"Does having enemies run away make the game more fun for the player, or does the need to chase them become an annoyance?"
A good game mode does not require finding and hunting down all enemies. It has targets, like "go there"(story continues), "blow up X", "clear area Y"
"if an enemy sneaks around the player, gets in cover and concealment, and shoots them while the player does not understand where the fire is coming from, is it an enjoyable experience?"
If the game gets the graphics and gameplay right, for sure! (I still have memories from Vietcong, where you get ambushed in the jungle and don't see anything and just die, until you learn to move in cover and watch the terrain)
And you have the muzzle flash for example. And if you do not see it ... the fun is in getting scared and rushing to cover. Where the enemy cannot see you anymore (if the KI is not cheating) and then move to a different position to find him.
Or you can have the kill cam, where you see upon death, where the enemy was, that killed you.
"If we want the player to feel powerful, then we design so that their character can defeat many enemies"
True, but there are various ways to implement this, without ZombieKI.
Like in crysis for example, where you have superior tech. Or more hitpoints, because you play a badass.
Or in general, you as a player have quicksave and load. The computer does not.
So yeah, I know that the target audience is dumb and wants fast food, so to say, but they also consume what is avaiable. And the standard is mostly ZombieKI, or ultra hardcore realism like in Arma, which is clearly not for everyone, but I really don't see, why the "AAA" games could not invest a tiny bit more in KI that does not break immersion.
A good game mode does not require finding and hunting down all enemies. It has targets, like "go there"(story continues), "blow up X", "clear area Y"
"if an enemy sneaks around the player, gets in cover and concealment, and shoots them while the player does not understand where the fire is coming from, is it an enjoyable experience?"
If the game gets the graphics and gameplay right, for sure! (I still have memories from Vietcong, where you get ambushed in the jungle and don't see anything and just die, until you learn to move in cover and watch the terrain)
And you have the muzzle flash for example. And if you do not see it ... the fun is in getting scared and rushing to cover. Where the enemy cannot see you anymore (if the KI is not cheating) and then move to a different position to find him. Or you can have the kill cam, where you see upon death, where the enemy was, that killed you.
"If we want the player to feel powerful, then we design so that their character can defeat many enemies"
True, but there are various ways to implement this, without ZombieKI. Like in crysis for example, where you have superior tech. Or more hitpoints, because you play a badass. Or in general, you as a player have quicksave and load. The computer does not.
So yeah, I know that the target audience is dumb and wants fast food, so to say, but they also consume what is avaiable. And the standard is mostly ZombieKI, or ultra hardcore realism like in Arma, which is clearly not for everyone, but I really don't see, why the "AAA" games could not invest a tiny bit more in KI that does not break immersion.