For example, if the AI is choosing between two different choices that have base scores 50 and 100, and the randomness factor (R) for this decision is 1.0, this means that the actual score ranges for each of the two is between (X / ( 1 + R ) ) to ( X * ( 1 + R ) ) - ie, between 0.5x to 2x the base score, or 25-100 vs 50-200 in this particular example. Not too random, not too deterministic: The AI should generally make decisions based on something I like to refer to as ‘semi-randomness’: What this means is that an AI looks at the choices it can make, assigns a score to each, and then throws a set amount of randomness into the mix based on how unpredictable we want it to be for that particular type of decision.While it will likely never be possible (at least with current-gen hardware) to actually expose the AI’s core decision-making loop to modders, anywhere where we can allow modders to hook into its decisions through triggers, defines or scripted values, we should do so. Moddability, within reason: The AI should be as moddable as it is possible to make it without ruining the performance of the game.Transparency and clarity: The AI’s gameplay strategy and decision-making should be comprehensive to a player - if an AI dislikes the player or won’t go along with a player’s proposal, the player should be able to understand why, and the internal strategies that the AI follows according to the ‘roleplaying’ principle should be clearly shown to the player.AIs should not exploit the game and should be acting according to their internally set goals - as an example, it’s perfectly okay for a small German state controlled by the AI to want to be absorbed into a unified Germany, even though being annexed is clearly not the optimal way to play Victoria 3. Roleplaying, not min-maxing: The AI in Victoria 3 should ‘roleplay’ rather than try to play optimally or ‘play like a player’.In addition to this, there are four design principles that guides how the AI should act in Victoria 3: It uses all the same features, faces all the same restrictions, and does not receive the advantage of any ‘cheats’ (with some exceptions if you use certain Game Rules, but more on that later in this dev diary). So then, how does the AI in Victoria 3 work? Well, just as in our other Grand Strategy Games, the AI plays the same game you do. Firstly, because perception of AI performance is highly subjective and what is a ‘good AI’ means something different to just about every player, and second because there’s still a few issues to be ironed out before release, one example being AI-controlled countries too frequently experiencing revolutions (something that should hopefully be greatly improved now, but which has yet to be verified by QA).
However, I won’t really be talking about which exact amount of difficulty the AI provides or which level skill it plays at. As such, this feels like a good time to talk about the AI of Victoria 3 - how it’s designed, how it operates, and what tools modders have available to tweak it. Hello and welcome to the 59th Victoria 3 development diary! With the release of the game just a little more than a month away (which honestly feels surreal), one of the last remaining things for us to do alongside bug fixing is to put the final polishing touches on the AI for release.
0 kommentar(er)
