VAIN - Vastly Augmented Intelligence for NPCs in Combat

VAIN - Vastly Augmented Intelligence for NPCs

A direct expansion of Ultra AI by Axemagister

⚠ REQUIRED: READ BEFORE INSTALLING ⚠

VAIN is built on top of Ultra AI by Axemagister. It uses Ultra AI's creature spell tables and combat behaviour concepts as its foundation. If you enjoy VAIN, please endorse Ultra AI.

VAIN also has a hard technical dependency on FluadHTN – The AI Framework by Safebox. This is the AI planning library that powers most of what VAIN does. VAIN will not load at all if FluadHTN is not installed. Install it first.

Requirements

• []MWSE (latest nightly)[/]

  []FluadHTN – The AI Framework - hard requirement, install this first[/]

  What is this?

  Morrowind's combat AI is 22 years old. Enemies sprint at you until they die or panic. Mages keep buffing themselves with useless spells. Archers close into melee the moment they feel threatened.

  VAIN replaces this with a proper AI planning system and a set of smart overrides that together make enemies feel like they actually have a reason to fight.

  What does it actually do?

  Enemies that don't just turn and run

  Vanilla flee is driven by raw numbers — when a formula dips below a threshold, the NPC sprints away. VAIN overrides flee decisions as long as the enemy isn't critically wounded and their personal morale hasn't broken. They fight until they genuinely can't.

  When a grounded enemy does get pushed to flee, their response depends on what they have available: a readied bow means they keep firing, a biped with nothing to shoot throws a stone, a non-biped creature charges. The fallback is always to close and fight, not to run.

  Stone throwing from Ultra AI

  Bipeds without a ranged weapon can pick a stone "off the ground" (not really, it is added directly from Lua) and throw it. There's a short wind-up, where the enemy raises the stone before releasing. If they lose sight of you during the wind-up, the throw is cancelled and the stone goes back. The damage, the wind-up length, and the delay before an enemy reaches for a stone are all configurable.

  Mages that act like mages

  []Ranged stance. Mages with offensive target-range spells hold position at casting distance instead of closing into melee.[/]

  [*]Empower de-spam. If an NPC keeps casting a bound weapon or self-buff spell that's already active on them, VAIN breaks the loop and redirects them to an offensive spell or melee if nothing is ava