player already - so not excessively more network traffic would be needed). As I said, the NPC's AI will take ALOT of processing and utilizing the Players machines may greatly increase the whole system's AI capacity (equivalent to hundreds or thousands of Server machines).
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NPCs Acting More Like Players - How to Tell the Difference :
Actually you should have no problem because NPCs are driven by AI scripting that really has no life to it.
I had an idea that some sequences of Player actions might be recorded in a reasonably benign situation (like in The City Center), and then have a NPC mimic the same movements :
* Standing 'AFKAway From Keyboard - a Realtime multiplayer phrase and easy to type message to other players' for 15 minutes til they simulate being auto-logged off,
* Standing at the 'Bank' looking through inventory, which noone else sees.
* Standing next to several other NPCs in a private conversation oblivious to everything else
* Running around the terrain jumping over and off things, over and over and over.
* Suddenly doing some 'searching' animation action and then disappearing (Teleport to some 'milestone' spot to facilitate playing in large world - return to city/house/raid location )
* Dueling another NPC within a fairly small area and applying heals while having the stuffing beat out of them.
* Repeatedly using some skill, trying to up the skill ability level artificially.
* Running thru street to some transportation hub to go elsewhere without ever looking at or interacting with anything around them.
Hmmm, that is the list of things Players in today's MMORPGs do most of the time while logged on. I think we need to do better than that to shown interesting play activities.
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 NPC Daily Routines - 'Bristles, Not Too Hard and not Too Soft ...' : 
Toothbrush production in Rapture  (no more or far fewer ADAM dental therapies - it is back to brushing teeth and real dentistry).    Sand in the Kelp-burgers acts as an abrasive on teeth ...   Wooden dentures might make a comeback (Cohen used-up all the plaster needed for the dental molds).
Interesting aspect of 'The Cure' is a major element of reconstructing/repairing the original body USING ADAM before removing its influences.  So restoring original teeth ( since so many Splicers have poor remaining dentition after chewing on concrete walls ) likely would be part of The Cure.  You probably have to pull out the existing ones and use a Genetic Therapy to start new seed teeth which take a bit of time to grow proper (that's OK, fixing the brain damage takes at least that long).
Dandy Dental returns  (Medical Center never flooded, so go get those signs).  
Splicer Faction - The Sharks - with their teeth filed to points ....
Game mechanics for Player altering skills - Do we really need to have Players 'Brushing their Teeth' ? (or NPCs for that matter ?)    If some Player adds the required animations ( and then the scripting to have it done as background at the appropriate time/place ), WHY NOT have the NPCs employ such in their daily routines for a little more 'normal' detail (When would you witness this ? -- Most often might be your 'Team' NPCs).
Seeing Splicers doing it might make for some strange scene for the Player to come upon, but with strange substitutions.  Again the power of having generalized behavioral Templates - If you have it for one, you can have it for any other NPC (scripting to have them do it when appropriate and added where its wanted...)
New commercials :   '4 out of 5' Dentists endorse this chewing gum ...   (If there can be that many dentists remaining in  New Rapture)
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MMORPG Behavior of Splicers (and NPCs ) Would have to be more Complex/Comprehensive than what we've seen in BS1/BS2 :
* These simulated characters will have daily routines that they will 'play out' so that you will find them doing logical things and interacting with THEIR environment more realistically. Rapture is now an ecology which makes sense ( and can make sense to the Players so they know how to interact with it ). We had seen little choreographed scenes like this in BS1/BS2, but this would be magnitudes more common/general in the sandbox world of the MMORPG.
* They (NPCs) will have more motives and goals --- than to simply Spawn, Wander aimlessly, then scream and attack on sight (and die) - It got kinda boring. ( and No more Pheromone/PsychoRant driven 'protect the nest' signals, guidance from one Boss ). Smarter NPCs would pick their opportunities to attack or to retreat, to ambush, to steal, to lay traps, to sneak thru secret passages which THEY already know about - their territory. )
* They would sense things much further away (and if you make a racket - even further) and act appropriately. They would interact with each other and coordinate actions - and communicate between themselves ( some of them have radios, most remember how to use a phone, and certainly they can shout for help ). Isolated Splicers were so easy to fight, now you might have to deal with them AND their friends - especially when you don't handle things the smart way. Retreating from a Splicer horde will often be a wise maneuver for you (keep your 'Plan B' handy, and always keep an escape path in mind ).
