Overview
The topic of Artificial Intelligence is one that has always interested me, specifically the divide between a "good AI" and a "fun AI." I think back to Alpha Centauri as a strategy game that has the ultimate divide between the two, the distinct personalities of the factions and the consistency with which they would respect their ideologies - Morgan sending you his capitalist well-wishes or the University glad that you've thrown ethics aside for research versus the absolutely horrible AI in battles, where as soon as you've researched flight you can climb back from the steepest deficit to gain a crushing win.
Defining a Fun AI
The point of that overstressed sentence is that wow I loved the AI in that game, even as much as I hated the ease with which I could win. It had "personality" that could be gamed, but in a way that reinforced the fun and theme of the game. We've struggled hard to create that feel in our game, by giving the leaders of the world strong personalities. The Kings of the more traditional western culture are proud, honorable, stubborn and often quick to adapt to new situations, but they are also more wary of the forces of the dark. You can take these virtues, such as honorable, and turn them into vices, an honorbound King must punish his vassals even if it means the possibility of unrest or Civil War. Prod these great feudal kings, and expect them to call up their banners, and raise in some time a large force of feudal levies, contrast this with the more predatory warlords of the East who maintain professional armies that can swiftly react to problems, but take much longer to replace if defeated.
Summary of Design Mentality:
- Consistency across cultures to create predictable behaviors
- Mentality and drives of characters change based on situations
- Rationality is a not virtue in and of itself, goals are personal and weighted individually
- Agents are subjectively labelled by AI as friend, neutral, or foe - Agents being pursued by heroes may cross a border and find the law on their side
Heroes and the Spread of Awareness
Examples of the prior point abound in That Which Sleeps, but are complicated even further by the spread of knowledge. Heroes collect clues and eventually bring these points together to begin to understand what is truly happening in the world, and they are keen to spread the word. Old feuds may keep some kings or heroes from listening to others, and simple dislike of a culture may keep heroes from even visiting to compare valuable clues. Diplomatic events generate tension based on the familiarity between all parties, and you can use that to create lasting rifts or prevent temporary truces.
Passion overrules Principle
Pushing the right buttons lets you disrupt the fragile Balance of Power that the nations maintain, and chaos always benefits the rising dark lord. Even better, a routinely frustrated hero, champion, or king can have their willpower reduced giving them psychoses that create sometimes devastatingly erratic choices - a Mad King is the shadow's best friend. Drive a hero even further, and corrupt him, bringing him to your side, and see how AI reacts to this betrayal.
Summary
Beyond listing even more of the complex interactions that you'll find in That Which Sleeps, I want to illustrate that fun, inside the scope of the game, is the intent of the AI over competitiveness. The AI, in general, is not looking at YOU the player, it is looking at the world and projecting their own desires on it. Yes, the game is very hard, but that is due to the overwhelming advantage a "united front" of nations has over you - it is your responsibility to disarm that potential before it overwhelms you.
