Monday, February 5, 2018

Still improving and playing my Frostgrave campaign in Maptool. Today I finished what I am certain is only the 1st version of my Opponent AI. Using Macros and the Input function, I was able to come up with a very simple decision tree.

Still improving and playing my Frostgrave campaign in Maptool. Today I finished what I am certain is only the 1st version of my Opponent AI. Using Macros and the Input function, I was able to come up with a very simple decision tree.

Each enemy unit is placed under one of three categories:

Active- The Unit has LOS on an Enemy.
Support- The Unit has LOS on an Active Ally.
Passive- The Unit does not have LOS on an Enemy or Active Ally.

Each of these categories has a few triggers. Depending on how many are tripped determines the basic actions that unit will take, and I'm left to make the most of it on their behalf.

I've looked at Decision Trees for opposition in wargames before, but they always seemed to slow down the flow of play too much. This method, I simply check the appropriate boxes and the instructions are output in the chat window. It takes about 5-10 seconds each. I may try to get a bit more specific, but for now just having some input that is less biased has added a lot to the game.

I also spent some time this week upgrading my minis. Before I was just using static token art. Using the ImageTable option for tokens, I have legitimate 16bit Sprites that can rotate in pseudo 3D space, ala Zelda.

All in all, a good gaming week.


5 comments:

  1. Looking good. Did you make the sprites?

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  2. Chris Stieha Thanks! And yes I did. I had a fair bit of help, as there are a lot of bits and pieces floating around for the classic 32x32 squat-style sprites. I did spend a lot of time drawing new components and customising found ones to match the profile art that I had started with. It was a lot of fun, now I find myself watching pixel-art tutorials on youtube.

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  3. Nice. I'm kind of throwing together a computer softgrave

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  4. Really cool! I wonder if this is why video games were originally invented. Programmers wanted to play a RPG, but couldn't find enough people...

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  5. Toimu you might be on to something. My son did ask why I didn't use something like RPGmaker to go all in. I did consider it, but there's something about implementing the rules on the fly, being able to tweak mechanics and narratives as needed that a video game doesn't allow. Tabletop RPGs and Wargames are infinitely tinkerable, and I want that to be kept in this current project.

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