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Post by easye on Dec 12, 2016 16:53:49 GMT
Greetings Doughboys,
I was curious if anyone had come up with a solid model to automate/AI the Martians so that this could be a solo-play game? This train of thought came to me after reading some solo-play rules for Colonial games. The Martians themselves do not really suffer from fear, ignore most terrain, and have a simple shooting process. They seem like a good candidate for automating.
Your thoughts?
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Post by madmorgan on Dec 15, 2016 0:25:53 GMT
Will ponder this...
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Post by gdieckhaus on Dec 15, 2016 15:40:09 GMT
It seems reasonable... maybe a decision flow chart.
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Post by scottwashburn on Dec 15, 2016 19:14:51 GMT
I had already suggested a Zombiecide sort of game where the Humans are automated and the Martians have to navigate through a ruined city full of the miserable little things  |
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Post by hardlec on Dec 15, 2016 21:39:03 GMT
I had already suggested a Zombiecide sort of game where the Humans are automated and the Martians have to navigate through a ruined city full of the miserable little things Along with this is just having 3 assault tripods march across the board in a straight line burning down everything in their path, a la OGRE(r). Any AI will need to have a random function, otherwise it will be to easy to "outguess." |
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Post by easye on Dec 16, 2016 18:47:31 GMT
Perhaps a Martian AI Card deck, where you place the cards in the Move and Shoot deck, shuffle and then pull a few at a time and place them face down. A stack of three cards for each Tripod/Martian unit with a card for the Move/shoot/second Move section?
Move could be variations of
1. Move at full speed towards nearest humans
2. Move at full speed towards nearest human armor
3. Move at full speed towards Objective
4. Stand still
5. Move at full speed towards nearest terrain
etc.
Shooting could be:
1. Shoot with template at nearest human unit
2. Shoot at toughest target in range (no sweep)
3. Shoot at nearest armor
4. Shoot at nearest blip
5. Do not shoot
Etc.
Just spit-balling.
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Post by madmorgan on Dec 16, 2016 19:27:12 GMT
Not bad - will have to think about this, but really, even if playing solo you should do the 'logical' thing for the Martian forces, with only the occasional die roll to resolve either/or situations of equal weight. Example: kill Mk III platoon A or Mk III platoon B.
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Post by boxholder on Dec 17, 2016 1:03:15 GMT
Use a die roll to select the general Martian action(s) from a menu.
More Tripod Options for AI
-fire at nearest unit that fired on you
-advance toward nearest unit that fired in your LOS
-pursue fleeing unit in LOS else advance
-fire on ONE human unit from randomly selected list. Follow list until one target is fired upon
List 1: Command-Soft vehicle-Infantry-Artillery-Structure
List 2: Infantry-Armor-Artillery-Command-Structure-Terrain
List 3: Armor-infantry-Artillery-Terrain-Structure
LIst 4: etc
List 5: etc
-advance 45 degrees (L or R choose randomly)
-stand fast and gas, smoke, or heat ray nearest terrain element within range. else stand still
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Post by hardlec on Dec 18, 2016 4:18:17 GMT
I like the card option better than die rolls. It's easy to tailor a deck of cards to a scenario, it it can be a pain to check a chart for everything.
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Post by boxholder on Dec 18, 2016 12:18:22 GMT
That is true. Card approach does have a lot to recommend it. Plus cards can have various options to be rolled on the card itself. Draw one for each tripod with a few that permit multiple for coordinated action. Could throw in some unusual or surprise actions.
I have a web address for a Napoleonic Era card driven game. I will see if I can find it again. It was pretty close to what we are talking about here.
For the implacable Martians, the main actions are pretty simple: Advance and/or Fire. The questions are (1)which direction and (2)who to target.
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Post by easye on Dec 19, 2016 17:22:07 GMT
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Post by boxholder on Dec 19, 2016 18:14:42 GMT
Neat website. Nice looking samples.
The hard part is getting the concept and choice of method to mechanize it down. After that, it is a question of aesthetics.
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