I’m sorry if this is not the correct place; if so please let me know!
I’ve been mulling over this idea in my head for a few days and wanted to get feedback on it. As a tiny bit of a background, I enjoy seeing how AI characters in games interact with each other.
So, knowing this, my idea is to have a game somewhat similar to Counter Strike, but you manage a whole team of AI soldiers. Before a round you would equip them with weapons and armor, place them on the map in a designated starting zone, set their behavior (aggressive, defensive, balanced) and set them off.
This would be a single player game but the addition of multiplayer would be possible given the design.
You would have little to no interaction with them while the round is unfolding.
I have ideas for expanding this as well; home base, recruiting, training different attributes, etc.
Do you think this would be a fun game? Would players get upset when their AI character does something they wouldn’t have done? I’m concerned the hands off approach of the rounds would turn people away (though maybe temp boosts to a soldiers abilities could be an active effect you give during the round so the player isn’t bored).
Graphics would most likely be something 2D and cartooned.
absolutely fun and I think I know at least a few people who do enjoy games like that.
I dunno much about it, but I saw some videos on youtube recently about some AI that is rendered as little capsule people and they play competitive 2vs2 games like tag. Over millions of iterations, the AI learns to exploit the game world rules, and its really interesting to watch.
Of course you wont be at the cutting edge of AI, and nobody wants to watch your scenearios a million times, but the same idea is there. I think the design does hinge then on having some kind of robust – or seemingly robust – ai. You’d want player to feel like they can predict what might happen, but get surprised often enough that it doesn’t become stale too soon.
Given how popular football managers and such are, pulling off something that is fun to play with such an hands-off approach seems like it would be very doable.
The idea also reminds me a little bit of the Rainbow Six games. While they are FPS games, if you make really good plans for your team mates in the planning phase, you can just sit back and relax during the actual mission as your team does all the grunt work for you It is fun to do.
The most challenging part is going to be figuring out what aspects you want to let the player manage. Can you get enough depth from just letting the player decide starting points, gear and aggression levels?
You could add more complexity e.g. by introducing timing to the mix, with it being kind of like a reverse tower defense game with the player deciding when to send in the next wave of units and from which direction. Having agency during the actual execution phase would change the feeling of the game a lot though, so this might be off the table if you want the player to be able to sit back and relax at this point.
Perhaps the player could be able to create this queue of objectives for the different soldiers, which they would then try to execute in the order they were assigned. This could add some depth via how you need to coordinate the objectives of the different soldiers so they mesh well together, timing things perfectly, so that your soldiers e.g. storm into the same room at the same time from two different directions, and such things.
Just some random thoughts The basic idea seems to have at least some potential though, because it has this quality of sparking more ideas, which is a good sign.
Yeah I believe I would have to make the AI competent and “reliable” in that it does what you would expect a rational person to do in the situation. I wouldn’t have the player “train” the AI in the sense of having them run through the scenarios and maps like you would typically train something like an Artificial Neural Network.
Doing research after coming up with this idea does make it seem like the idea wouldn’t be a flop, given how those manager type games are so popular. I thought about potentially adding route-planning to the game, where you can basically queue up commands for your solider before the match: run here, take cover, shoot anyone that walks by, after 30 seconds move to objective.
I think I’d have to balance my personal desire to see AI interact without any intervention against what would be fun for players as I’m not sure most people want this. Thanks for the feedback.
I think it is important to always keep in mind what the user experience is. What are they wanting, expecting, and are you delivering on that?
Because when you dive into some complex problem like this, it is very easy to get caught up in the joy of solving the problem. And experimenting to try something new.
But player doesn’t get any of that. It doesn’t matter how complex the AI is, or how interesting the underlying tech is, or even how hard you worked at it. The only thing player gets is the final experience.
Anyway, obvious stuff but it’s easy to forget once you get in the weeds. Good luck!
When players in football manager get into the actual match, do they issue commands or plays at all? Or do they just watch? I’m watching someone on YouTube play it and it looks like he’s just watching the match unfold.
Going to the level of customizing the behaviours and equipment of each individual unit/group of units could add for some interesting encounters too.
Before getting into the nitty-gritty of custom behaviours, I’d get a prototype going with super basic AI with different guns that you can place in the level and watch the chaos unfold.
From there you can decide what would make the game more fun, or maybe that’s all it needs to be!
I have never tried the Football Manager series myself, so I’m not sure how much input you have during matches. I’d assume that you have little to no control, possibly being able to change up some tactics at the halftime mark or something, but I’m just guessing.
Thanks for the advice everyone. Started a prototype last night; learned that 2D in Unity doesn’t have a NavMesh so that adds another level of complexity!
Got a visual view cone script working so I can place that on my characters and “see” what they’re seeing. I’m thinking of potentially having this be changeable depending on the weapon you’re holding.
As for the prototype AI, yeah I think it’ll be pretty basic. Just something to get them to find each other and start shooting. I want to test out in match commands like “Assist soldier 1” where everyone will then converge on him to assist, or maybe “spread out” to scatter the soldiers.
It is fun to do.
The basic idea seems to have at least some potential though, because it has this quality of sparking more ideas, which is a good sign.