[Suggestion] Design concept too long for title that would be fun, and make coding AI easier

from Elemental Forums

This is a design concept I was kicking around while playing civ5.

One of the things that you can do in civ5: if you know one country is sending an army to go sneak attack another country, you can warn the target country so they can plan appropriately.   While that's a nifty concept, there is no way that the AI is sending that message about me (at least not accurately) because they don't have the advantage of being able to just look at my current scripted intent, and rat me out.   

So all that said, that brings me to my most recent brain child.   What if you could "mark targets"?  For example, you could pick a city that is your strategic desire to acquire.  (the AI could do this too).   Or you could mark an army that it is your strategic desire to eliminate.   A quest to accomplish, etc.   This could give you bonuses that accumulate over time when you attempt to achieve that objective.   Perhaps something like a 5% attack bonus per turn after marking an objective to your attack and defense when interacting with that objective, cheaper tactical spells, or whatever else you want to implement.  

Now,  for a game like this one, you wouldn't want to use espionage because that's an evil word 'round these parts.  We could make it cooler! Global enchantments that offer ways to clue in to these tags like the following: (just a few examples)

"Clairvoyant tendencies" : Gives you a 5% per turn chance of gaining insight into the current intentions of an enemy civilization. 20 mana, 1 mana per turn.

"Omnipresence" : Grants you great knowledge of the pending future.  You know all the intents of the other civilizations.  700 mana, 20 mana per turn.

"Tower of Iron Will" : Grants you a 95% resistance to spells that would reveal your intentions to other civilizations. 40 mana, 3 mana per turn.

"Alter Fate" : Sets the intent of an enemy civilization to the target of your choice until dispelled. 300 mana cost, 15 mana per turn.

Many of these would be very very well served with global spells and a Global spell UI, like so many other really cool spells that would be fun. (see my post about global enchantments) 

 

I Think powerful spells like the proposed "Alter Fate" and "Omnipresence" would be better if Strategic cast times were implemented.   I believe it would add a feeling of accomplishment for the really big stuff that we don't really get from anything but levels at the moment.  That's just my opinion though.

 

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Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Although that would be nice, it is entirely exploitable. I mark this army to die (when I'm going to attack it next turn or in 3 turns because I'm there).

As to your bonuses. I'm going to kill that capital city with my militia... takes me 100 turns to get there, at 5 percent that 500 percent bonus to my attack... militia wins.

But your idea is not without merit and I wouldn't doubt that there is a good way to go about this process without resorting to gaining exploitable materials. For example, if you accomplish your goal you get a temporary (non-stackable) bonus to your gildar production / research production / building production similar to a golden age in civ. Say it lasts for 3 seasons.

To mark your target that could easily be done with a spell in the current system (getting the AI to do such a thing may be way more work than is reasonable) it could mark it targeted for say 4-5 seasons with a cooldown on the spell of 8 - 10 seasons. I do not agree that you should get a bonus in anyway to destroy that target. But to your other things if you discover that the AI is going to attack a particular unit / city, then that city should get a bonus to defend against such transgressions of the AI, because you know it's coming. This bonus is of course non-stackable and comes into play once you found out the AI's intent and lasts only for 2 - 3 seasons. Which the AI then could change its mind and mark a different target.

To find out the AI intent should have a cooldown of 4 - 5 seasons, also purchase this knowledge from other civilizations.

I think this might be fun to play with, I'm not sure how feasible it would be to program the AI to functionally cast these see what you are doing spells effectively. Of course on harder difficulties it could get these spells for free and always one ;)

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

I had intended to include that there should be some kind of cap to how much benefit someone could get out of it.  (like say it can only go up for 10 turns).

It could probably be better implemented with a combat penalty for failure to plan out your actions.  something like -35% to offense if you don't mark, which decreases by 5% per turn.

The AI already selects it's targets.   The player just doesn't have to.   This plan would cause the players to behave a little more predictably,  to make it easier for the AI to play the game.   There would be ways to cheese the system... like mark a target as a bluff if you know you're trying to fool one of those enchants.  That would be more difficult to program an AI for.

I don't know that this is a change that can make it into Legendary Heroes, but I'm more hopeful that it might make it into the next expac.

But then again... we did get starbases at the last moment with galciv :) 

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting emmagine, reply 2

This plan would cause the players to behave a little more predictably,  to make it easier for the AI to play the game.
End of emmagine's quote

I don't think this is necessary. It shouldn't be that difficult for the AI to realize we have armies near one of its cities, and it should be using strategic spells to halt those armies or teleport their own armies over to deal with the threat. Other games in the genre have no issue using spells like that effectively to preempt player actions. It's not like the AI in this game has hit a wall and they need to put effort elsewhere to compensate, there is plenty of room for improvement.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

I wasn't saying it was necessary, but it would make it easier from a designers perspective, and for modding AI's for new abilities and spells.  This could be a fun mechanic that would aid diplomacy, create some interesting spell choices, and make coding easier all at once.