Todd Howard explains why Starfield’s combat AI was intentionally made “stupid”

Bethesda’s Todd Howard has revealed how Starfield’s combat AI was deliberately designed to be “stupid” to enhance the overall enjoyment for players.

In a recent episode of The AIAS Game Maker’s Notebook Podcast, Bethesda’s Todd Howard discussed the creation of Starfield, touching on all aspects of the game’s development process. But one particular segment of the podcast raised eyebrows as Howard explained how the team intentionally made the combat AI “really stupid” to make the experience more enjoyable for players.

Howard began by discussing the challenges inherent to designing space combat, drawing parallels with games like Faster Than Light and MechWarrior. He admired Faster Than Light’s power allocation feature and the slower, more systematic pace of combat in the older MechWarrior titles.

The objective was to create a space combat system that is intuitive and doesn’t require players to pause the game simply to understand and navigate the many power allocations and systems. “That part all worked out quite well, but then you have to mix it in with the AI,” Howard explained.

That’s where the difficulty comes in, it seems. Howard explained, that overly intelligent enemy AI resulted in prolonged battles, with both player and AI battling for position. To circumvent this, the AI was designed to be “really stupid,” allowing players more opportunities to shoot.

“It’s very easy to make the enemies really, really smart or end up in the situation where you’re forever just jousting,” Howard said. “It turns out you have to make the AI really stupid… they should fly, and then they need to turn, basically like, ‘Hey player, why don’t you just shoot me for a while.”

Starfield’s space combat has come under fire from players and streamers alike, with Dr Disrespect notably calling it the “absolute worst control scheme and control experience of a flight simulator I’ve ever experienced in my life.” His experience with Starfield’s space combat was so infuriating that he even closed his chat out of frustration.

Howard’s interview is sure to give Starfield players and fans more insight into some of the game’s more interesting design decisions, particularly the challenge of balancing both strategic combat and overall enjoyability.