What it does
Mass Entity AI is the system that makes Project Windless's large-scale battles work. It allows thousands of soldiers and massive creatures to clash in real time across dynamic battlefields. Each soldier on the field reacts to what is happening around it: moving, flanking, surrounding, and responding to the player's actions. These are not scripted animations or background decoration. The AI drives actual combat behavior.
The practical effect is that battles feel chaotic and unpredictable. When you wade into a crowd of enemies as the Hero King, they do not stand in neat rows waiting for their turn. They surround you, probe for weaknesses, and react when you break through their lines.
Player experience
The system connects directly to the One-Versus-Many Combat design. Players fight within massive engagements, not above them. You are on the ground in the middle of the battle, cutting through enemy ranks while the war rages around you. The AI ensures that your decisions about where to strike, which flank to hit, and when to push forward actually affect how the engagement plays out.
This is different from games where large battles are background scenery or cutscenes. In Project Windless, the player and the AI-driven armies share the same space, and both affect the outcome.
Not generative AI
After the State of Play reveal, some press coverage raised questions about AI usage in the game. KRAFTON clarified the situation through a spokesperson quoted by GamingBolt:
"Project Windless uses traditional game AI systems to drive NPC behaviour and bring the world and its characters to life beyond combat. We are not using generative AI for content creation or narrative elements."
The distinction matters. Mass Entity AI uses traditional game AI and machine learning systems for NPC behavior and animation. It does not generate art, text, voice acting, or story content. KRAFTON has described their approach as "traditional, craftsmanship-driven" for single-player development.
The team does use AI tools internally during "exploratory phases" to support iteration and efficiency, but these are development aids, not player-facing features.
Comparison to other games
Large-scale battles have been attempted in games before, but the implementations vary. Dynasty Warriors and Musou-style games pack hundreds of enemies on screen, but most of them stand idle until the player approaches. Total War games simulate thousands of units, but from a top-down strategic camera. Mount & Blade puts the player on the ground in mid-sized battles, but the AI is relatively simple.
KRAFTON's pitch is that Mass Entity AI combines the on-the-ground perspective of Mount & Blade with the visual density of Dynasty Warriors and the tactical AI of a more sophisticated system. Each soldier moves with purpose rather than standing as filler. Whether the final game delivers on that promise will depend on how the AI performs at scale, which is something pre-alpha footage cannot fully answer.
Technical details
Specific technical details about how Mass Entity AI works under the hood have not been publicly shared. KRAFTON has not discussed the pathfinding algorithms, group behavior systems, or performance optimizations that allow thousands of units to function simultaneously. The State of Play trailer showed pre-alpha footage running on PS5 Pro via Unreal Engine 5, which gives some indication of the hardware target, but framerate and unit count specifics remain unknown.