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Do you guys think you have room for a 5th difficulty level? If I had to condense these 9 difficulty levels (which draw modeling inspiration from the 9 scaling difficulty levels found in both Super Smash Bros. and Kid Icarus: Uprising) into 5 difficulty levels, I'd probably want to suggest adapting the following suggested difficulty levels into one out of 5 gradually-increasing difficulty levels:
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Do you guys think you have room for a 5th difficulty level? If I had to condense these 9 difficulty levels (which draw modeling inspiration from the 9 scaling difficulty levels found in both Super Smash Bros. and Kid Icarus: Uprising) into 5 difficulty levels, I'd probably want to suggest adapting the following suggested difficulty levels into one out of 5 gradually-increasing difficulty levels:
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Very Easy -> Very Easy:
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Very Easy -> Very Easy:
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- Reason being is that it'd barely be a step up from being a total noob (which the Super Easy difficulty would've tried to emulate), since while it would build defenses to protect its main base, and while it would use constructors to speed up its production, it wouldn't very easily speed up its metal income to compensate. Sure, it probably wouldn't excess in metal, but it'd still have a poor economy compared to players who make the decision to claim additional mexes (even if they neglect in protecting these mexes with basic defenses). Even without the handicaps to its production rate, it'd be blind to the existence of player-built defenses.
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- Reason being is that it'd barely be a step up from being a total noob (which the Super Easy difficulty would've tried to emulate), since while it would build defenses to protect its main base, and while it would use constructors to speed up its production, it wouldn't very easily speed up its metal income to compensate. Sure, it probably wouldn't excess in metal, but it'd still have a poor economy compared to players who make the decision to claim additional mexes (even if they neglect in protecting these mexes with basic defenses). Even without the handicaps to its production rate, it'd be blind to the existence of player-built defenses.
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Somewhat Easy -> Easy:
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Somewhat Easy -> Easy:
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- Chosen because it'd be primarily designed to teach new rts players the importance of having a bigger metal income than your opponent, since it'd be the easiest suggested difficulty level where the AI would attempt to claim mexes outside of its starting location. What would make it easy for newer players who are starting to familiarize themselves with the way that Zero-K's economy system works (along with other basic rts concepts as spending resources to produce units and build structures) is that, aside from still being blind to the existence of player-built defenses, the AI would never put in the extra effort of building defenses to protect its more distant mexes from players' raiders.
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- Chosen because it'd be primarily designed to teach new rts players the importance of having a bigger metal income than your opponent, since it'd be the easiest suggested difficulty level where the AI would attempt to claim mexes outside of its starting location. What would make it easy for newer players who are starting to familiarize themselves with the way that Zero-K's economy system works (along with other basic rts concepts as spending resources to produce units and build structures) is that, aside from still being blind to the existence of player-built defenses, the AI would never put in the extra effort of building defenses to protect its more distant mexes from players' raiders.
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- Currently, the Very Easy AI seems to capture mexes outside of its territory, albeit not as quickly as what I'd expect out of an ideal Easy AI for an rts game, and it also seems to protect these mexes with basic defenses, which seems inappropriate for an Easy difficulty level.
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- Currently, the Very Easy AI seems to capture mexes outside of its territory, albeit not as quickly as what I'd expect out of an ideal Easy AI for an rts game, and it also seems to protect these mexes with basic defenses, which seems inappropriate for an Easy difficulty level.
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Normal -> Normal:
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Normal -> Normal:
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- Chosen because not only would it take additional steps to ensure the safety of its mexes and constructors (even if it means slowing down the rate at which it acquires new mexes), and not only would it take advantage of reclaiming metal from wreckage (even if it's limited to being near its territory), it would be designed to challenge intermediate-skilled players to adapt to changing battlefield situations, whilst still being outclassed by more experienced players, since this would be the easiest AI that would field air units in addition to ground or sea units. Also, like the Slightly Easy AI suggestion, it would attack with small raiding parties instead of individual units, and it would be mindful of the existence of player-built defenses, so players would need to learn to counter AI-controlled units' attempts to move around their base defenses.
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- Chosen because not only would it take additional steps to ensure the safety of its mexes and constructors (even if it means slowing down the rate at which it acquires new mexes), and not only would it take advantage of reclaiming metal from wreckage (even if it's limited to being near its territory), it would be designed to challenge intermediate-skilled players to adapt to changing battlefield situations, whilst still being outclassed by more experienced players, since this would be the easiest AI that would field air units in addition to ground or sea units. Also, like the Slightly Easy AI suggestion, it would attack with small raiding parties instead of individual units, and it would be mindful of the existence of player-built defenses, so players would need to learn to counter AI-controlled units' attempts to move around their base defenses.
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- To my knowledge, and with some key differences, the current Easy AI seems to perform similarly to my idea of a Normal AI.
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- To my knowledge, and with some key differences, the current Easy AI seems to perform similarly to my idea of a Normal AI.
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A mix of Slightly Hard and Somewhat Hard -> Hard:
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A mix of Slightly Hard and Somewhat Hard -> Hard:
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- I'm probably leaning more towards the Somewhat Hard AI difficulty suggestion, but I feel that an AI of this difficulty level, that would supposedly give experienced players, who are at least adept at Zero-K's mechanics, a worthy challenge, should be an aggressive, but not reckless, expansionist, and should mix units from different factories in complementary and somewhat unpredictable ways, both of which my suggested Somewhat Hard AI would've done. Moreover, I feel that an AI of this difficulty would need to get in the habit of escorting its constructors with units to protect them from enemy raiders and harassers, pressure players with larger assault forces, and even be willing to sacrifice units if it'll mean giving itself an edge over its opponents, all of which both the Slightly Hard and Somewhat Hard AIs would do. That said, I'd still probably want to avoid programming the AI to reclaim wreckage during a heated battle or assault, more like the Slightly Hard AI suggestion, since that seems like the kind of tactic that only a very skilled rts player could pull off.
