Gameplay Example: ThreeWar 1

The Drengin, Humans and me!

Published on November 24, 2006 By Draginol In GalCiv Journals

The year is 2226 and the Epsilon Quadrant has an uneasy peace between the three major powers in the sector -- the Terran Alliance, the Drengin Empire and the League of Worlds. The war, intrigue, and destruction that follows came as both a surprise and yet preordained. This is their story.

My role in this is to act as the observer for the AI. How they play, are the super abilities in Dark Avatar working? How are they balanced? The goal of the super abilities is that they be exploitable but still be balanced. That is, they should be immensely powerful but equally powerful between civilizations. My job as the AI programmer is to make sure that the AI is good at exploiting these super abilities as well.

Today, I will watch how the Drengin's Super Dominator matches up with the Terran Alliance Super Diplomacy ability against my Super Annihilator bonus as the League of Worlds.

A promising beginning...

My home world has a decent asteroid field nearby and some good planets not too far away.

The Drengin and Terrans aren't so lucky. They start out very close to each other.

A lot of people don't realize just how much balancing code there is in galaxy creation. We'll get people who want galaxy creation to work like world creation in Civ where all players are equally spaced. So for those of you taking the time to read this, let me explain what I mean by a balanced galaxy...

The Terrans and Drengin are close together. That's a disadvantage. The Drengin adn Terarns have an asteroid field that is right between them. The Drengin have a class 11 world there is very close to them but the Terrans have more planets that are of high quality that are nearer to them than the Drengin's but are significantly further away.

While they are both relatively far away from me, I have to go through them to get to the bulk of the good planets. However, there are several good planets closer to me than them and there are more galacitc resources near me than to them. Each game randomly generates a galaxy that is designed to be relatively balanced but not in the usual blatant "every player is equal in all ways". Each game is supposed to require some adaptation.

Some AI improvements

The Scout code has been improved for Dark Avatar which means the AI should get better at colonizing. That is one of things I am testing.

Preparing for Xenocide

My custom civilization has the Super Annihilator ability. This gives me the ability to research a tech called Spore Weapons which can be used to construct ships that will, on an undefended planet, completely wipe out the colony and turn it into a toxic world.

The first wave is away

By May 2226, the status looks like this:

The League: 5 planets with 50 points of use.
The Terran Alliance: 6 planets with 38 points of use.
The Drengin Empire: 4 planets with 27 points of use.

Starbases:

The Drengin Empire: Two resource starbases
The Terran Alliance: 1 influence starbase
The League: 1 Economic starbase

I have a significant advantage at this point. We will see how things continue.

The colonization phase in Dark Avatar is a totally different animal than seen in previous GalCiv's. The first wave still occurs with players grabbing the freebie planets. But there's a lot of good planets that just require a specific technology.

The best planet in the quadrant is still unused by January 2227. That's because it is a barren world. So what is everyone researching right now?

The League (me): Xeno Industrial Theory
The Terran Alliance: Stinger
The Drengin Empire: Advanced Computing

(I make some adjustments so that the AI will prioritize more if there's a really good planet nearby).

The Pre-Boom

One challenge I have to deal with soon is the fact that the AI doesn't yet deal well with yet.

One of my next projects is to rewrite the Starbase mode and the planetary improvement code to work more in line with how the game actually plays out (as opposed to theoretically how I thought people would play the game <g>).

Though in the case of the planetary improvement code, that was one part of the AI I wasn't involved on until post release. The style in which it was written is very different from mine so I've always had a hard time massaging the planet improvement code for the computer players. Dark Avatar is my chance to go and write it from scratch in the style I'm more used to.

My initial weapons flatform is the V-1 Uniter fighter.

vs.

It's still way too early to tell who is going to win the arm's race.

The Terran Alliance isn't yet ready to talk to me about signing treaties. I'll try back with them soon.

New feature: You can't keep going back and talking to races over and over. Only every few weeks can you (unless you're a Super Diplomat in which case you can go back much more often).

Concerned

One of the changes in the build I'm using is that trade routes grow in value over time significantly. The net result is that they can generate an awful lot of income now for players if they survive long enough.

I still lead the way in industry and research by May 2228, but the military power of the Drengin and Terrans has begun to grow significantly. It was time to begin my own build up.

The Spy Wars have already continued to progress. I've cut down the # of spies players get pretty dramatically. It doesn't change the fact that the player that is out in front is going to get walloped quite a bit.

The Drengin were gearing for war -- with me. It was time to get into gear before it was too late.