* NPCs will make use of their environment. Splicers will use a wider range of objects and their environment against you (and each other). You will have to look harder for useful items, because the Splicers have already scrounged ahead of you -- THEY collect things too. So don't leave any equipment lying about because it might not be there when you turn your back for a moment.
* There will be a wider range of tactics and actions/cooperations to get various tasks done. There will be far more animations and usable objects (just like the Player has).
* The AI needs better coordination because 'friendly fire' is possible on both sides ( but not between non-associated Player and NPC 'Teams' to prevent 'Griefing' loopholes ).
* The same AI code that Splicers use will also be used by friendly NPCs (Citizens and your 'Team' ) ... Smarter NPCs all round (Again the Player Created Asset paradigm can Achieve having ALOT more 'smarts' added to the game which game companies simply cannot afford).
* Traps, things falling on you, locked doors and ambushes (defensive territory) -- this isn't you pappy's BioShock Rapture !!!
* I tried to do the 'Death From Above' maneuver on Stanley_Poole in the Train Station, but it didn't work. Another feature for the MMORPG is that things can get more physically complex to allow that - Like Things dropping on you (or you on them). That requires much more versatile scripting logic for reactions and of the animation transitions - a BIT closer to a fighting game's logic. Then you can have NPCs doing such things via skills of varying effectiveness/ineptitude (and also specific preferences for WHICH actions/skills individual NPCs prefer to use in varying situations).
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Team NPC Butt Monkeys (?) :
Automatic AI-Driven NPCs who can follow (more) complex orders, and be shown to do things normal NPCs do for a living. That is WITHOUT having to be micromanaged by the Player :
Example - They would do alot of (tedious) looting for you (and generally only show you the real goodies they might find or need help extracting). They can keep your supplies stocked and organized ( as you've designated previously ). Managing this 'Team' (if you chose to) requires a good clear interface and an intelligent design ( to eliminate constant/bothersome micro-management corrections ) so as to not have THEM become something 'just as tedious' as doing everything yourself.
That capability requires competent AI-scripting for all kinds of tasks and solutions - Not just to DO things, but WHEN and WHAT things should be done correctly/appropriately/prioritized.
A type of Task/Process based AI-programming called "Planners" exists which includes : Assessing situations for decisions, Evaluating different Solutions, then breaking the decided Tasks into separate Steps, and Tracking them as they proceed. Reassessing the Situation and Progress of the Tasks would also done to adapt to a changing Environment/Situation. The same "Planner" Programming would be used to give the games NPC population the appearance of realistically behaving and doing things ( instead of standing around like mannequins, or 'running on rails', or being little more than menu activators, as most game NPCs do ).
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Learn From Your Team NPCs and How to Make Use of Them - They can have skills/abilities that your character does not.
An interesting idea is that your NPC 'Team' members have their own minds/motives about how/what things are done ( example - you gleefully needlessly kill a Splicer and dismember it (not exactly allowed in the game, but anyway ... ) and they decide they really would prefer go work for someone better. What kind of logic is needed to make assessment decisions like that ( Heh, "Moral Choices" made by NPCs ... ), to help implement part of a 'actions have consequences system' --- Instead of nerfing the whole game like most MMORPGs these days. ( I remember Ultima Online from the 'old' days... all the interesting things Players figured out they could do which the game company eventually eliminated and then nerfed everything else, subsequently to be replaced by horrendously complicated game mechanics to try to (hardly succeeding) fix the simplest bad-behavior problems ).
More New/Better AI logic could be produced by Player Asset Creators than the company could possibly afford to develop ... Like the rest of the MMORPG's game system, the NPC AI is modular and individual parts can have improvements without disrupting the rest of the system. Additional solutions can be added to increase NPC versatility and abilities. A high competency level of functional testing (Playtesting) would need to be done to make sure the logic was well exercised before it was applied to any production Server.
