[General] A.I. Style Help Needed

[BlackEnvyX]

Well, I'm about to add A.I. into my upcoming map which is a blend of wave survival, horror with some tower defense elements mixed in and I'm trying to decide between two A.I. styles.

#1: Players get no control over A.I. allies, entirely run off triggers
#2: Players get control over A.I. allies to be able to re-position them etc and minimal A.I. triggers will be used.

I can see the advantages to both but I'm having a hard time deciding, can you guys give me pros and cons to both of these ideas?

 

[nedio95]

#1
pros:
A.I. - It will do everything automatic, no need for player interaction.
cons:
"A.I." - It will do everything automatic, but what if it does not what is intended ? The player can't do absolutely nothing about which will result in annoyed players and... patches...
It will most likely do stuff inefficiently, meaning that a player can outperform it any day.

#2
Pros:
Player can control the A.I. to some extend, to push it in the right direction.
Cons:
Player has to controll the A.I. for it to perform. It is an A.I., why should there be a player to babysit it ?

My suggestion: Do both. An independent A.I. which can, to some extend (there are no perfect A.I.s) perform well, but give the player the option to "fix" weird/unprofitable behaviours or push it in his play style.

 

[IcemanBo]

Good AI should be kind of stand alone, as the point of an AI is that no user has to bother with controling.
Though you of couse can come along with directive commands and possibilities for user to influence it's behaviour.
Be aware if the influence should be directly acting or should just change the "AI thinking", or parts of it.
Ensure you make the player's effect not be in conflict with potential AI behaviour.

 

[Shadow Fury]

Pros of 1#
- The allies are independent
- It is less stressful when you have to control only your units
- You can collaborate easily with your allies
- AI can prove to be extremely valuable as it responds to specific events in precise ways. For example, if AI gets X gold, it builds tower Y instantly. If a monster reaches a certain region, the AI attacks it immediately. If too many monsters approach the AI, it uses ability X etc...


Cons of 1#
- AI may not be really smart on all occasions
- Sometimes AI may be less beneficial than expected. If you are, for instance, fighting a wave of magic-resistant creeps and the AI is programmed to use damaging skills, the AI becomes stupid and useless as it cannot use such skills on that wave
- AI has a specific to-do list. In every game, it'll just do the same things over and over. This could ruin the uniqueness of every game

Pros of 2#
- You can control the AI as you will so that you'll be able to manage your allies' movements in unconventional situations
- It is easy to get out of trouble when you have more units to command
- It is challenging to control your units and the AI as well so this makes the game more exciting

Cons of 2#
- It is hard to manage AI and your units
- It might be stressful having to control AI with care for proper moves and not catastrophic commands
- AI would relief the player from simple actions like moving this unit here and that unit there but if you get control over AI, you have to do it by yourself and it's time-wasting

Final verdict
Let the players be able to decide both ways. Leave to them this difficult decision as each choice will send them on a different road

 

[Daffa]

- AI has a specific to-do list. In every game, it'll just do the same things over and over. This could ruin the uniqueness of every game

If one would really pour serious effort, this one can easily be eliminated and become random fashioned

And don't forget this Con ;
AI takes decent amount of time to program to be able to handle the game properly as if it was a real player, else they're pretty much almost useless
AI sometimes have to "cheat" their powers and resources to gain even odds in the field, which takes additional time to make while making the AI itself

 

[BlackEnvyX]

Thank you all so much for your input, after weighing the pros and cons you have all shown me, I've decided that I'm going to take the time and get some extra help from someone on the Hive (no idea who yet) to program an intricate AI system that will be able to handle the map well (moving to specific points dependent on the class, etc) and that I'll be adding in a vote function that depending on the number of human players in game, they'll be allowed to take control of the A.I. instead of having the game run it if they feel it's in their best interest.