Smart Enemies

Some constructive complaints about the game industry

The Shattered Space DLC for Starfield just dropped, and to nobody’s surprise, it was a colossal flop. This is unsurprising because Bethesda always drops the ball when it comes to making enemies that are interesting to fight. Their enemies always adopt one of two tactics:

Tactic A: Run up to you and attack in melee

Tactic B: Stay at a distance and shoot at you

Genius Type A Strategist employing the subtle “Run up close and hit you” approach

In the past, I’ve tended to avoid criticism of game designers. It’s very easy to criticize and now that I’ve been developing my own indie game for over a year, I’m aware that game development is a massive undertaking which is a lot more complicated than it looks. I try not to criticize other people unless I’m completely confident that I can do better. But now that I have a bit more experience under my belt, I’m 100% confident that I could do better than the Bethesda team when it comes to designing enemies. It’s just very disheartening to see them put all this effort into simulating a vivid and realistic game world, only for the immersion to be shattered when combat begins and resembles nothing more than a bunch of rock-em sock-em robots flinging themselves at each other. And it also costs the game studio money, because I haven’t bothered to play any of their titles in a while. So in this post, I’m going to offer some constructive criticism and give some examples of the kind of enemies I would like to see in the next Elder scrolls game.

The Swamp Fish: You’re walking through the shallow water of a swamp, when suddenly you notice an eyestalk pop out of the water, look at you, then pop back down. Another one appears over there. You can barely make out a silhouette moving through the water, but it’s hard to see, in the dark shade of the swamp. Something bites you from behind. You spin around to see whatever bit you swimming quickly away out of range. Whatever it is, it likes to hit from behind, and the reason those eyestalks keep popping up is to check which direction you’re facing so it can look for an opening.

The Trapdoor Worm: You’re walking along the beach minding your own business for a change when all of a sudden something that looks like a cross between an eel and a centipede pops out of a hole in the sand and drags you into a twelve foot deep burrow. It’s a straightforward combat from that point, except for the fact that the burrow is flooded with water, and the monster has no intention of letting you go. If you don’t escape or kill it quickly, you’ll drown.

The Stalking Viper: It likes to remain motionless and blend into its environment, but don’t be fooled! When it moves, it moves fast. The viper doesn’t like to stand and fight. Rather, it bites you, then slithers into a small crevice and hides while its poison slowly does the work. Then it follows you, waiting for another chance to bite and run.

The Ungovernable Monkey: You’re walking through the jungle when a large branch strikes you from above. Looking up, you see a small monkey in the tree canopy, throwing branches at you. Not a big deal, right? You’re dressed in heavy armor, and can easily handle a fragile monkey. But the monkey has no intention of letting you get close to it. It stays up in the tree canopy about 30 feet away, throwing branches at you and laughing. Even worse, the commotion it’s making is attracting more monkeys. Hope you’re good with ranged weapons….

The Airwolf: Approximately the size of a helicopter, this massive bird picks you up and starts flying you to its nest, far away. You can hit it to make it let you go, but then unless you have a flight spell or potion equipped, you’ll fall to the ground, taking a lot of damage. Alternatively, you could let it deposit you its nest, but then you’ll have to fight not only the mother bird but also its recent hatchlings, which are the size of bears. Not too appealing. And then of course you’ll have to somehow find your way back to civilization.

None of these behaviors would be particularly hard to program, and they would make combat in Bethesda games much more interesting. Not to mention that you can make even more interesting encounters by mixing and matching opponents. For example, typically the recommended strategy when dealing with the Airwolf is to run under the tree canopy so it can’t reach you and eventually gets bored. However, what if there are a bunch of stalking vipers dozing in the shade of that tree cover you’re sprinting towards? Or say you want to make that journey to the lost shrine into a really challenging quest. You could put the shrine into a mangrove swamp with Ungovernable Monkeys in the treetops and Swamp Fish in the water. When you’re aiming your bow at the monkeys, the fish bite you from behind, and while you draw melee weapons to fight the fish, the monkeys are bombarding you. Maybe in such a situation the best strategy is to just dash through as quickly as possible to your destination rather than staying to fight.

Obviously I’m terrible with names, but I think I’ve made my point. It’s weird to have a game studio put so much effort into making a very impressive and polished product only to drop the ball so badly in terms of making interesting enemy design. Maybe someday - if my first game is successful - I’ll have the resources to make the kind of game I’d like to play, but until then I hope any game developers who are reading this Substack may take my suggestions to heart.

(Also, in case you were wondering why it’s been so long since my last post, it’s partially because I’m been working on this indie game project, which I will definitely be sure to shill here the moment a playable version comes out.)