FROMSOFT has a reputation for diverse and punishing npc encounters across the entire Soulsborne extended series, but the implementation of the AI decision making itself is perhaps unexpectedly low-tech. Since the majority of the code is implemented in Havok Script (A games-oriented Lua implementation from Havok) it’s pretty easy to take a peek behind the fog wall to see how they’re implemented. Note that none of what follows is original research, I’m just reading the code that others have done the hard work of extracting, decompiling, and reversing. Goals The primary tool of the FROMSOFT AI approach is the Goal 1 , which is their own terminology for a unique state that the AI can be in. Goals can be parametized when instanciated, and can access data stored on the Actor itself, but are otherwise really just an immutable table of functions.…