The Drengin have specialized on missile weapons. So I begin researching counter measures for that -- point defense. The Drengin are slowly catching up to me economically. I need to prepare my own assault.

My home world is full of activity.

It was an arms race.

My power is that I can conquer planets painlessly relative to my enemies. A few hits to key Drengin worlds and they would be down for the count.

And so it begins...

The first attack occurs quickly as my forces engage. It ends in victory for me.

The opening battles would see our 3rd generation fighters going up against each other. On the Drengin side they have the Kiklar-Fighter:

vs.

Across the quadrant, battles raged...

And I was getting smeared.

And having played evil, I now got the Terran Alliance on my back.

My spore ship took a world. But with both the Drengin and Terran's on me, there was little hope.

Their ships were meant to fight the Drengin Empire but they did just as well crushing me.

My equivalent ship, the generation 4 frigate was known as the Valiant class.

While considerably more lethal, I only have a few.

This is not a good scene. The Terrans and Drengin closing in on Paridon, my home world.

My last hope fleet... 7 ships vs. 18 in the first round.. 18 Drengin. The Valiant was taknig out multiple ships per round but it wasn't enough.

I put the rest of my ships into a single fleet for a last stand...

My ships, optimized against Drengin weapons, managed to only receive 37 hitpoints of damage despite all of the Drengin ships being Frigates while only three of mine being frigates. Unfortunately, I lost my fighters and this was just one of dozens of similar fleets.

This happens again and again. 99 shots fired vs. my 32 shots. But they can replace their 12 units, I can't replace the two Frigates.

It's over.

Now it's time for me to stand back and watch the Drengin and Terrans fight it out.

In the end, the Drengin Empire prevails. Admittedly, when there's only two civilizations, a super diplomacy ability is going to not mean much against the military dominator.

Conclusions

I wasn't playing particularly hard but the Drengin Super Dominator ability is a bit too powerful. I checked the code and it looks like it's creating too many ships so I tweaked that. My slowness to get freighters out really bit me big time too as it gave the Drengin and Terrans a huge economic advantage that I didn't have.

If I had really wanted to win, I should have rushed them. That is really what the spore ship is all about. You get in there and take out key worlds before they have time to get their economy going. I am pleased with how the new planet improvement system is working for the AI. Much MUCH better. No more adjusting at the edges, a whole new system. Right now, only the Drengin have it (another reason the Drengin did so well).

Next up...

Finish the Super Diplomat goodies for the human player. Work on Super Breeder. And then get onto the Super Manipulator.

Comments (Page 1)

Mighty Mongoose

on Nov 25, 2006

From what I just read it is obvious that Dark Avatar will be worth the wait. That AAR is nothing like one you would get from a regular Galciv2 game. I really like the new dimensions of strategy that have been added (Spore ships for Super Annihilators, great to attack with, murder to defend against, ace). And from what I see with the screenshots, I don't know what your graphical settings were, but they look great.

SSG Geezer

on Nov 25, 2006

I can't wait for this expansion.

Evil Muppet

on Nov 25, 2006

New feature: You can't keep going back and talking to races over and over. Only every few weeks can you (unless you're a Super Diplomat in which case you can go back much more often).

You know, a lot of people use the diplomacy window to see what techs the other civs have. The window in the foreign screen is a bit of a jumble to read. This might be a bit annoying.

Duodecimal

on Nov 25, 2006

Aye, it'd be great if there's some better detail in the foreign screen, possibly color coded -- blue for shared techs, red for what they have that I don't, and green for what I have that they don't.

FortyTwo

on Nov 25, 2006

Interesting journal. Thanks for posting these - how many other developers give their customers this much insight into how their games are designed?

I like the idea of not being able to speak with other civs every week, with a couple of caveats:

1. Evil Muppet's commets hit the nail on the head. My primary use of the Trade screen isn't to actually communicate with other civs, it's to check what techs they have. It would be really useful if we could have a listing of other civs techs on the foreign stats screen, broken out by category and color-coded based on whether the player also owns them.

2. It would be good if there was a definate logic defining how long you need to wait before you can talk to a civ again. It would make sense if you could speak to friendly civs relatively often, while enimies would be more adverse to meeting with you. Also, if some major event occurs (e.g., someone goes to war with you or one of your friends, a megaevent takes place, etc.) you should be immideately allowed to speak with anyone (except, perhaps, with civs declaring war on you - that might have to wait). I'd hate to get into a situation where war breaks out and I can't ask my friends for help because they don't want to talk to me.

