Days Gone Squad Coordination Explained

Sony Bend Studio’s Sr. Staff AI Programmer Tobias Karlsson explained how groups of AIs were coordinated in Days Gone.

He said that while coordination is hard in itself, coordination in an open world is even harder. To solve the problem, the team worked on managing group behavior, roles, positioning, and timing.

Karlsson mentioned that the squads' behavior in the game is affected by confidence, which measures if an AI thinks it will win. Confidence has levels:

• Heroic
• Confident
• Neutral
• Worried
• Panicked 

A squad's confidence is determined by calculating each side's strengths, which can be modified by weapons, armor, health, and confidence. It means that a confident AI will lift up the squad's confidence. Confidence is meant to encourage desired player behavior. If you want to decrease an AI's confidence, you should try flanking, targeting the AI, or engaging in melee.

Confidence influences an AI's behavior. For example, if it's low, the AI will try to retreat, and if it's high, the squad will go on the offensive.

In the video, Karlsson reveals AIs' behavior and gives some advice on how to best deal with different kinds of enemies. So if you want to become better at Days Gone, check it out.

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