[img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36089318/268a5938a0a023ac4db80cebac7f8526438fdd7b.jpg[/img] A game often lives up or dies with the enemies it provides or rather how those enemies behave, especially when combat is involved. We view Red Frost no different here, hence enemy AI has always been a major focus in the game’s development. Beside the AI, there are also two other aspects of enemies we pay close attention to: types and reactions in combat. While enemy types like AI are topics frequently covered, we felt that how enemies react to being attacked deserves more attention. To achieve a certain level of immersion, the enemies need to react properly. Certain enemy types like a deer you would expect to spook and sprint away when shot at. An infected you would expect to quickly turn and move immediately towards you to attack, no matter how futile. A human enemy on the other hand you might expect to first seek cover before attacking back. Those are things covered by the AI. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36089318/c459a0feef52f8c2615ba2d07dd09a14dd6b2dd5.png[/img] The other aspect is how they react when you hit them. These we pay more and more attention to as the development progresses. While we started with simple hit reacts, partially generated based on body physics and the usual trickery you see in games, we felt that especially on certain types of enemies we want more. Hence we started creating special animations just for the way an enemy reacts to being hit. As the amount of these animations increases over the next months, so will the visual variety of reactions in combat. When you consider that hitting different areas of a body has an actual gameplay impact in Red Frost, combined with additional hit reaction animations we expect combat to be visually very exciting, soon. And before you ask, yes, when you shoot an infected into its legs it will fall and try to slowly crawl towards you. They don’t give up easily… [previewyoutube=5gJWNABLgpk;full][/previewyoutube] All those things require different approaches for different categories and types of enemies. In terms of enemies we are looking at 3 categories: humans, animals and infected. They are however not uniform groups of enemies. As a matter of fact, each of them consists of different types of enemies with their distinct combat behaviors. While we all can easily imagine different types of humans or even animals where some are more aggressive, some flee and some only attack when in a pack, the infected are differentiated by means of team play. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36089318/67eb0e2a8d18b5f1acf09b089e730e75be287216.jpg[/img] Each infected has its own behavioral profile in combat, but when the different types come together they develop a distinct dynamic that changes based on amount of type and size of the group. Take the screeching Attractor from the teaser. Unless left with no other choice, she will avoid combat. Instead, she will call other types of infected. She hence acts more like a leader than a warrior. The warriors then have different roles to fulfill making combat with a diverse group of infected feel completely different than fighting each of them on their own.