- Author
- Posted by paavohtl, with replies from many commenters
- Published
- 7 June 2025
- Kind
- Hacker News discussion thread of a blog post about Oblivion
- Original
- news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44209497
- Subject
- Games and game design
What it is
Paavohtl posted a link to the article on Radiant AI and answers questions. Many nested comments follow. Topics are NPC simulation, LLM dialogue, procedural generation and Bethesda's recent games.
What it says
- Commenter teamonkey says three games abandoned such proposed systems as they did not improve play.
- Commenter PunchyHamster says simple procedural behaviors are dull until many systems interact, as in Bannerlord.
- Commenters argue over LLM-driven NPC dialogue, with Dzugaru saying it cannot be guardrailed fully.
- Commenter dialup_sounds suggests an LLM could direct scenes, like a dungeon master.
- Paavohtl, the article's author, says Radiant AI is in later games but has little impact.
- Commenter flohofwoe says goal-driven unpredictable AI is at odds with story-driven games.
- A long side thread on Starfield debates whether anyone wants to explore procedurally generated spaces.
What evidence it gives
The thread offers opinion and anecdote. A few commenters give game-development experience or cite talks and wiki pages. There are no measurements. The article's author disputes some anecdotes, such as an NPC using a stored item.
Interests and limits
Commenters are self-selected and cannot be verified. Opinions on Starfield and LLMs are mixed and unresolved. The linked article was not read. Some long comments were read in part only. The thread reaches only a few western game genres.