SECRET
DigiMastered Works LLC
Office of Development
DMW107IB1017
Date 04/29/2023 6:00 PM
To: The People
From: Tanner Fry
Subject: Q1 Updates
AI Systems
Welcome readers. Latest updates on development pertain to 4 major categories. AI systems, the quick action popup wheel, researching different technologies, and a game world mechanic that many of you are probably familiar with; fog of war.
The AI is still being integrated but many great strides have been taken to define the current system. If you've read up on previous posts, I talk about my dilemma of what I would integrate due to lack of experience; State machines, behavior trees, or other. I ended up researching and starting my own integration of a behavior tree. To start, the behavior tree is composed of a variety of strategies pertaining to attack, defense, and economy.
For example, the defense strategy is currently comprised of two sub strategies, normal and turtle. Each sub strategy integrates the same methods but handles the inputs, integration, and outputs differently. You can probably guess but the turtle strategy integrates a more reserved approach. The turtle sub strategy may put more emphasis on agents defending agency buildings rather than reconning agency area's of influence.
Through this decoupling of strategies for an AI, we can create many different strategies and sub strategies, easily flip between strategies depending on the AI's current understanding of the game state, and perform more complex mechanics in a structured manner.
Although I've talked about a few strategies, there is a plan to have more for building (early/mid/late game), economics, parties of interest/politics, and other. It all depends on how deep the scope will extend as we get closer to pushing out an Alpha release for testing.
Agent Quick Action Popup Wheel
The agent quick action popup wheel now appears when you select an agent and then hold SHIFT+Right Click. The current actions are as follows (but not fully implemented):
assassinate - sabotage - build - rest and recuperation - engage/exchange - recon - move - defend
This popup wheel allows you to utilize your agents against foreign enemies faster than if you were to build out an operation on your Director Board. Although you could use this method, you do lose the timing and complexity that the operations board will give you. The limited size of the quick action popup wheel is another example of the loss you incur.
Nothing is ever set in stone as there could be a transition away from the operations on the Director Board. Still, I have a few nice enhancements to make it more appealing.
Research Technologies
A bare-bones tech tree (tech web?) with an underlying node system has been integrated. An idea in mind is to 'randomize' the tree from contract to contract and base it off of the different scenarios you'd be signing up for.
What do I mean by randomization? Tech will be grouped into 6 main categories in order to allow for some form of structure. The categories provide foundations for what we can randomize as well as foundations in the idea of tech you will utilize in AIA. Certain tech will have different effects and bonuses applied, thus some form of structure helps us pick and choose what and how to randomize the tree.
The 6 main categories are as follows:
Probably the most vital category of tech that an intelligence agency utilizes on the daily. Methods of communication and the need for security are two main components on the mind of a Director. No intelligence agency will contend with its opponents if they ignore the need for communication.
The backbone to advanced tech within your intelligence agency. Usage of electricity in weapons and gadgets will play a vital role in advancing above other agencies.
Needed by every agency in existence. Whether its food, gas (derived from oil), or oil; You need energy of some kind. Unfortunately for you, an agency requires all 3 and more. Energy is needed for your agents, transportation, weapons, and more so make sure you keep an eye on what tech you really want to invest in.
Enhancements to tech through mechanical means is necessary for a thriving and bustling agency. If you are wanting to stay in the game for a long time, you must get with the times. That means keeping pace in weapon and tool developments so that your agents have the best fighting chance.
Antidotes, poisons, enhancers, they're all important for different reasons. Being able to apply top-tier medicine in the heat of the action allows you to be a fighting force at all times.
Mobility and speed play pivotal roles in the intelligence game. Transportation may rely on other tech categories more but is vital to making sure your agents can get to their targets in a timely manner. Different types of transportation is planned but do remember that the game clock is always ticking when playing. Agents take time to move, so investing in transportation will be very beneficial to outmaneuver your opponent.
Developer view of AIA tech tree
This will most likely change in small variations but it is a good starting point for allowing ease of tech tree generation and modification. The tech tree (tech web) is broken down into nodes with each node having children (child nodes). Currently, the child nodes could represent subsequent technology, which would be dependent on the parent tech, that can be researched and give the agency slight bonuses or enhancements related to the parent tech.
Some trees may not be as randomized as others. For example, boats and planes are difficult to randomize since their functions are usually set in the idea of the object. Some boats are good for transporting or fighting, so limiting the player on what boat they can research is not an enjoyable approach. We could randomize the effects/bonuses of the boats but that could work poorly with certain boat types (a cargo ship with high damage would be strange).
The same can not be said for communication gadgets (imagine long-range microphone). Since these gadgets have more versatility, in terms of gameplay, the randomization could be with access to the tech itself or with the bonuses/effects in how its used. In one contract (playthrough) you may experience the long-range microphone to work over 5 miles while a different contract may reduce the range or 'lock' the tech behind other tech in the tree.
Fog of War
General buildings and area owned by your country will be viewable but anything beyond that will be covered in a fog of war. Here's the first iteration:
Certain agency assets in the game will provide 'sight', a form of information to you as the Director, which will reveal the area around the asset. Said assets could be an agency's agents, communication towers, agents using special equipment (binoculars), and more. This 'sight' is a component attached to agency assets that is checked and utilized to modify and manipulate the fog of war.
Like many implementations from other games, once an area of the fog of war has been uncovered by an asset's sight, that area is still viewable when out of the asset's sight. However, the area does not give real time information. So you, the Director, will not be able to get any feedback on agents you may have been tailing, agents that went dark, or other special cases. We provide this mechanic by layering sprite masks and manipulating two sprites related to the fog of war. One sprite is dialed down in opacity to allow the map to display underneath it while the other is opaque. When an agency asset has a 'sight' component that overlaps with either sprite related to the fog of war, the respective sprite's pixels are updated to allow the player to see and retrieve information from the area around the agency asset.
Currently there are limitations on the update rate for the fog of war. The need to start transitioning some processing to the GPU instead of handling a majority of it on the CPU has been long overdue. Not only that, but there are many inefficiencies in the current game loop that leads to some features being difficult to implement.
That's all for January/February/March/April's development update. Thanks for reading and if you have any suggestions on certain topics that you'd like to know more about, then head on over to our forums and let us know. You can also email our support at Support@digimasteredworks.com.
Roadmap
Milestones To Do:
Milestones Completed:
SECRET
Approved for release: 04/04/23 ID: IB1017
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