In this 2017 GDC session, Ubisoft's Frederic Doll and Xavier Guilbeault explain how the team at Ubisoft created a believable large scale battlefield on the backbone of a distributed peer-to-peer deterministic simulation in For Honor.

The pair offered up an in-depth look at how this was achieved, from the importance of metadata built in the world, to levers given to designers to control many actors, including building complex and interesting behaviors by using simple but elegant rules.

They also showed how, with requirements ranging from high-level objectives to reactive decision-making, including environmental awareness, creating deep and challenging AIs required its own pipeline: a replicated decision system, using extracted data from Ubisoft's fight logic, tools to empower the AI designers, and automated testing to validate design intentions.

It was an intriguing talk, especially if you're looking to learn more about how AI can help you build better games, and now you can watch it for free over on the official GDC YouTube channel!

About the GDC Vault

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its accompanying YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.

Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC or VRDC already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page.