G33X Nexus Entertainment > Precursors

RTS / FPS aspect, with comments on AI

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contingencyplan:
As far as how we interface the RTS aspect with the FPS and FlightSim aspects of the game, I am thinking something along the lines of Warcraft 3.  Only played it a little bit, but I've read enough to know that the premise of the game isn't to simply amass the crapload of units and overwhelm the enemy base.  The goal is to choose and buff your hero, and with supporting units use the hero to kill the enemy base.  Alternately, think of Commandos in Command & Conquer.

The point is that Players should be these hero-style characters, even if they're on the lowest rank in their group.  Commanders also can create / build AI-controlled soldiers, which are lower powered (requires less computer resources to handle them if they're fairly simplified), that are more or less expendable.  Further, the Commander can build tanks and vehicles and such that either have NPC pilots or Player pilots.  The Commander's goal is to use the NPC soldiers to protect their "hero" Player soldiers, while using both to wipe out the enemy base.  Likely strength as commander will be heavily influenced by the number of Players killed while under their command.  

The AI for the NPC soldiers would be that of most RTS games - pathfinding and such, combined with intelligent / realistic behaviors (like hiding behind crates when getting shot at, moving in groups [using flocking behaviors most likely], etc.).  They just have smaller / less  owerful weapons than do the Player characters.

Any other ideas?
~Brian

whitelynx:
I'm not sure we should differentiate between player and non-player characters that much... It also shouldn't be common practice for a commander to send all his NPC units in a suicide rush while is PCs stay back and snipe with artillery... it should take into account the number of his _soldiers_ killed, not how many were player and how many weren't.

A side note: vehicles aren't created with pilots in them. You buy or build the vehicle, and then have an existing character pilot it.

Dave

Morgul:
I agree 110% with dave. My goal is for people to say, "Oh, that was an NPC?!" when they play against our AI. I want all NPC's to be believeable characters.. not just the typical NPC's you meet in a game like NWN. (I also want Admins to regularly take control of different NPC's and play them.. so you never really know if it's an AI, or a player.)

I don't think that PC's should be different at all from NPC's. (Even though players would like preferential treatment) I want the game to immerse you in the universe... I don't want people thinking about NPC's or skill points, or anything like that. I want it to be a believable universe, not the next fad in MMORPG's. I'd like people to lose themselves in their missions, and to live out thier dreams in this universe... and I don't think that will work if we make parts of it clearly artificial.. like the AI.

--Chris

contingencyplan:
Well, the reason I put in there about treating Players as quasi-heroes is that Players will likely want to customize their equipment - weapons, armor, etc.  Personally, I think they should be given the opportunity to.  I suppose we could allow them to obtain weapons and armor from a depot in-base.  However, this also can make it more difficult for Commanders to control their Player units, especially if they're running low on the high-powered guns.  Ranks could allow some amount of control - "You have to be at least Rank X to use the Uber-Tuff DoomSender Anti-Capital Ship Pistol."  

However, this creates a conflict - when a new Soldier is sent out into the field (question - do we allow "creation" of soldiers, or how do we deal with "creating" a new Marine or whatnot?), if the Commander doesn't tell them what to get, then the AI ones will have the basic loadout (or a random one, if we program them that way).  So in my own fatigue-induced way, I guess I'm asking what should the balance be between the Commander's choosing the proper loadout, the Player's desire to choose their own loadout, and the AI's inability (due to lack of freewill) to know the difference?

This also brings up another consideration, and brings back the idea of teleportation - how do people get back to base?  Anyone who's played an RTS game knows that the bases are usually fairly far apart.  Since battles are planning to rage over continents (if not entire worlds), that's a LONG way to walk.  At the very least, the Player should be able to teleport back to the base - they might lose some of their equipment and such (to create a cost system - yeah, you just saved your life, but you have to start back at square 1 with the Dinky Pea Shooter Standard.

I agree that the game should be immersive, to be certain, and I fully support the goal of indistinguishable AI (honestly, might be a little out of our grasp, but I'm all for trying :-) ).  

Also, I have the beginnings of ideas on things like reinforcements and death on the battlefield.  However, it's late, my brain is close to mush, so they're not formed well enough to post yet.

~Brian

fehknt:
ok, how about this: a commander wants to recruit a "sniper".  the job gets posted to characters' jobs available queue if they have equipment and skills that would qualify them as a sniper -- which should be set up by the commander, what qualifies... basically, custom units per commander.  They must have at least the BASE that the commander wants, and could have better equipment.  if no player takes the job in a reasonable period of time, an AI plays it, and the job ramains posted but only to people that have identical equipment as the AI randomly chose.  (should be told what equipment is required minimum or required exactly so people know).

Now, have the price of the unit based on the min specs the commander publishes, and the faction he's fighting for gives him X money to spend on recruits, and upon completion of the battle, the player gets paid the recruitment cost.  If the commander wins, (s)he should probably get a bonus too, and if they lose... they should hope to live. <:o)

This way, players are totally responsible for having thier own equipment and vechicles, but the commander is not totally dependent on a character having certian equipment or vechicles, because AI can do the trick too.

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