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NPCs Need to be Better :
A NPC Following you moving through rough and complex terrain ( This in in immediate vicinity of Player - normal Avatar movement ). How miserable the Pathfinding 'follow' programming is in so many MMORPGs (and even in some Solo games), but then it is frequently not even part of the main game functioning, and NPCs guided for canned scene 'scripting' can cheat and not be restricted to the Players navigation mesh system.
Another thing seen in some games is the NPC getting involved somewhere and wandering off ( not keeping up and even being set upon by enemies out of sight ). They need to be programmed to take their lead from the Player.
The Rapture Reborn MMORPG would NOT have such crappy 'good enuf' (afterthought) programming and ITS terrain would be significantly more complex, with more options and repercussions for picking different paths/terrain types to traverse. This includes DURING combat where terrain factors in the MMORPG are more complicated and interactive.
Players giving/guiding NPC action orders/directions ( but not micro-managing them every move ) takes ALOT of programming skill and effort. SO this is yet another Asset Creation opportunity - MODULAR programmed AI for all the different actions possible by NPCs (and with all the different Tools and Terrain types). To go along with this type of Asset there would be Training/Practice rigs which can show the Player how to control their NPCs -- its like Tutorials most games have, but this MMORPG would have a far greater number of options ( they also serve as TESTING RIGS for the evaluation of this programmed AI logic BEFORE it gets incorporated into the game ). Complex AI is thus possible, and much of the AI would run on the Player's Client machine to offload the processing resources from the Servers.
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NPC Crowd AI :
One of the things you would see ( rarely presented in current MMORPG and usually only by cutscenes or heavily scripted/choreographed scenes in Solo games ) would be crowds of NPCs going about their own normal tasks ( in the City Center in New Rapture ) which gives you a better feeling of what Rapture was like in its heyday.
In real life, people operate largely on a daily schedule.  They move from location to location along pre-established paths and then mostly do boring stuff out of sight.  Some do things where you can see them.   Simple interactions still handle routine semi-random interactions ( like NPCs walking in opposite direction avoiding each other or having to wait in a line ).   Lots of scripting for variety, but not horrendous in the Server processing needed.
Most NPCs you generally don't interact with.  If you do, then their AI shifts to more specific 'reactive mode', and they do something usually boring, leading you to soon leave them alone. 
Events can happen which interrupt the routine, with most NPCs doing fairly simple contingencies (like running away when a fireball spurting Splicer crawls out of a sewer grate).   More complex AI then is processed to handle the situation ( which one hopes YOU can/will 'act the hero' and help resolve ).
Out in 'the Wilds', very little will be 'routine'.  Big crowds of highly active AI-run NPCs wont be too common.
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Abstracted Behavior Visible in BS2 :
I've mentioned how the MMORPG has much more complex simulated environment/economy/behaviors and how the Servers will run the various elements 'in generalized abstract' when the players are not there to see it. The proper actions would be generalized but be close enough to full detail that the states can be converted to Full Detail when a player comes near ( so that objects/NPCs will appropriately appear to be in the middle of doing things - which they actually should be doing ).
Using the cheats and hiding inside of walls in BS2, I've seen Splicers and Big Daddies 'step' their movement ( jump from point to point without animation frames ) by many second increments when the program didn't think the Player was viewing the situation. You've probably seen a hacked Security Camera detect Splicers and activate Flybots (you see the alarm counter) when you are quite a distance away, showing that both the camera and Splicers are not really deactivated when the player is a distance away. There probably is a maximum distance on the Level where the simulation is mostly frozen, but between there is a range outside of the players view where the simulation goes on at a simplified level of detail. Abstract object tokens walk their behavior patrol paths and interact with objects like Security Scanners/turrets and precipitate events with outcomes that effect the game state ( I find new 'Lockboxes' from the Splicers the Flybots killed ... ).
The Simulation the MMORPG would do across the whole (huge) City map would have many more degrees of abstraction, so as to save on Server computing power, yet still carry on a sufficiently valid simulation across its whole breadth - with pockets of the highest quality simulation where the players are.
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I Read One Reviewer Commenting About the AI for Elizabeth in Infinite BS...  :
Said all the (Over Hyped) Infinite BS AI (BTW its just a bunch of canned scripts, not real AI (( Which is apparent to anyone who knows about REAL AI )) ), which for only a little while gave a feeling/illusion of a character being more human - more than the Player's Avatar which the reviewer said was basically a 'hand with a gun', along with some canned verbiage.   It was Said the game developers wanting to have more of it -- but actually how little of it/limited it really turned out to be.
