Zetheros
Developer
Hey Exanimates,
This week we've been getting deep into the AI side of things. We've gone a bit beyond our initial goals of combat interactions and looking at a few aspects of AI that need to be expanded on or improved. There is an amount of overlap between our immediate goals and the two following major updates (the second of which should be the final update for version 1.0). The update following this one will focus almost entirely on AI related things, expanding the role system for important story and other interactions. We won't reveal much about the final update, but it will introduce some key things that from an AI perspective will benefit from the work we're doing now.
We have a strong foundation with a lot of untapped potential for the AI with the emotion, relationship and role systems, which will be expanded on in the update after this. The core essentials are also important (and not simple), like combat which has received big revisions in recent updates, and navigation which we're in the process of making some improvements to. Beyond navigating the environment though, AI currently doesn't have much awareness of it, or anything really beyond other characters and some scripted locations and triggers tied to roles. This will change, with the AI being able to recognise and react to every little object or thing in their vicinity. This is something we've been carefully building towards from the very first steps in development.
We touched on this last week, how we wanted AI to react to and in some cases attack force powers. But this isn't through some specific behaviours for this or that, we're building a framework for AI to perceive and respond to anything, based on their unique qualities, knowledge, emotional state etc. Breaking it all down into a common system is how we respect all these things on both sides of the relationship, and approach something that resembles intelligent behaviour regardless of the situation.
This might sound like a lot, but we've been considering these problems for a long time, it's all part of our plan and we're already well into implementing it. In fact from here it's largely a matter of finally giving some meaning and purpose to all the work we've already done. The game has absolutely grown beyond its planned scope and far beyond the level of refinement, but this shift occurred long ago. We know by now that "good enough" just isn't a thing, and while we don't know how far we will ultimately go, what's important is that when we take a small step it isn't into a dead end, but that we're also laying down the path ahead. For you right now this just means that AI will react to your showy new powers in a way that isn't stupid and immersion breaking, but it's all part of a bigger picture.
We've broadened the scope a bit here, but sometimes a bit of context can be good. This aspect of AI has always been a strong design focus for us, for the same basic reasons as physics has been; it's not really about combat or to support specific gameplay elements, we hate restrictive, highly purpose designed mechanics. We want a world where things work the way you'd expect them to, so you can be creative with how you interact with it and be rewarded with plausible outcomes that contribute to immersion. We might not get it exactly right or do it all in one go, but we are making the effort.
Have a great week!
-the BM team
This week we've been getting deep into the AI side of things. We've gone a bit beyond our initial goals of combat interactions and looking at a few aspects of AI that need to be expanded on or improved. There is an amount of overlap between our immediate goals and the two following major updates (the second of which should be the final update for version 1.0). The update following this one will focus almost entirely on AI related things, expanding the role system for important story and other interactions. We won't reveal much about the final update, but it will introduce some key things that from an AI perspective will benefit from the work we're doing now.
We have a strong foundation with a lot of untapped potential for the AI with the emotion, relationship and role systems, which will be expanded on in the update after this. The core essentials are also important (and not simple), like combat which has received big revisions in recent updates, and navigation which we're in the process of making some improvements to. Beyond navigating the environment though, AI currently doesn't have much awareness of it, or anything really beyond other characters and some scripted locations and triggers tied to roles. This will change, with the AI being able to recognise and react to every little object or thing in their vicinity. This is something we've been carefully building towards from the very first steps in development.
We touched on this last week, how we wanted AI to react to and in some cases attack force powers. But this isn't through some specific behaviours for this or that, we're building a framework for AI to perceive and respond to anything, based on their unique qualities, knowledge, emotional state etc. Breaking it all down into a common system is how we respect all these things on both sides of the relationship, and approach something that resembles intelligent behaviour regardless of the situation.
This might sound like a lot, but we've been considering these problems for a long time, it's all part of our plan and we're already well into implementing it. In fact from here it's largely a matter of finally giving some meaning and purpose to all the work we've already done. The game has absolutely grown beyond its planned scope and far beyond the level of refinement, but this shift occurred long ago. We know by now that "good enough" just isn't a thing, and while we don't know how far we will ultimately go, what's important is that when we take a small step it isn't into a dead end, but that we're also laying down the path ahead. For you right now this just means that AI will react to your showy new powers in a way that isn't stupid and immersion breaking, but it's all part of a bigger picture.
We've broadened the scope a bit here, but sometimes a bit of context can be good. This aspect of AI has always been a strong design focus for us, for the same basic reasons as physics has been; it's not really about combat or to support specific gameplay elements, we hate restrictive, highly purpose designed mechanics. We want a world where things work the way you'd expect them to, so you can be creative with how you interact with it and be rewarded with plausible outcomes that contribute to immersion. We might not get it exactly right or do it all in one go, but we are making the effort.
Have a great week!
-the BM team
