Star Wars Jedi: Survivor – Get a Little Help From Your (AI) Friends | IGN First
Cal Kestis was part of the crew on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, exploring the galaxy on the Stinger Mantis ship with his mentor Sele Junda. Captain Gries, and (eventually) former bitter enemy Nightsister Merrin became good friends. Other than dating his adorable BD-1, of course.
In Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, that changes thanks to the addition of a new Jedi Survivor character, Bode Akna, played by Nosir Dalal. A cool tandem with Scout Trooper performs his finisher. But Bode’s presence as a companion character isn’t just about cool finishing his moves. This is part of a system Respawn called “Character-in-Gameplay”.
Character-in-Gameplay is a term used internally in Respawn to distinguish between NPCs who accompany Cal during actual gameplay segments, and characters who remain in specific narrative hubs. His senior game designer, Jason Zhu, explains: and Do you want to fight with Cal? ”
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The team then evaluated whether implementing such a system was feasible with their technology, and ultimately decided that it was worth the time and effort to create a system that allowed companions to join Cal. Did. Fallen Order even had precedents that were already set back. In the boss battle with Malikos, Merrin will support you through the fight. That was the starting point, and the in-game character system is largely an extension of what players saw in that boss fight.
Actively participates in battle when Cal is with you. He can attack and kill enemies on his own, draw the attention of some enemies to take the pressure off the player, or do some sort of special move on a single target to kill you by interrupting enemies. You can order them to help you.
To give a concrete example, Narrative Technical Designer Joanna Robb says: He quickly pursues it by slamming a shock grenade that stuns other nearby enemies. It’s a great way to blow tough enemies out of combat temporarily. Alternatively, you can use a sprint attack to kill an enemy and attack quickly. ”
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Robb goes on to say that there are also many custom Bode behaviors that help make Bode a trusted ally. Bode responds to his own abilities and attacks, and unleashes unique techniques. When you force an enemy in, the board fires a shot of him that deals a ton of damage. Probe can also forcefully grab his droid and hurl it at a group of Stormtroopers. Bode’s shot basically detonates the droid, creating a large explosion that knocks down a group of enemies at once.
“We don’t necessarily tutorial all of these actions. It feels like it’s been choreographed to,” Rob said.
Outside of combat, Bode uses his jetpack to follow you around the world, reaching places that can usually be reached with Cal’s powers via things like double jumping and wall running. Robb says one of his coolest parts about creating an AI companion that can navigate such complex spaces is how he inspired the team to develop Bode’s new motion-matching animation system. increase.
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“He needs to be able to think very quickly where to go and how to get there.The motion matching system allows animations to drive his movements, so he’s more capable than other AI characters. It’s much more responsive and dynamic, making him feel like he’s on the same level as Cal as a character with agency in the world, rather than just a combatant who happens to be on your side,” explains Robb. bottom.
But don’t expect Cal to always cover 6 people. According to both Robb and Zhu, the popularity of companion characters really depends on the story. If you’re spending your time exploring all the content on Aspect of the Planet, your board will stick to Mantis. As the plot peaks, Companion gives both the narrative and gameplay more momentum. ”
As for whether there will be companion characters other than Bourde, Rob stated that Bourde will be the first character Cal teams up with. right Never joined Cal as a combat companion, but she preferred to leave one out.
“I’m sure many fans of the first game would like to know if everyone’s favorite Mantis crewman, Bogling, the stowaway recruited by Cal, will also be a gameplay character. Unfortunately, they doesn’t,” said Rob.
Mitchell Saltzman is IGN’s Editorial Producer.you can find him on twitter @jurassic rabbit
