Why don't allies talk to each other?

[DarkStar]

Remember in HL1 when you'd get two barneys together and wait around a little while one would say something and the other would usually give a short reply? It gave the characters just an added touch of believeability. It would happen kinda like this:

Barney 1: "Do you smell that?!?"
Barney 2: "I don't think so."

I thought that was one of the coolest little touches Valve added to HL1. But I haven't heard any of the resistance troops do anything similar in HL2. In fact they really don't say anything when you just wait around. Why didn't Valve impliment something similar in HL2?

EDIT: Don't get me wrong, I love the game, just wondering about this.....

 

[lemmingzappa]

good point

 

[Voodoo_Chile]

Yeah this is something that wouldnt have taken too long to put in and would have really been cool.As it is I couldnt care less how many resistance dies(And they seem to do that ALOT).
Really one of the few thing I feel didnt live up to HL was the apathy I felt(Can you actually feel apathy?) for my fellow fighters.

 

[shark]

they stand in the doorway and don't move when you are getting shot at. Leading to your death. they need to die every now and then.

 

[Lazlow]

+use them and they'll talk to each other!

 

[groovy]

because you'e adopted and i don't like you

 

[ThrasherX9]

They talk to eachother. For example: "I sometimes dream about cheese..." other NPC "To much information!". My NPCs talk. *shrug*

 

[PvtRyan]

+use them and they'll talk to each other!

Damnit, he told you not to move on the sand, and you did, stay on the rocks dumbass.

They talk to eachother. For example: "I sometimes dream about cheese..."

I had a big WTF moment when one of the fighter said that. But they do make some random comments now and then, but they don't chat with eachother afaik.

 

[KagePrototype]

If you stand around for ages, one of them will say "shouldn't we be doing something?" or something similar. At least they give each other ammo and medipacks and stuff after fights.

 

[PvtRyan]

If you stand around for ages, one of them will say "shouldn't we be doing something?" or something similar. At least they give each other ammo and medipacks and stuff after fights.

I love it when they start looting dead combine for their guns and stuff "this will do fine.... niiiiice.."

 

[Voodoo_Chile]

I love it when they start looting dead combine for their guns and stuff "this will do fine.... niiiiice.."

Really did that actually happen,All they ever do with me is die painfully from Striders or that "Supression Weapon".Or fall behind and I end up running into a group of Combine thinking I have back up when they are all standing around doing nothing,No doubt this is when I miss the riveting conversation.
And one other thing,They are the most insubordinate NPC's ive ever led.I tell them to wait at a point so I can Run in and destroy a sentry turret when all of a sudden I hear a "Follow Freeman" and they are getting torn apart.

 

[Brian Damage]

Yeah, I noticed that they seem to have a penchant for finding better weaponry. Now that's a nice touch...

 

[Solver]

My NPCs worked very well, providing real backup, taking cover intelligently, finding better weapons, etc. The only thing I missed was a command "stay here till I call you". Sometimes I wanted to move forward alone and do something. Other than that, this is the first game I've played where I saw no blatant ally stupidity, and where they were actually a significant help.

 

[NeverstilL]

i had two npc's with me one time and one says "when we get out of this i'm gonna.....aw who am i kidding" and the other said "yeah i know what you mean" i lmao

 

[Mr-Fusion]

There definitely needed to be a "stay the **** outta my way whilst i go fourth and pwn" command. There were quite a few moments when trying to take out those three suppressor things where my doorway of strafe dodgeness was blocked by Barney.

 

[Solver]

There definitely needed to be a "stay the **** outta my way whilst i go fourth and pwn" command. There were quite a few moments when trying to take out those three suppressor things where my doorway of strafe dodgeness was blocked by Barney.

A "stay put" command can, hopefully, be easily implemented in the first HL2 patch.

 

[PvtRyan]

Things like this make me think that there is really a LOD for AI in HL2 depending on CPU speed. The quality of it varies per person.

And yes, with me they really loot combine soldiers, and are generally pretty good companions, they're even pretty good at wasting manhacks, one of them shot a manhack out of my hands when I was holding it with the manipulator ready to throw it to a metrocop

 

[Solver]

Yeah, after all, the number of AI computational cycles can be dependent on CPU speed - more cycles on slower CPUs would be worse performance.

 

[azz0r]

My NPCs worked very well, providing real backup, taking cover intelligently, finding better weapons, etc. The only thing I missed was a command "stay here till I call you". Sometimes I wanted to move forward alone and do something. Other than that, this is the first game I've played where I saw no blatant ally stupidity, and where they were actually a significant help.

Press c and send them to a safe location.

 

[Brian Damage]

I think they eventually get tired of waiting and follow you anyway, though, azz0r.

But yeah, if we can find small niggles like this we probably should be reporting them directly to VALVe.

PvtRyan: The exact same thing with the Manhack happened to me, and I was like "Oh, thank you very much! Oh well, at least you got rid of the Manhack...".

 

[Killbert]

Press c and send them to a safe location.

The problem is, they have a short patience. They will only obey your command for about 5 seconds. I like to take things slowly, and minimize losses. AI isn't too smart in dangerous situations, they tend to rush turrets head-on. That's why it would be nice to get them out of danger in those situations

Maybe I'm bit too immersed in the game, but it makes me feel bad when those citizens gets themselves killed. That sniper map in particular was rather depressing. All you can do is watch as your team walks in the fire one by one...

