PC Gamer: From a technical standpoint, is the AI engine an enhancement of the original, or is it re-done for the new game?
Jeff Orkin: Both, really. We were fortunate to start NOLF 2 with the excellent AI foundation that Brian Long laid for us with his work on NOLF. Rather than wasting time reinventing pathfinding algorithms and animation controllers, we could immediately move on to more interesting problems, like creating ninjas that can jump from rooftop to rooftop and developing truly autonomous characters with our new Goal System and SmartObjects. We retained the functionality for things NOLF did well, like AIs finding cover and dodging from enemy fire, and wrapped it in new code for Goals that let AIs make their own decisions based on their observations of the current state of the world. Rather than scripting AIs to enter specific states, AIs monitor visual and audio stimulus and their proximity to SmartObjects to determine the most appropriate Goal to activate. AIs can choose to activate any Goal in their GoalSet, and assigning different GoalSets to different characters can create a wide variety of behaviors. The result is more open-ended gameplay and more variety for the player.