pzgndr
Posts: 3170
Joined: 3/18/2004 From: Maryland Status: offline
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quote:
As soon as the first update is out to address critical issues and bugs, we'll be looking at ongoing AI improvements as the top priority. Well said. Many players look forward to ongoing AI improvements. quote:
Still, this game was designed to be played Multi-player, all Humans. I think someday it will be a great single player game too but that was not the initial design and I think it is awesome for what it is. I disagree with some of this. First, the original board game was obviously designed to be played by humans as multiplayer. But, ALL humans? By design, UMP rules were included to allow less than 7 human players and still provide for all 7 major powers to play. The ideal game would have 7 human players, of course, but one can also argue that the game was in fact "designed" for some non-human UMP players (although UMPs were controlled by human players based on "AI" rules). Second, the initial design of the original board game is not necessarily the final design of this computer adaptation. I think Marshall Ellis and Eric Rutins and others on the development team fully recognize the potential of AI for computer opponents, and the market reality of providing challenging AI for computer games. Some players may not care for computer opponents and that's fine, but for others it is an expectation. Take away the AI completely and you may as well play EiA and all other board games via CyberBoard or some other PBEM software. THIS is a computer game and the AI is not going to go away. The good news is that Matrix is trying to satisfy all players, not just one group at the expense of another. So there really is nothing to argue about, and no call for petty criticisms of AI development efforts. I wouldn't expect the AI of this game to become brilliant, but I would agree that someday it can be a great single player game too (or for small playgroups of 2-4 human players). And I would expect even the grognard board game veterans may someday appreciate a challenging & full function AI in lieu of the original & limited UMP rules for one or more major powers. So I'd say there is incentive for all players to support ongoing AI improvements.
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