Hello lovely people!
This is a devlog for the game I'm currently working on called
Aril. In particular I'm going to make this devlog be about the game's AI. Aril is supposed to be played online against other players, but in order for people to practice I'm putting together a swell AI, that can help them get used to the game. To make this work I was hoping for you guys' lovely opinions on what the AI is like right now and where you'd want it to go.
About Aril (pitch)Aril is a fast-paced real-time strategy game, focused on intense quick matches. With Aril we merged the build phase and battle phase. As a result Aril matches never take longer than 5 minutes, where every minute is packed with quick decision making and high-level tactical thinking.
Aril features innovative gameplay, an experimental art style focused on clarity and an energetic yet soothing soundtrack. Aril matches can be played over internet and LAN against other human players or can be practiced offline against the computer. An in-depth campaign is also available to teach you the ins and outs of the game and allow you to become an Aril expert.
- Innovative gameplay, allowing high-level tactical thinking and quick decision making.
- Intense fast-paced multiplayer matches.
- An experimental art style focused on clarity of battle.
- An excellent mix of energetic beats and soothing sounds.
- An extensive single-player campaign with unique challenges.
How to play a match of ArilYou win a match by taking over 3/4th of the level's territory. You take over territory by moving around your main unit: the sentinel. Captured land is not protected so your enemy's sentinel can just move across it and take it as his own.
In order to protect your land you use drones. Drones are small dispensable units that are used to block or attack enemy units. Units of different factions can't move past each other, so when you place a drone somewhere the enemy sentinel can't move past there. He can however order one of his own drones to attack you, causing both drones to explode, allowing him to move across the previously guarded post. Sentinels can not be attacked and they can not attack. Drones slowly die when they leave their own territory.
Drones are grown over time from Assemblers (factories) that are scattered across the map. You can make an assembler yours by capturing it. An assembler needs power in order to work. You power an assembler by connecting it with uninterrupted territory to a source. The more sources connected to an assembler the faster it produces drones. Once an assembler is powered it is also blocks enemy units. In order for an enemy to steal your assembler he first has to disconnect it from all sources before he can capture it.
This explains the basic gameplay. If this is too much to take in at once or if the information is unclear, do not worry! The game has a campaign/tutorial that explains everything step by step.
Current State of A(I)ffairsI've got the basic AI up and running. As of now it only thinks reactively, so its decisions are always based on what the game's current state is. It doesn't try to predict future events or plans strategies. Any move that seems 'smart' is merely emergent behaviour
. This is however intentional and I don't plan on changing it (much). Except when necessary of course!
I mainly make the AI dumber (for easier settings) by making it 'think' less. So instead of recalculating optimal moves every frame it only does it every 100, 300 or 600 frames (game runs at 60 fps). Other ways to make it less smart are by changing certain parameters to make him notice things later or not perform 'smart' moves at certain times (wonderfully vague, ey?
). Anyway, soon I'll make a post in which I explain the AI in detail and go over every parameter I've set up now that allows me to tweak its behaviour.
What I want from youWhat I'd love for you to do is pick up the game's demo right here (Windows only atm, sorry!):
Give it a spin and tell me what you think. I'd advice you to start with the campaign and try to familiarise yourself with the controls and gameplay. Afterwards have fun playing matches against the AI on different difficulty settings. The first person to beat Expert AI gets a virtual hug ^^.
The purpose of this devlog is for me to create an AI that can successfully teach you what it takes to become relatively good at playing Aril. The reason I chose to make the AI focus on being really good at the game's controls as opposed to making it come up with complicated tactics is mainly because it's a lot easier
but also because I want the AI to be a sort of gatekeeper. The (expert) AI can click the fastest and controls his units in the most optimal way possible, the only way for you to beat him is to be better at tactics. Once you can defeat him, you can be sure you know enough of the game to take on real humans on the other side of your internet connection. So as to summarise: I don't want to create a genius mastermind unbeatable AI, I want to create a mentor for the player, that allows (or even forces) him to properly learn about the most interesting part of Aril: the tactics!
Thank you for your attention!
I promise to keep this devlog updated with all the new AI related development that's going on. I will soon write a more indept post about the technical workings of the AI. And maybe you guys can even mess with the current AI parameters to form AI's of your own.
Cheers!
-Maxim
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