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Post by Brutus Aurelius on Aug 24, 2014 21:54:32 GMT -5
So, I'm gonna hazard a guess that leading them yourself will lead to better results. And one more question (for now), will ships stop for search if you have a military rank/permits? It will depend a great deal on who you are, who they are, where you are, how they feel about you and exactly who issued your papers, and if they're honored in the local space. Won't be a yes or no answer, but their will be systems for other Captains to surrender to the player. So, say I run into a Rychart Merchant in Cadari space. I am a Military Officer with Rank and good Rep with both Syndicates. Would the merchant comply with my order to stop for a search? |
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Post by Jacob on Aug 24, 2014 23:59:48 GMT -5
Wow.
Just... Fracking... Wow.
Seems like I gotta keep a bit more money saved than usual.
Time to get on a Zero-Food-Diet for the next month... (Ofc not, but I'll try to stuff up as much cash as possible into yer pockets!)
Sent from my rooted Falcon
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Post by Cory Trese on Aug 25, 2014 0:16:07 GMT -5
It will depend a great deal on who you are, who they are, where you are, how they feel about you and exactly who issued your papers, and if they're honored in the local space. Won't be a yes or no answer, but their will be systems for other Captains to surrender to the player. So, say I run into a Rychart Merchant in Cadari space. I am a Military Officer with Rank and good Rep with both Syndicates. Would the merchant comply with my order to stop for a search? They would probably stop -- depends on the personality of the Rychart Captain, and his or her goals and cargo. Also depends on if you have Military Orders to search ships, or if you are just acting like a pirate. And perhaps what your previous relationship with that particular Rychart Captain is, if any. If they do stop, and you illegally take cargo from him or her, however, you would probably loose favor with several Princes, suffer Reputation loss in multiple Quadrants and possibly loose Favor points with several Contacts. |
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Post by Cory Trese on Aug 25, 2014 0:19:45 GMT -5
Wow this HoS thread is now officially way off topic.
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Post by Brutus Aurelius on Aug 25, 2014 5:32:37 GMT -5
Wow this HoS thread is now officially way off topic. Haha yeah. We went way off of the rails. |
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Post by En1gma on Aug 25, 2014 7:42:15 GMT -5
Lol this is a HoS thread?
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Post by algesan on Aug 25, 2014 8:05:07 GMT -5
AI is always an interesting study in emergent behavior and if you start inferring intelligence that isn't there it can be VERY puzzling. I ran into this a lot during the days when I was working on industrial AI and expert systems -- if you believe the code is making choices, you'll often see patterns that support it. In Heroes of Steel RPG, there is no coordinated universal behavior, in fact, no coordinated behavior at all between the AI. Each AI is running a unique planning instance. They use similar pathing code to the player, and share a large amount of state via the map configuration -- for example, all of the AI planning code recieves the information about where what spaces are available on the map when their turn to plan comes up. Likewise, they receive information about nearby characters from the same service which takes into account the requesting AI's location. None of those information services take into account the other monster's plans, so you simply see a number of non-integrated plans running. That's why we are not currently able to add squad-based intelligence, the basic AI approach needs to be updated to support it. For Heroes, I've watched a fair number of different people play the game and have seen very divergent AI behavior sets just based on different player's approach to character placement and 'battle line' formation. If you are having trouble maximizing your AoE impacts, look at your character organization and how you're lining up for battle first and foremost. That has a much bigger impact than the emergent (or imagined) behaviors relative to monster placement and spacing. That is to say, the monster code has absolutely no preference for one arrangement or another, checkerboard or otherwise beyond what is considered most optimal for getting a maximum number of attacks with a minimum number of MP/AP spent. Ahh, you just said if I line up differently for a fight, I'll get different AI behaviors. Given my last work on AI stuff is way dated, but you are saying that I'm looking at unintended consequences of the interaction of individual AI element choices (which can happen, or at least could when a few decades ago). I'll watch more closely, but the only variant general encounter behaviours I've seen has been the fraidy bunnies (where one NPC at a time out of a pack charges you when there is enough space for more than one to charge) and the banzai flankers (where the NPC charges up, doesn't get through, uses move after attacks to go off on a long flanking run). Otherwise, I see plenty of groups of three mobs in a straight line perpendicular to the party who end up charging in together....except they form a triangle shape (checkerboard) when they arrive even if it costs one of them an attack. Alternately, at higher AI, they will all move up and attack, then one or two will pull back (assuming the front is blocked so they cannot get to squishies) into checkerboard. Anyway, getting on T with the off T: So, will we have the option of running a Templar squad/ship and are we going to get our diagonals back in squad combat? |
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Post by En1gma on Aug 25, 2014 8:15:05 GMT -5
algesan I think you might be confusing an enemies end of turn tactical advance (when a mob moves- attacks- then does a 2nd move to advance on back line players) as an intentional move to disrupt AoE attacks. I think I finally understand what you're talking about... Also if your front line us set up in a checkerboard pattern, I've found that the enemy mobs move in to the same formations to attack you- have you tried lining up on the same column or row right next to each other or one square apart? I did this last night against a group of spiders and they formed one perfect line in front of me... Remember that often enemies will stop at the first adjacent square that they can attack you from, so keepthat on mind when you set up battle lines. Edit: Also, if either you, your enemies, or a combination of both completely block off the first and fastest vector of attack for the enemy, they will spend their mp shooting off towards an alternative route to get to you, so this could also look like they're splitting up for AoE protection.
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Post by tenbsmith on Aug 25, 2014 9:15:58 GMT -5
I'll more closely observe mob behavior.
Is there one AI for all mobs?
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Post by En1gma on Aug 25, 2014 9:47:25 GMT -5
All mobs of the same type/class/species share an AI. All Ratkin Archers follow the same script, all Rat Swarm rats follow their own. AIs are different, but they're the same amongst each different enemy- make sense?
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Post by tenbsmith on Aug 25, 2014 10:21:56 GMT -5
Yep, that makes a lot of sense. I've found spiders often assume formations amenable to cross-shaped AOE. OTOH, Giant Rats always seem to checkerboard for me.
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Post by Cory Trese on Aug 25, 2014 11:12:17 GMT -5
All mobs of the same type/class/species share an AI. All Ratkin Archers follow the same script, all Rat Swarm rats follow their own. AIs are different, but they're the same amongst each different enemy- make sense? That's correct. * Each AI type has it's own AI. * Each AI for each monster functions independently * No AI share a "hive mind" or common plan |
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Post by tenbsmith on Aug 25, 2014 11:44:05 GMT -5
Since Cory stated "each AI type" I imagine some mobs may share the same AI type. For example, all ratkin melee combatants could share an AI type.
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Post by Cory Trese on Aug 25, 2014 11:56:16 GMT -5
Since Cory stated "each AI type" I imagine some mobs may share the same AI type. For example, all ratkin melee combatants could share an AI type. Correct. Each Ratkin Melee combatant uses the same AI template. When a monster is added to the map, the engine creates a unique instance of the AI template and assigns it to the monster. From that point forward, that AI is on it's own to plan moves, pick targets and cause trouble. However, you can get actions like look like coordination because the AI templates tend to perform similarly to each other in similar situations. Put two Ratkin side by side and they'll probably take similar paths to attack the same target. The more variability between the inputs to the two instances the more likely they'll diverge in planning and action. |
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Post by Brutus Aurelius on Aug 25, 2014 12:58:20 GMT -5
So, in other words the only teamwork is every mob trying to kill you at once.
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