DOH! Is that the colony level? I LIKE hog parts of campaign (pre h2 where they added new features that just made the experience less fun). But, in princilple, it should be great fun.

Oh how many times did you get halted by PP overcharges?

Does splattering a Grunt usually end with a sticky attached to your wheel arch?

Is there still something like a concussion cannon to blow your hog 100m away and over a cliff?

: Well you can still press up on the d-pad and direct the AI driver, however I
: tended to find that they would drive towards the action and circle at a
: distance. It was pretty good. Riding passanger on a Gungoose though is a
: lot more risky, as the AI seems to drive it like a Warthog so it flips and
: gets stuck A LOT.

Circling the action at a distance seems like the easiest/best option given how hard it would be to write competent AI driving. All the judgement calls they would have to make to do anything more would be very hard to conceptualize and code (nevermind the amount of processing it would take).

: Only where to drive too. You can't tell them to stop. In general the team
: commands are really limited and a stop/regroup one would've been awesome.
: Oddly the characters have dialogue for this order which they call out, but
: it doesn't actually do anything and you can't control it.

Oh 343: really! "STOP" is the number one command ally AI needs. What is the brake button in the game? Left trigger? Is that used for anything when you are riding the hog? What about the movement stick, couldn't that be used to indicate a general direction for setting off from a start and to indicate roughly where to go?

When 343 said they had two dedicated programmers working on companion AI I think they worked on the revive mechanic and didn't spend much time making driving better. They should have put an extra 2 programmers on driving polish. Maybe they can put those guys on driving for the next game.

: It sucks, but it's useful if your alone I guess. Changing seats makes the AI
: driver/gunner get out entirely, and they have a pause of several seconds
: once your in place before they figure out to get back in, so any advantage
: you could gain is lost in the lethargy.

Are you talking about the old mechanism where you are outside of the vehicle and move near a vehicle position and press (is it x?)? I meant the new (press A?) mechanism that we saw in the muliplayer footage, It works when you are in the vehicle.

The behaviour you describe above could be useful for solo play. They get out, you drive off, and have the hog for yourself for a while. If you can switch quickly between seats then you could make fairly intelligent use of the vehicle.

: Not at all.

Sigh. Did it matter much? Were they always moving and so it didn't matter much?

: They don't shoot corpses but they don't prioritize either. They will shoot
: crawlers instead of a knight, etc. Luckily you can tell them what to shoot
: at.

343, guyz, it's the 21st century. This can't be impossible to code.

: I didn't try this and I never saw a pop-up for it. As far as I can tell it
: isn't possible anymore. You can however tell allies to pick up certain
: weapons on the battlefield. However this basically sucks as well because
: you can't tell who to pick up or drive what. So if Kelly is in a Scorpion
: and Linda is on foot, you can point at a Ghost and be sure Kelly will get
: out of the Scorpion, get on the Ghost and Linda will be none the wiser
: running passed.

LOL :-)

The weapon swapping was always somewhat frustrating. I might actually approve of taking it out if it can't be made super easy.

So, actually, I'd say, "good choice 343".

: See above.

: No, if anything they would stand by it figuring out what to do.

Do they reboard if you get back behind the wheel? If so, "good choice". As longs as they get in really quick.