Idea: Responsive AI

[IVZanIV]

Hey, I just thought of this idea while I was remembering Star Craft and it's mission editor.

Is it possible (In Python) to moniter the scores of players, and to use that so that if the leaders score is more than a set number (say 500) higher than the score of the lowest player, the lowest player gets a bonus, whether it is an advantage for building times (not sure about this) or just freely spawned units to better balance the game?

I just think that the divide between high and low scores is too set in stone. (lower players almost always get whomped in a war or tech race) This would give them the means to settle the score for themselves.

 

[Kael]

Hey, I just thought of this idea while I was remembering Star Craft and it's mission editor.

Is it possible (In Python) to moniter the scores of players, and to use that so that if the leaders score is more than a set number (say 500) higher than the score of the lowest player, the lowest player gets a bonus, whether it is an advantage for building times (not sure about this) or just freely spawned units to better balance the game?

I just think that the divide between high and low scores is too set in stone. (lower players almost always get whomped in a war or tech race) This would give them the means to settle the score for themselves.

Yeah, we called it the "rubber band effect" to borrow a phrase form the racing car games. We were going to have it spawn "Adventurer" units in the lowest ranked players civs a few times in the game to help give them a chance to come back. We never ended up implementing the idea but I would love to see someone move forward with it, and hear how it works out.

 

[IVZanIV]

Well I don't think that I'll be able to do this with my skillset, so if someone wants to do this, please do!

 

[IVZanIV]

Bump...

Grr post length...

 

[IVZanIV]

Oh really? I didn't know that... Perhaps the code that controls that could be ramped up or changed a bit to become more significant?

 

[J_Period]

the S word???

 

[erikg88]

SDK, probably.

 

[IVZanIV]

Ah haha I was confused.

 

[Belizan]

You could code that effect in Python as well, you'd just have to recreate the wheel. To put it another way, you can't patch into the mechanic that already exists in the game to grant tech discounts to players based on the number of contacts they have which already have the tech. You could recreate the system in Python adding delta modifications to your liking 8).

The other system mentioned by Kael is actually quite easy to implement, what is "difficult" is specifying the system. I.e. How much/many of what units to give when? Other bonuses would potentially require more work depending on what they were, but the hardest part is still defining the mechanic effectively, IMO.