Evil Muppet

on Nov 26, 2006

Yeah, it would be nice to get the Tech Advantage/Tech Disadvantage info displayed in a clearer way.

Drengin

on Nov 26, 2006

Thanks for the heads-up on hoe its coming along!!

Hey Cari you got a new journal coming this way anytime soon???

MeridianMale

on Nov 26, 2006

You know, a lot of people use the diplomacy window to see what techs the other civs have. The window in the foreign screen is a bit of a jumble to read. This might be a bit annoying.

I always thought it would be great if you could "hide" certain techs from that window. Maybe that could be something that "defensive" spies could do.

I don't think you would want to make tech discovery an espionage activity, though (aside from the currently researched tech) because that hampers diplomacy. I just think it would be cook if I could designate a spy to be the "guardian" of a certain trade secret, and only if he got taken out could anyone learn that I have a certain tech through diplomacy.

I guess I'm assuming that the AI uses that window the same way we all do, to learn what techs a civ has.

Evil Muppet

on Nov 27, 2006

Often, all you'll want to know is: What you can do that they can't, and what they can do that you can't. Because I don't use the foreign screen, I don't remember if it displays all the shared techs as well.

You know, what would be sweet is a screen with two lists it. On the left is your "Tech Advantage". It shows you a list of your techs that the slected opponent doesn't know. Underneath, is a pie chart. The colour of the slices matches the colour of the techs, so at a glance you can see if they have more yellow techs, or red ones etc. On the other side of the window, is your Tech Disadvantage. Same thing, but in reverse.

Lord Reliant

on Nov 27, 2006

I agree with what others said as well- not being able to speak to other civs often is fine as long as:

1. It's not always a fixed # of turns regardless of situation. Varying based on friendliness, major events, etc. is a great idea. What about displaying the time until you can speak again in number of turns/weeks (to save clicking)? I'd shade out their pictures if you don't do that already.

2. The computer is also held to the same restriction, both for other AI units and to speak with the player.

Also, in regard to the Starship Intelligence Report:

1. Could hull size be thrown into the first information area on the left? Perhaps in parenthesis after the line that says Class:

2. Maybe there should be headers for those three information boxes? Something like Attributes, Stats, and Details? This also might help distinguish them a bit better and increase readbility.

I also like the improved Research screen- having costs more clearly labeled is nice.

MeridianMale

on Nov 27, 2006

You know, what would be sweet is a screen with two lists it. On the left is your "Tech Advantage". It shows you a list of your techs that the slected opponent doesn't know. Underneath, is a pie chart. The colour of the slices matches the colour of the techs, so at a glance you can see if they have more yellow techs, or red ones etc. On the other side of the window, is your Tech Disadvantage. Same thing, but in reverse.

I'm pretty sure you could cook something like that up with a pretty simple mod and some DesktopX screens.

I think it would be more useful as a bar graph. Do like you said, have colors for each of the research areas, and have above the line indicate an advantage and below the line indicate a disadvantage. I'm sort of thinking along the lines of the "RCI" indicator in SimCity games.

FortyTwo

on Nov 27, 2006

Also: is there a limit on how many times the player can speak with another civ during the same turn? I often go to the Trade screen, look at what's available, check the tech tree to see what my options are, then go back to Trade and make a deal. I do this pretty frequently in late game, when I don't always know the comparative strengths of one tech over another.

I think this would be best implemented if, during those turns when speaking to another civ is allowed, communication would be unlimited. Think of it as a week-long summit.

CobraA1

on Nov 28, 2006

New feature: You can't keep going back and talking to races over and over. Only every few weeks can you (unless you're a Super Diplomat in which case you can go back much more often).

Aww, trading a gazillion technologies so I wasn't behind the power curve was the best part . . .

I finally decided and pre-ordered DA today, BTW

. Downloading the beta (or whatever is available) now, gonna see what it's like. I loved GC2, so I'm sure I'm gonna love the expansion. Looks like it's going to be a much harder game, though.

Telefrog

on Nov 28, 2006

So far, so good. I really like reading these journals. There's some very insightful commentary given out. Even if you don't agree with a particular decision, you know the logic the developers used.

Is there any way to attack an opponent's asteroid mines? If there is, I haven't figured it out yet. I hate waiting to "culture flip" the mines and sometimes I just want to ruin the other guy's economy.

ignuss

on Nov 28, 2006

Is there any way to attack an opponent's asteroid mines? If there is, I haven't figured it out yet. I hate waiting to "culture flip" the mines and sometimes I just want to ruin the other guy's economy.

Attack it with a combat-ship

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