The Division: Dynamic Living World AI, Not Another Linear RPG

Tom Clancy’s The Division is not meant to be a linear RPG, says Massive Entertainment head Fredrik Rundqvist.

He elaborates that the game will not have the kind of handholding expected in story driven RPGs like it. This is where the open world nature of the game comes in. Manhattan is freely explorable from any angle from the start, and you can explore it any way you wish.

The game will also not be like a sim. Fredrik did not elaborate, but he made it clear that agents will not be able to draw friendly fire towards civilians. As he points out, being a government agent, it would not make sense if you were able to do this anyway.

Fredrik also talked about the game’s AI, and the effort Massive put behind developing it. He describes it as one of the greatest challenges for any developer. This is not only in terms of how logical the AI is, but also the programming and visualization aspects.

Fredrik touts that Massive was able to create a dynamic, living world for The Division. As a living world, the AI will create events that progress in the background, even if you’re not in that location. So, events in the world are not necessarily triggered by player movements. This dynamic AI was applied to the factions, weather, wildlife, civilians, etc.

Tom Clancy’s The Division will be released on Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in 2015.