Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
A Final Note on Artificial Opponents
Don't expect to be able to create an artificial opponent that can routinely beat a
human fair and square unless your game is a simple one—so simple that it can use
game-tree search. hFSMs are very useful, but they're seldom good enough to beat a
skilled player in an equal contest. Most strategy games use two additional features
to provide a challenge to their players: hidden information that the player must
find by exploring, and unfair advantages for the computer's side, such as stronger
units or more efficient production. But don't concentrate too hard on making an
unbeatable AI anyway. You do want the player to eventually win the game. The
function of game AI is to put up a good fight but lose in the end.
Covering all aspects of the whole genre of strategy games in a single chapter is an
impossible task. Here we focused on the key challenges of most modern war games:
conflict, exploration, and economic management. You now know how to design
units, choosing attributes and capabilities that will give them the qualities that you
want. You should also be able to create an upgrade path or technology tree that
allows for a sense of advancement, introducing new units and decisions in the
game.
You also learned the importance of establishing a balanced economic model for
unit production so that all sides in a game have an equal chance of building up
their forces. We looked at several ways to handle the question of supply lines, from
literal transportation of supplies to abstract distribution systems.
You should be aware of some of the considerations for designing games set in dif-
ferent worlds, and you should now know the best ways to present those worlds to
the player: with an aerial perspective and a multipresent interaction model. Finally,
we looked at a few different ways of designing artificial opponents.
If you plan to design a strategy game, a good way to start is to examine the
mechanics of a good board game such as
The Settlers of Catan
. Board games are sim-
ple enough for a single person to grasp the entire rule-set and, consequently, such
games lend themselves well to analysis.
Design Practice
CASE STUDY
Choose a strategy game that you believe, from your own experience of playing it,
is an excellent example of the genre (or use one your instructor assigns). Write a
report documenting the features that place it in this genre as opposed to another
one and explaining why you believe it is superior to others of its kind. Be sure to
cover at least the following areas:
