The ATG Single Player Experience

[Jafele]

Agree with Wodin. Command Ops is one of the few with a strong AI, this is the reason why I wish one day a random map generator could be available for this game. On the other hand the updated AI mod for Heroes V is about to be realised according to Quantomas words in this interesting extract:

Regarding the current status, I have finalized the AI design. Most people are probably not aware what that means. What I am doing is to develop a universal AI, i.e. algorithms that can deal with forces, strategic leverage and actors in an abstract way. Technically, it is an AI that recognizes what matters on an abstract level, it is not tied to any game at this stage. This AI can adapt to mostly any gameplay rules, and Heroes V is figuratively speaking attached on the top of the AI, so that the AI knows about the specifics of Heroes V and do its magic based on the data fed to it by the game.

This is very much in contrast to what mostly any other game production does. Typically, you have game designers do their creative work and as a result come up with specific gameplay rules. Then programmers write the required code to implement the game mechanics (gameplay rules are a part of this), and any AI work is typically addressed by writing heuristics that deal with the specifics of this particular game design. That's the reason why modding is limited the way it is in Heroes, if the AI is central to the gameplay and tied to specific game mechanics, you can only bend the fabric so much, i.e. what mods are allowed to change, without breaking the game and its consistency or creating insane overheads. I don't know of any game that ever attempted to include a universal AI to go beyond this limitation. The reason is simple, the publishing model is based on budgets and maximizing profits for shareholders. Apart from that a truly universal AI is not an established technology, it needs to be researched, prototyped and made into an application.

This is the reason why this milestone is so important. When I say finalized AI design, it signifies a truly big step that we now have every constituent of AI, a magnificent machine (organism is possibly a better term) that is up to the challenge. That isn't to say that the algorithms that form this machine are refined in every detail, but I have solutions for every component and everything is in its place. It's actually desirable this way because some solutions are heuristics and can be implemented rapidly that way, and refined later. What I am doing now is implementing the prototype and attaching it to Heroes V, once done it's proof of concept and application in one.

The implications are far reaching. Sometimes I have the impression that actually nobody bothered to grasp the consequences that such an AI advancement represents. It means that we can design, adapt and change the gameplay rules any way we want during the project. Because the gameplay rules sit logically on top of the AI, we can make their design entirely open, that modders can modify the game's rules to their heart's content if we provide the proper tools for it. With other words we are free to play with the gameplay rules as we see fit. This is a big freedom and the reason why I can rightly say it's feasible to implement the game mechanics fairly abstract, refine them to create a game to match my vision, and at the same time allow any of us to experiment with their own set of gameplay rules; that we can establish best use cases and advance our game design methodically and empirically. Think about it.

It's also the reason why I think that the AI will advance the art of writing for games. Technically, the AI acts for computer players, who in turn act accordingly to any rules in the game, expressed in actions that match their goals. As a human player you have your own motivations and goals, and the gameplay merges these realities. If you imagine this game world in its entirety, all its inhabitants, places, forces, objects, these are logically tied together by the game's rules and how the AI can make use of these. As a writer you will then be able to author your own rules and add these to the game world. Rules that define what interactions can happen between different actors, in different places and at different times, rules that can alter the gameplay rules themselves, locally, temporally, permanently. With other words, as a writer you gain the power to define what can happen, the actions and how the world will change accordingly. The actors, both the human players and computer players, will play on this stage. The AI will make its actors play to the rules you define. This is a considerable power, you can define the plot and interactions and the world will adapt to it. The word will hold new power.

[Josh]

@ Jafele; wow that sure is some statement there... an universal AI, grasping strategic choices etc etc...? That's quite something.
But as usual I'm a bit sceptical here, so let's see how things work out okay? [:)]

[Jafele]

ORIGINAL: Josh

@ Jafele; wow that sure is some statement there... an universal AI, grasping strategic choices etc etc...? That's quite something.
But as usual I'm a bit sceptical here, so let's see how things work out okay? [:)]

I´m also very skeptic with companies promises about AI improvements. However, this is a free mod (no fucking interests on it) and this is an update of a succesful mod published one year ago, so I´m quite optimistic. Anyway I´ll inform you once it be realised. IMO it´s a very important issue for any wargame community.