Anyway, consider IF the types of scripts they made for Elizabeth were genericized and logic-ified and applied to people (NPCs) in New Rapture and to the Splicers out there in the Ruins.  This MMORPG is trying to move away from the 'shoot everything' mentality, so will need such interactive AI things to work much better.   
The Infinite BS game makers have talked about how much work it took them to create Elizabeth's behavior (something about X thousands lines of scripting) particularly in that one little (Battleship Bay) area. In reality, such scripting ISN'T that complicated or sophisticated -- BUT IT IS VOLUMINOUS (and alot of care-requiring work).    Again, the Idea for this MMORPG is to have MANY many Players adding to such scripting to vastly multiply its utilization in the game - By Magnitudes. It becomes more apparent why this Player Created Asset method would be the way to achieve what game companies simply cannot afford to create.
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The Infinite BS's AI Hype :
It would be nice if most scenes in the game did not constantly degenerate into a shooting spree/bloodbath with combat which cannot be avoided (you often lose (die) when that happens in any semblance of reality).  This type of game does not have real Artificial Intelligence (AI), it is Trigger Scripting Choreography, which they have had in games for over 20 years.  It might be to a somewhat higher detail level than that long ago, but it is hardly revolutionary.  IF similar effort seen on that Beach playground scene was carried over to the rest of the game to give you many more options on how to handle a scenes situation, THEN it might have been a real advancement.   Keep the shooting activity for the Players who like to shoot ( with more options for them too ), but allow the Player to think a little more, and a chance to do different things when playing it a second/further times.  It does not even have to be all sneaking ( avoiding combat ), as there could be all kinds of possibilities for actions to get through, so to advance across the floating city to the staged plot scenes. 
The interviewed speakers on the 'AI' subject talked like they spent ALOT of effort on that one Beach scene.  So that means the rest of the game they could not.   Most of the game later reverted to the usual simple choreographed shoot ups, when they couldn't maintain that detail effort level for all the rest.   Was it really that special anyway ?  It was just a bunch of little simple scenes which reacted to the Players proximity ( with canned acting and little interaction ) and if you went back a second time it just repeated or the NPCs just stood their dumbly.  SO it takes more time/effort consuming little scripts to create (most effort was the special animations), but no real 'smarts' involved.  Elizabeth had a somewhat larger repertoire of actions through the games, but got repetitious soon enough.
Ken & Co disposed of most of the original idea/concept of Special 'Tear Scenes', which may have (if done) required ALOT of custom scripting to make the local NPCs react in more varied/situational-fitting ways - different depending on the Players 'choice'. The sad remnant of that was the static placeables in the 'Arena' fighting situations.
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Splicers Be Clever :
One of the potential programmed behaviors for Splicers would to take advantage of the terrain they live in and to modify it (and make it all 'homey' for themselves and a death trap for you)..
Changes would be applied to the Auto-Generated/existing terrain by Splicers - placed (appropriately/validly) as if they had been there for awhile (its part of the Auto-Generation detailing system).  Pre-building/placements would use many Templates for adding various adaptive assemblies of additional props and rearranged existing props and modifications to objects/rubble in the scene --  All tailored to the type/number of Splicers, their faction and state of existence, local circumstances, etc..
* Setting Various traps and defenses
* Camouflaging and blocking openings
* Bringing in and Hiding their appropriate goodies/supplies/equipment (specifics modified by nearby environment)
* Clearing/arranging paths they use through generic wreckage and rubbish
* Marking their territory in the various creative ways Splicers do
* Setting up whatever they use to make a living/survive/entertain themselves.
Other actions would be done later upon things the Player has brought or done which intrude in the Splicers 'Space' (its part of goal behaviors Splicers are driven by).
Splicer NPCs behavior would have them doing normal things (visible when/if the Player sneaks up on them) until the Player intrudes and things start to get interesting.
* Filching stuff you left untended and/or setting up some booby traps
* Hiding from you or leading you away from where 'their' stuff is or causing distractions/diversions
* Setting up Ambushes or just watching you pass by.
