When making my encryption program Encryptonite V1.0 I made a random mehtod that picked each byte, and set it to a different byte at psuedo random 255 different characters, not one at repitition. Like cyphering text but way better. Would making enemies who had different algorithms set at a random seed generated for each enemy at the start of each level be good? I thought of this during my program. I see how it could be done, but would it be worth it? I know it's possible, but has anyone done this? Is their any game I could see preferablly in java that I could look at, or any commercial game that uses this? I am sure their is, but I don't know where to look. AND if not, it's kinda cool that I have thought of this, but it's about too late in the computer programming world especially AI to think of this, and not have any one else out their already have it out in some game.

Well, what I don't get is what you mean by "enemies who had different algorithms"? So, if we had 100 NPCs, we have to go in and write 100 different behavior algorithms for each one? Or do we start each one off on the same algorithm with a different random seed?

If it is just the same algorithm with a different random seed, then there's no real difference in them, just they're initialized differently. Or arre you thinking of something else.

Keep in mind that theoretically speaking, a random search is just as good as an exhaustive search. Well, I think most people will agree to that. Personally, I found that out when studying DNA computing.

So, pure randomness is possible in gaming and is very simple, but I don't think it would be very good in many ways, since for the most part, it might just be impossible to beat. Imagine a side scrolling shooter where ther enemies just moved randomly and constantly fired in random directions? There's really no way to beat that effectively. So, guess pure randomness may not be the best idea.

I would be suprised if there were games out there with significant amounts of AI code that didn't use a random number generator in there somewhere.

I read something interesting on this by the creator of the AIs for the HALO games. Basically what he had to say is that using randomness in AI is a very bad idea. Why? Because then the AIs stop acting uniformly and are no longer predictable to the player. This may sound like a bad reason, but the concept is that the player should not be surprised for no reason. They should be able to formulate plans based on a rough idea of how the different AIs react to situations, like who runs when.

When randomness is introduced there is less coherent "character" in your AI, which may at one moment be a coward but the next be a hero.

humans are inpredictible, so should be ai.

every character can have a special parameter of probality of an action. and if it's above certain value, then he/she can perform specific action.

people aren't always heroes, just when the time is right and they feel they shoud do something.

Well this is a very generic question which can just simply not be answered. Neither by intrest86 nor QbeCK and me. This is a topic which is very user specific.
Personally I agree with intrest86.
Applied structure which apply some kind of "randomness" are then known
as FuSMs(Fuzzy State Machines). But this really depends on the game and its
users.