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- I'm probably leaning more towards the Somewhat Hard AI difficulty suggestion, but I feel that an AI of this difficulty level, that would supposedly give experienced players, who are at least adept at Zero-K's mechanics, a worthy challenge, should be an aggressive, but not reckless, expansionist, and should mix units from different factories in complementary and somewhat unpredictable ways, both of which my suggested Somewhat Hard AI would've done. Moreover, I feel that an AI of this difficulty would need to get in the habit of escorting its constructors with units to protect them from enemy raiders and harassers, pressure players with larger assault forces, and even be willing to sacrifice units if it'll mean giving itself an edge over its opponents, all of which both the Slightly Hard and Somewhat Hard AIs would do. That said, I'd still probably want to avoid programming the AI to reclaim wreckage during a heated battle or assault, more like the Slightly Hard AI suggestion, since that seems like the kind of tactic that only a very skilled rts player could pull off.
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Very Hard -> Very Hard:
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Very Hard -> Very Hard:
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-
This
additional
AI
difficulty
was
suggested
by
me
for
2
reasons:
1,
So
that
AI
programmers
would
be
given
the
freedom
to
push
the
limits
of
an
AI's
performance
without
resorting
to
cheating
(
possibly
to
showcase
their
AI-programming
prowess)
,
2,
So
that
those
few
elite
players
who
have
mastered
the
game,
and
who
are
some
of
the
best
players
within
the
community,
could
still
enjoy
a
good
challenge
without
having
to
resort
to
fighting
against
multiple
AIs,
and
3,
so
that
less
skilled
players
could
find
an
AI
that
they
could
learn
from
whilst
spectating
matches
(
like
what
I
recently
did
when
I
pitted
a
Hard
AI
against
an
Easy
AI
in
order
to
learn
what
I
needed
to
do
better
at,
which,
by
the
way,
was
to
save
mex
overdriving
until
after
I've
captured
as
many
mexes
as
possible,
and
to
be
prepared
to
send
raiding
parties
on
suicide
missions
in
order
to
give
my
economy
more
of
an
edge
over
the
opponent's
economy)
.
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18 |
-
This
additional
AI
difficulty
was
suggested
by
me
for
3
reasons:
1,
So
that
AI
programmers
would
be
given
the
freedom
to
push
the
limits
of
an
AI's
performance
without
resorting
to
cheating
(
possibly
to
showcase
their
AI-programming
prowess)
,
2,
So
that
those
few
elite
players
who
have
mastered
the
game,
and
who
are
some
of
the
best
players
within
the
community,
could
still
enjoy
a
good
challenge
without
having
to
resort
to
fighting
against
multiple
AIs,
and
3,
so
that
less
skilled
players
could
find
an
AI
that
they
could
learn
from
whilst
spectating
matches
(
like
what
I
recently
did
when
I
pitted
a
Hard
AI
against
an
Easy
AI
in
order
to
learn
what
I
needed
to
do
better
at,
which,
by
the
way,
was
to
save
mex
overdriving
until
after
I've
captured
as
many
mexes
as
possible,
and
to
be
prepared
to
send
raiding
parties
on
suicide
missions
in
order
to
give
my
economy
more
of
an
edge
over
the
opponent's
economy)
.
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- In addition to performing such daring moves as ordering some of its constructors to reclaim wreckage while in the middle of a firefight (like what the Somewhat Hard AI suggestion would've done), it would actively attempt to change its factory production queues to counter what the enemy is fielding (such as, for example, countering skirmishers or artillery with raiders, countering riots or assaults with skirmishers, countering raiders with riots, or countering a balanced mix of unit types with a strong focus on either raiders, riots, or skirmishers), and would even switch up which factories have production priorities over others every now and then (such as, for example, setting air unit production as higher priority over all others one moment, then setting land unit production as higher priority over all others the next moment) in an effort to make itself more unpredictable to the player.
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19 |
- In addition to performing such daring moves as ordering some of its constructors to reclaim wreckage while in the middle of a firefight (like what the Somewhat Hard AI suggestion would've done), it would actively attempt to change its factory production queues to counter what the enemy is fielding (such as, for example, countering skirmishers or artillery with raiders, countering riots or assaults with skirmishers, countering raiders with riots, or countering a balanced mix of unit types with a strong focus on either raiders, riots, or skirmishers), and would even switch up which factories have production priorities over others every now and then (such as, for example, setting air unit production as higher priority over all others one moment, then setting land unit production as higher priority over all others the next moment) in an effort to make itself more unpredictable to the player.
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Interesting tale that I'd like to share: When I was developing the Contingency mod for Warzone 2100, I took the AI that was bundled with the game's download (NullBot), and tweaked it so that not only would it take advantage of the content that would be introduced with the mod, it'd play more aggressively, intelligently, and unpredictably. I still have the video of the AI (along with the mod) uploaded to YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhdFWjSGLOQ
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Interesting tale that I'd like to share: When I was developing the Contingency mod for Warzone 2100, I took the AI that was bundled with the game's download (NullBot), and tweaked it so that not only would it take advantage of the content that would be introduced with the mod, it'd play more aggressively, intelligently, and unpredictably. I still have the video of the AI (along with the mod) uploaded to YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhdFWjSGLOQ
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Some feedback about how AIs of each difficulty should perform