If you press the 'c' twice, it orders your squad to follow you. Seems like a redundant command because of the auto follow. If the AI would follow your commands, you could point them to cover with 'c', take out turrets, and then get them back with double tapping 'c'. I'm sure Valve had good reason to force AI to forget the orders, maybe to make it easier for casual players, so they won't forget their squad somewhere in beginning of the map.

 

[UKchaos2]

They tell you too reload, but that gets anoying when its said every time you fire a few shots off

 

[Crushenator 500]

because you'e adopted and i don't like you

groovy, could you please shorten your sig to 4 lines please.

kthxbye

 

[nagual678]

the fact that the resistance fighters eventually follow you no matter what seems a "feature" :
valve could have done this so players would not forgive his team somewhere and lose a fight because they didn't follow him. notice how they join you when you get too far away ? -you could say it's the player's fault but it's actually aimed at "helping" him.

on another point, i hated how your allies are completely dumb when confronted to the mines (those three legged things with a color changing orb in the middle). i ALWAYS had to babysit them, clearing EVERY mine out of the way, because they ALWAYS stupidly get near them without doing anything, bringing nearly the whole team's demise

 

[Solver]

on another point, i hated how your allies are completely dumb when confronted to the mines (those three legged things with a color changing orb in the middle). i ALWAYS had to babysit them, clearing EVERY mine out of the way, because they ALWAYS stupidly get near them without doing anything, bringing nearly the whole team's demise

Odd, another thing I never got. I threw many mines away, but my allies would run around them and generally avoid getting too close, not once did they set those traps off.

 

[Cyclis]

Things like this make me think that there is really a LOD for AI in HL2 depending on CPU speed. The quality of it varies per person.

And yes, with me they really loot combine soldiers, and are generally pretty good companions, they're even pretty good at wasting manhacks, one of them shot a manhack out of my hands when I was holding it with the manipulator ready to throw it to a metrocop

If this is true then I'd like a console command to bypass that LOD, because my allies were freaking useless.

 

[Brian Damage]

Weird. Maybe AI really is defined by CPU power.

Let's try renting a Cray II and running Half Life 2 on that. Perhaps thay'll become self aware :E.

 

[Cyclis]

Weird. Maybe AI really is defined by CPU power.

Let's try renting a Cray II and running Half Life 2 on that. Perhaps thay'll become self aware :E.

I read down some of that list of cvars someone else posted here, looking over the AI commands. Saw a few that looked promising but I'm afraid to try anything that I don't know exactly what it'll do.

 

[Pauly]

But your wrong, they DO talk to each other... 'use' an ally. They will talk and others will talk back.

 

[Baal]

I find they work well, and follow you very well..I love them

I can't think of any other game where you have allies as well put together as in HL2.

Sure they could have been better, but they're still the best I've seen.

Ant Lions are great too in my opinion.

 

[mzhang23]

Freedom fighters has a much better squad system. You "use" resistance members to recruit them to your squad, and it has defend, attack, and follow commands that work extremely well. Too bad the overall game isn't as good as hl2.

 

[redrain85]

Let's try renting a Cray II and running Half Life 2 on that. Perhaps thay'll become self aware :E.

Actually, if you have an Athlon 64 . . . you already pretty much have a Cray 2 on your desktop. The Cray 2 did 2 Gigaflops max, and the Athlon 64 can do about the same sustained. Those fridge-sized supercomputers have been crushed down to a single chip today.

As for my allies, I thought they were quite helpful and acted intelligently. And when they got in my way (which happened more often than I'd hoped), they'd say stuff like "lemme get out of the way" and they did. I too, had one shoot and destroy a manhack while i was holding it with the gravity gun.

 

[Brian Damage]

Okay, okay, I was just using "Cray II" because it's one of the more recognisable supercomputers ...

Probably 'cos they looked real cool, come to think of it. Like something out of a sci-fi movie...

 

[PvtRyan]

Lets rent Blue Gene

But seriously, please answer this:

- Did the AI look helpful/not retarded to you? Did they do stuff like pick up guns and take cover or other stuff discussed in this thread?
- What is your CPU speed?

- Yes
- Tbred-B 2400+

 

[EVIL]

- nope
- P4 3.0 ghz

 

[Brian Damage]

- Heck yes

- AMD XP 2400+

 

[Tlaloc]

try this (not really allies)

Spoiler

at the beginning after you meet barney for the first time, you have to go through a door where there is a combine guard standing ... he tips over a can that was sitting on a trash can and says "pick it up"

don't move, just wait and he'll say "pick up the can" about 5 or 6 times and then he does something else

gave me a good laugh :-D

 

[Messermeier]

mine worked quite well - they talked when i +used them, they picked up guns, they avoided hoppers (didnt set off a single one), the medics handed out medpacks, they were quite accurate.

the single most annoying thing about them is that they dont stay were you sent them. in some situations i had to quickload hell knows how often, because they always ran straight into a grenade/strider/turret and got themselves pwned.

P4 3ghz, btw.