Impressive Fallout 4 AI Mod Greatly Overhauls NPC AI By Removing Bethesda’s Limitations

An impressive new Fallout 4 AI mod has been released, removing several NPC AI limitations set by Bethesda.

Created by modder ‘Thumblesteen’, the REAL.AI mod for the PC version of Fallout 4 aims to overhaul the game’s NPC AI by recalibrating hundreds of engine-level subroutines used in Bethesda’s Creation Engine. The description of what this mod really does and how it works is quite extensive (the modder even wrote an article about it, which can be found here). Basically, this AI mod removes the Bethesda-set NPC “blinders”. As the modder writes, “Bethesda gave NPCs a series of invisible barriers that blocked their senses, meaning that they were essentially existing in a kind of bubble”. ‘Thumblesteen’continues, “This mod removes that bubble, allowing NPCs to interact with the world around them and to actually engage with their environment. As a result, snipers will actually snipe. Flanking NPCs will actually flank you. Buildings, firing positions, and environmental features will become real to the many inhabitants of Fallout 4, and they will behave much more like living beings.”

According to the modder, hard limitations have been replaced with soft limitations and in order to avoid psychic problems of the NPCs, a lot of them have been given weaker senses.

When using this mod, NPC behavior becomes a lot more unpredictable as NPCs have more freedom and can somewhat make their own choices. For instance, they can circle around large objects, hide, ambush and attempt to trick the player. In addition, they can “blind fire and engage targets based on assumptions if they have limited information.”

Below we’ve included a short gameplay video of this AI mod in action:

It’s an ambitious project and we’re pretty sure that Fallout fans will want to give this mod a go.

Fallout 4 PC players interested in trying this interesting new mod can download it from Nexusmods here.

Released in 2015, Fallout 4 – Bethesda’s latest main Fallout entry – is available now globally for PC and consoles. This mod is currently only available for the PC version.

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