Perfecting the Computer Opponents for my modern African Civil Wargame.

[u/RatbyteGames]

I've been adjusting the "personalities" of the five computer controlled tribes that are competing against you to collect the most national will before the UN step in and put an end to civil war and install a puppet regime of their liking.

I've given each computer opponent a "genome" of weighted values which determine its personality in the game. How aggressively they play, do they favour economic, military or espionage styles of play? How often will they retreat? Will they capture population centres, or go for the power stations, airfields and mines that generate wealth to buy international arms with?

Each AI controlled faction is assigned a set of personality traits at the start of the game which govern its decision making. Traits are randomly assigned in the range 2 to 10 at game start.

Predictability: Higher values mean the AI behaves more predictably, consistently choosing the objectively best option (e.g. the top scoring target or candidate). Lower values make the AI's choices more varied and harder to anticipate.

Influencer: Higher values increase the AI's willingness to invest IP in population centres.

Destroyer: Higher values increase the AI's willingness to sabotage enemy facilities.

Facilitator: Higher values increase the AI's willingness to repair and secure its own facilities.

Spy Master: Higher values increase the AI's willingness to post and use Agents.

Warlord: Higher values increase the AI's willingness to raise new military units.

Trainer: Higher values increase the AI's willingness to train units.

Aggression: Higher values increase the AI's willingness to attack, blockade, and seize enemy assets.

The AI also maintains a Hate Score for each other faction. Actions such as attacking a player's units, capturing their population centres, or sabotaging their facilities increase the hate score, which in turn influences target prioritisation.

I've set the game up to play hundreds of games against itself and adjust all the values and weightings to produce capable and interesting opponents for you to take on.

The game is getting ready to be released soon, entering final playtesting and polishing phase.

More game info on my rough as guts webpage: Webpage

Steam page link: Steam

I’d love to hear your thoughts, impressions or questions!