I think that the rival ai should be updated instead on the normal machine ai with a stronger machine.
I think that the rival ai should be more adaptive so if your character is a go loud character than the rival would have a increase armour bullet resistance, If your character is heavy stealth than the rival would have a increase In sight and hearing, if your character used traps alot than the rival would avoid emps and explosives canisters.
I also think rival tactics should be improved.
A tanks rival would try to get as close as possible because it knows it can tank rounds and it is better when it gets close because the exp kvm and grg wouldn’t work.
harvester rivals would back up and keep space and would launch rockets as its hunter would get close because it knows it won’t do much when it gets close.
Hunter rivals would try to get behind you and would keep moving because it knows its weaker and moving makes it harder to hit.
That’s what I think could improve rivals to make them those adaptive machines that learn and upgrade to be more difficult and will force you to change your playstyle to make the fight easier.
only change i would make to this would be to make harvester have 2 modes, the long range support it does normally but also it should try to seek shelter from buildings or obstacles to lure the players into gassing range by breaking the line of sight
Tanks are already mess down the level of being clockworks. I’d wish up the game at least by making some patterns exclusive to Reaper to be shared with all tanks (e.g. doing short dashes or fire on move). But at least smoke has effect on them. They have greatest potential of all machines and has greatest gap of what they do and what they could do. I will relentlesly belittle tanks until it become a dangerous foe without a glaring AI holes like “taming” (as of posting - still doable):
Harvesters, oddly enough, are actively avoid placed traps, either while in stealth (machine is calm) or inconsistently in combat being neutered. And pattern of “hide to lure” can be easily exploited to lure Harvester to walk into trap or get itself stuck.
Hunters also have greater potential. With their mobility you’d think they could have more melee moves.
Oh, and their long telegraphed pattern: engage → wait → stance/move → if move:stance; if stance:engage, rince and repeat.
AI is most sophisticated part of the game and being unusual enemies among other PvE games I’d say devs did good job. But it’s still a long way to go, evolving AI that is.
I’d say Rivals should be more aggressive. Like having shorter “cycle time constant”, like it was with Reaper among tanks. (means less time for decicion-making or situational awareness in algorithm)