Combat scripted ai will not work

Problem I had in that was the lack of information, there was only "will not work". And without any explanation on why someone think it won't work you would need a small essay in how to create a AI that nobody will read anyway. So the rant about credentials was to say "I have knowledge" and was therefore followed by a appeal to explain whats the problem so the whole context would be "I have the knowledge, please explain what you think is the problem and I might help"

Thing is that when a newcomer come in to a forum and browse thru, get incorrect info from a thread like this. When he/she then post in another forum it becomes: "SotA will have poor AI". To be fair do we not know anything about how good or bad the AI will be but deck system is nothing that would change that.

 

Nothing personal friend. I did not take issue with your post.

 

yeah for sure, no need for everyone to whip it out for every post, nor do we need an expert for every topic. It just nice to have them in cases where people start drumming up negation in a vacuum of ignorance, which is quite common within this community given the innovative nature of the project.

 

how many MMos have you designed for?

in order to BALANCE encounters you need to know what spells players have access to and how often they can/will be used.

with this system none of that info is known so you cant design a finite encounter around an infinite probability deck.

other games have a set mana pool and set abilities so devs know EXACTLY how much DPS output can be obtained because they have a STATIC and SET amount of abilities that they can use.

here you cannot, how can you design a monster HP if you dont know that the players healing rune will EVER pop ?

its not that hard, i highly doubt you are as smart as you say or i wouldnt have to explain this simple concept.

 

obviously not this one, considering the way ghosts fight

 

Um what? It doesn't matter when it "pops". You will know exactly what skills the player will have access to by their level....geez. You would even be able to figure out generally how often the min and max "poppage" of each skills.

Thing is, no encounter should be totally balanced for every build type to provide the same experience...it will be harder for one or easier for another depending on the encounter.

Your insults don't help as well, since your arguments are flawed.

 

In previous Ultimas that used overland encounters, there were areas where you just didnt go until you were ready. I remember in Ultima IV: Quest of the avatar, commandeering my first boat and sailing to fire island just to get my a** handed to me. I wouldn't return to that island for several months.

 

That's another area entirely though I believe...what the OP is saying that you can't have set encounters because you don't know what skills will be available at any given time.

I just don't see this though since they have a level system....that allows them to balance it.

 

forgive my lack of expertise in the AI algorithm programming field: still awaiting an explanation as to why this is so. especially considering the event that you are in a large party for these encounters.

 

When you build a creatures or NPC they normally follow the same rules that PC have, with the additional skills that PC don't have access to, like the dragon that was spoke of before. Just as PC have their decks you also design a monster/NPC with a deck that follows the same rules as for PC.

Now combat begins:
Games that gives the creature/NPC information that a NPC is sloppy doing and nothing I like at all. So in SotAs cast the creature/NPC can guess what type of fighting style the PC will have depending on equipment and things like that, just as you as a PC can guess other PC or creature/NPC fighting style will be. PC would choose the deck PC THINK is best for the situation, just as an AI would do. Of Course the AI must revalue the situation depending whats happens in the fight and might change deck because it fit the situation better, again just as a PC would.

During the actual fight an AI have advantage over the PC due to the fact that the AI will never miss a combo (if not added to the AI that he might do so), AI will also be able to switch target faster and therefore use different skills on differents target better that any PC would and therefore will AI be more effective.

All above have actually not much to do with AI rather than game mechanics that the AI uses just the same way as a PC. The true AI programming is how to use the game mechanics in the best way.

Thing is that you do not design creature/NPC HP or any other ability, after what what PC shows up unless you designing a game that cales creature/NPC difficulty after PC level and SotA will not do that. Thing is that I can sit down and design a encounter for a level 20 PC with certain HP and skills and all that but when a level 2 PC he will die but if 8 level 20 will become a walkover for the PC. If a PC is healer, archer, fighter, etc etc do not matter because the encounter will be the same for all of them.

I think you are hung up on some kind of scaling that some games have, encounters that change stats and skills to make the encounter equally hard if you are a level 5 or level 50. But in SotA the Merthanos the Necromancer (Fictional scenario), will always be Merthanos the Necromancer with the same skills and stats no matter what PC or group of PC that enter his halls. This is how many RPG are designed and according to me correctly so. Games like elder scrolls that have scaling so no matter where you go in the world you get opponents that are just challenging enough is nothing I like to play. If you go to the wrong place you will have a hard time and die.

 

Well to make things even better: The server knows the random seed and knows therefor exactly the time for every single rune. So if you would like to you can make the AI that that into consideration. Thing is that I really dislike AIs that have information it should not have, AI should not know more than a PC can.

 

It's a false argument...I explained already why it isn't an issue.

 

Exactly, but they don't even need to go there for challenge, since they will have a general idea what every level character will be able to do.

 

Precisely!

 

Encase you haven't noticed every designer designs combat around character level/ability as well as situational checks for AI scripted events.maybe we have different ideas of ,ai. I expect a boss fight like a single player RPGs which have crept into raid bosses in games.

Any other Ai other than fundamental rudementary will simply not work. If you are that great a programmer then why are you of work. If u don't get it from the beginning you never will

You explain why it isn't issue? I'm glad the Lord hath spoken


Seriously your agile t is basically "I say they can so they can"

 

Yes there is some games out there that do that type of scaling, just as I said but there is also games that do not scale encounters after the players. It's just different game designs and have nothing at all to do with how a combat AI can/should work. As also said before even if you wanted to do a games designed with scaling the deck system do not prevent that in any way. Server knows the random seed so it know exactly when you will have every single skill on your bar, actually it can know it several minutes before it actually happen, so if would be pretty easy to adapt the encounter.

But some thing you need to understand that things like scaling are not in any way AI! Creature/NPC AI is all about behaviour, what they do and say, where they go/run what skills to use when and things like that. What HP, equipment, skills a creature/NPC have is design and if you want to scale you have an scaling algorithm for that and nit an AI algorithm.

What exactly do you mean by this?

 

What?

 

It's hard to script a boss encounter when u have someone who specs to win vs another guy with more slugs than slots and nothing but fireball cards.

The field is too diverse to program for all the variables when so many are unknown. Past games are irrelevant as none have used a combat system that has so much variability.

 

Programmers are wizards, they can script whatever they want with code sorcery. Thinking that companions, NPC and AI suffer the same limitations as a players seems like an odd assumption.

 

i never said they suffer the same limitations they do suffer from having to program a specific set encounter with a mass of variables moreso in this system than any other. When there are no triad of classes like are ment for raids when everyone could be a healer or vice versa then it becomes very hard to program a specific set encounter around such simple things that are set in stone with other games but a variable in this one.

Pretty much basic Rpg design 101