Theory on monster AI

I was hunting a G rank Barroth with gunlance. I did an evade, press the shot button to reload, and he began to rev up for a charge. Simultaneously, I press the shot button and left, and then proceeded to evade to the right. When this happened, the Barroth decided to charge towards my left and not target me like he was supposed to. I think monsters, at least Barroth, are attacking based on your button/analog strokes. I have only done this once, and would like for people to confirm along with me.

I think it's more like before a monster attacks it locates the hunters position and flags it as a target. Once that is done the monster will locate the next flag after the attack has been executed. So yea... I don't think monsters have any sort of dynamic AI to always keep track of the hunter

The AI for a couple monsters seems to know more than just the hunters' positions, though. The Agnas' belly slide, for example. In Tri, it would belly slide towards you, but in Ultimate, it slides towards where you're heading - so the AI is now tracking both position and vector.

The Diablos seem to know where traps are set, too, so if they burrow, say goodbye to your trap.

Thankfully, it's only prominent in G Rank. But yes, they appear to track vector now; they seem to pay attention to trap location; small monsters attack hunters ruthlessly as soon as large monsters are incapacitated, either by paralysis, KO, or traps. The AI definitely got an upgrade.

*cough* Berukyurosu *cough*

In the case of the large monsters, it makes them appear very intelligent, rather than instinctual. In the case of the small monsters going hyper mode ape crap on you the moment you try to capture something, it just infuriates you to the point where you just want to punch your controller.

Ultimately, the feeling is uncanny; like the game reacts to you in a very human way. Humans designed the game, so should that be surprising? But in this game, you war against nature. At times, this old feeling I have come to expect - the hunter/gatherer struggle against nature - seems to evaporate. The mood has been broken.

Crystalis wrote:

*cough* Berukyurosu *cough*

Not really

I have used the Agna slide AI knowledge when dodging. I did notice that it does target the vector, and not current position, so when it moves back, I go in one direction, and when it starts its slide, I move in the opposite direction. While he was problematic when I first encountered it, it is now just part of how I view Agnas.

The AI, as others have said, has been smartened up quite a bit... and other times, its just plain dumb. Monsters fleeing a zone, if you make em flinch, will stop going to the exit they were planning to, and pick another... make em flinch again, and they change once more... third flinch doesn't seem to happen as they are dead by then.

One of the more infuriating AI techniques, however, is the flexible attack cone. When fighting monsters that strike left or right, the computer's AI has been given the flexibility to extend it's range a few degrees more than would normally should be possible.

Vector? Can somebody explain this to me?

vec·tor
/ˈvektər/
Noun
A quantity having direction as well as magnitude, esp. as determining the position of one point in space relative to another.

Basically, the Agnaktor's slide target's where you will be when the attack would land, rather where you are at the moment (in which case continuing running in the same direction would dodge it).

Pretty much, we mean, the predictive AI thinks ahead to where you will be when it starts its slide. So the moment the agna start its slide, instead of continuing in the direction you were going, go in the complete opposite. Think of his slide like a cone towards where you will be. The small part of the cone is at the tip of Agna's mouth. The fat end has you at its center. If you continue in the direction you were going, he is guaranteed to hit you, because it can adjust itself along the cone to either edge, the closest, which is where you were at the beginning of the run, up to the farthest edge, which is as far as you can go in full run. However, if you go in the opposite direction, you will avoid the cone completely, even if you walk away, as I regularly do with my gun out.

That explains why Agna spins so unrealistic when you are running around.

And yet, the darndest thing is that Agna's dolphin dive attack seems to be easier to dodge than in MH3. Still haven't figured out why...

It's hitbox was worse in tri