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Author Topic:   A-not-I

HandofBobb posted 07-05-99 01:38 AM ET
I found a new 'feature' of the A-not-I today. I was truly bored with the agem, and tried to put a new spin on it, by loading UoP into all the faction slots, to see how I could do against my own faction- now, it's unsurprising that I was still consistently ahead of the others, nor is it a surprise (though it was amusing) that we all tried to build the exact same SP's at the same time. And it was also amusing having Zak tell me that we should form a pact, and rid ourselves of Zak- though I could never agree, as I was never sure just who he was talking about.
Anyways, here's the odd part: I noticed that, in many respects, the computer was continuing to play the faction as if it were that color's original faction. That is to say, that the Yellow University player had a lot of extra cash, and used probe teams liberally (albiet ineffectively against myself -HSA rocks!); the Orange player spread like a virus, and also used a fair amount of probes, while remaining behind the tech curve; The dark blue player went directly for the conquer techs, and remained a pain in my butt throughout the game; and the light blue player was consistantly erratic. I didn't interact with the black/gray player much, and I replaced the green player- as I like to go first, so It's hard to say about them. Now, I think this says some interesting things about the A-not-I, and the 'leader personalities' that supposedly have an impact on play. I'd be interested in hearing from other people, to see if any of them have tried a similar game, and, if so, if they've found a similar response.
MichaeltheGreat posted 07-05-99 02:00 AM ET
What you're describing makes sense - the entire AI behavioral coding is not controlled by the faction settings. There are too few variables you have control over to entirely determine the actions of the AI - it's hard coded into the game, so some of the behavior will be there regardless of what you do with the faction settings.
Resource Consumer posted 07-07-99 07:16 AM ET
So,MtG, if I understand you correctly then all of this faction tweaking is not controlling all of the way a faction plays.
In fact, it may be more important which faction you replace with a custom faction. The most important faction is the one that ain't there.
Jesus...............
TheScientist posted 07-07-99 06:27 PM ET
You can probably use this for creating customs scenarios. If you want a faction to attack ruthless, give it the Hive. If you want it to use probe teams, give it Morgans.
RC: This sounds like another idea for scripting, doesn't it? I still hope that Firaxis include a scripting language in SMACX.
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Author	Topic: A-not-I
HandofBobb	posted 07-05-99 01:38 AM ET I found a new 'feature' of the A-not-I today. I was truly bored with the agem, and tried to put a new spin on it, by loading UoP into all the faction slots, to see how I could do against my own faction- now, it's unsurprising that I was still consistently ahead of the others, nor is it a surprise (though it was amusing) that we all tried to build the exact same SP's at the same time. And it was also amusing having Zak tell me that we should form a pact, and rid ourselves of Zak- though I could never agree, as I was never sure just who he was talking about. Anyways, here's the odd part: I noticed that, in many respects, the computer was continuing to play the faction as if it were that color's original faction. That is to say, that the Yellow University player had a lot of extra cash, and used probe teams liberally (albiet ineffectively against myself -HSA rocks!); the Orange player spread like a virus, and also used a fair amount of probes, while remaining behind the tech curve; The dark blue player went directly for the conquer techs, and remained a pain in my butt throughout the game; and the light blue player was consistantly erratic. I didn't interact with the black/gray player much, and I replaced the green player- as I like to go first, so It's hard to say about them. Now, I think this says some interesting things about the A-not-I, and the 'leader personalities' that supposedly have an impact on play. I'd be interested in hearing from other people, to see if any of them have tried a similar game, and, if so, if they've found a similar response.
MichaeltheGreat	posted 07-05-99 02:00 AM ET What you're describing makes sense - the entire AI behavioral coding is not controlled by the faction settings. There are too few variables you have control over to entirely determine the actions of the AI - it's hard coded into the game, so some of the behavior will be there regardless of what you do with the faction settings.
Resource Consumer	posted 07-07-99 07:16 AM ET So,MtG, if I understand you correctly then all of this faction tweaking is not controlling all of the way a faction plays. In fact, it may be more important which faction you replace with a custom faction. The most important faction is the one that ain't there. Jesus...............
TheScientist	posted 07-07-99 06:27 PM ET You can probably use this for creating customs scenarios. If you want a faction to attack ruthless, give it the Hive. If you want it to use probe teams, give it Morgans. RC: This sounds like another idea for scripting, doesn't it? I still hope that Firaxis include a scripting language in SMACX.