We know it's not possible to get AI to mimic a player in terms of behavior. They could perhaps be animated in a way that's different from the player character's animation set to make them seem less wooden and more challenging to shoot.
By that I mean look at Far Cry 3,4,5 you'll notice that NPCs are given animations that make them look much more realistic and make the positions of their hitboxes a little less predictable. There's a sense of momentum, a real human can't just sprint and stop moving on a dime.
As of now in alpha,the AI look like they're standing still as statues when encountered up close. (I know they are placeholders) They seem to lock on to players (like robots) as if they can't panic and spray an area or change targets.
I could make a list of unique behaviors that could be implemented to make bots look more lifelike.
AI could use special animations for...
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Stopping after sprinting. (GTA V has momentum for player characters)
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Spraying indiscriminately on an area or in close combat (They can't do that in ins,they seem to just lock on to a player.)
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Hesitating (Instead of standing still like a statue,they'll be looking left and right,moving their gun likewise)
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retreating (If an area is blocked by thermite/molotov, they'll walk backwards,looking over their shoulder every few seconds,reduced reaction time)
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On high ground (They'll use a low crouch to make their head harder to hit,then pop out (in a higher crouch) and fire several bursts)
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Crouch sprinting (If you fire at them while they're sprinting(from the side), they'll crouch sprint,sometimes stumble if fire upon)
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Flinching (They'll flinch if they spot your laser dot,get suppressed,or survive a shotgun blast)
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They'll look left and right after mantling through a window. (Maybe they'll choose the window if too many dead insurgents are at the door)
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Given they are bots and not humans,it wouldn't cause a problem if you let them do the baseball slide (not the knee slide) along with "get back up" animations.
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Moving their guns to the left and right (To give the illusion that they're scanning an area. battlefield3 does this with player animations to make them seem more lifelike. )
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Running and diving to avoid a grenade (Not like a COD drop shot type of thing. They'll still need to do the "get back" up animation before they can shoot you.)
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Running/rolling around on fire. (If they screw up with the molotovs or get killed by thermite)
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Suicide bombers will act even crazier,doing all sorts of zig zags,rolls,crouch sprinting,climbing, jumping,sneaking prone. They'll have this really sneaky way of going through windows, like some parkour expert. if they see your laser,they'll run away from it. Maybe if you manage to shoot them in the legs,they fall over and after 4 seconds they detonate their packs. (If you don't finish them off).