* Friendly Splicers might trade or just talk (Splicers have more options than just scream and attack as in other one dimensional 'shooter' games)
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You think games can't do such things ?  It not that they cannot, it is that the game companies can't do a proper job with the priorities they have and their budget limitations (yes even when they have $100,000,000).   Again the Player Created Asset system allows behavior scripting to be aggregated over time (with alot more programmers/scripters participating) and to grow to many times as much as any company ever produced.
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Interactions Between 'Occupant' NPCs (for That 'More Detailed Behavior') :
As everything is Templated and additional objects/things of all kinds are meant to be added in the future (AND stay compatible), the scripting which controls the NPC characters makes use of of internal messages which get broadcast to other NPCs nearby (kind of like The Sims mechanism) so they can 'be aware' and react appropriately. 
More specific 2-way interactions ( which both interacting NPCs have to support - with a default reaction inherited ) would allow longer more varying interplays between NPCs (fitting the circumstances and local situation instead of being 'hand-crafted' for each and every location in game).    Same for 'event actions' : example - when a bomb goes off, most people will run the other way, or stand and watch, etc... ( watch the Booker Psycho Video to see how pathetic Infinite's NPC behavior is despite their much Touting and Hyping their 'advancements' )
Such Interactions would happen in the background alot, with NPCs going about their normal behaviors in the places they live and work and play.   Example would be : One NPC walks up to a newsstand, buys a paper from the NPC manning it, and walks away ( back to whatever it normally does ).   Now it wouldn't do this over and over every 5 minutes like in Most MMORPGs, but would go on to do other routine/appropriate activities ( There being many created by the Players - many generic like the 'buy a paper' script which many of the city inhabitants could use at different times and places. )    Such scripts invoke functions like finding where the nearest newsstand is, and then walking over to it along a valid path, avoiding obstacles, etc.. and when completed go back to whatever is next for the NPC to do.    So if that Newsstand the next day was gone, that NPC ( who routinely wants a daily paper ) would go seek out another Newsstand in another place (NOT keep doing the same rote robot script until the end of time that most MMORPGs do).
Such things going on in the background/distance don't have to affect the Player in any way, but would make the gameworld seem a little more alive than the animatronics at Disneyland or Ryan's "Journey to the Surface".   Having them change their behavior to match current situation - that's the complex part, which results in a great volume of well-made scripting being required.
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ADVICE/SMARTS Programmed For The MMORPG :
SMARTS Logic for recommendations from Your NPC Team, or other sources for how to handle a situation ( on a Mission or Fabricating or whatever ). Creating appropriate 'advice' is not EASY - it requires assessing a situation ( complex and in in a largely NON-CANNED Game World ) - Classifying it, and then looking up possible Solutions and also possibly assessing them for Success. 
That is an Artificial Intelligence problem which required ALOT of complex irregular logic, which must be largely hand crafted/customized and has only limited generalization potential. It is Tedious work actually - Each Solution being as tedious as another to produce so very many useful 'Problem Solutions' ( It is Why games and game companies don't do much like this except in the most simple/basic way ). ITS Something for some gifted Players to create. Obvious use is for NPCs to do their own thing when they have a purpose - including having opponents with decent strategy/tactics (this type being the most likely to ever get done). Beyond that, the broad number of purposes in the multi-activity/goal MMORPG gets huge. ITS A FRICKEN HUGE AMOUNT OF WORK.
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Playing Through BS1 : Idea - For Ciggies and Booze :
It is too bad they didn't have a game mechanic where you could use various consumables as Bait -- Something like : piling two together ( use Telekinesis to pickup/drop in the Solo games ) making them an attraction for Splicers who (when close enough) would come to investigate their fortunate windfall, and while they are distracted you get the 'drop' on them. Possibly, if there are two or more Splicers, they start arguing over who gets the goodies ( "I saw Them First !", "No They're Mine!", "Get Your Hands Off Dem !", etc ... ) Good opportunity for Booby Traps - [Explodies] that you shoot (or hurl), or pre-placing the BS2 traps around the Bait.
The MMORPG would have Splicer (AI) motivations like the one used here, but also they would be clever enough to be wary of a trap. They might even do something similar to you. Important to have alot of variability in behaviors to avoid 'loopholes'.
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