Nonsensical enemy combat AI

Originally Posted by Ironblade

There should probably also be some kind of perception modifier. For example, if I kill someone with a GRENADE LAUNCHER, you'd think someone on the other side of the room would be likely to notice. Moreso than, for example, if I used a katana.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville

You could also tamper with the alert signalling code that generates an alert signal when a critter dies, that acts to put any critter that receives that alert into altered mode (basically, looking for and engaging players). You could have attacks also generate alerts, with bigger and stronger attacks generating higher alerts. Explosions could generate large scale alerts separate from dying critters and cause all the critters in the area to start looking for the players (without being directly aggroed upon them).

This is my understanding of how critters respond to a player. They start with a certain low perception radius. If you are outside that radius they just don't notice you at all. However, if you attack a critter by default that critter aggros upon you. It also sends out an alert signal to all nearby critters within the same spawn. Those critters get alerted, and go into an alert state. In that state their perception radius increases significantly, and they can detect the players even if they did not do so originally. They then start aggroing on whatever players are nearby, until something causes them to change their focus.