Some Kind of Robot AI Arena Battle game. Would love to get some Feedback ^-^.

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iMilchshake

Guest
Hello, Guys!
So as the title says, I'm working on some kind of Robot-AI-Battle-Arena Thingy right now.

Right now there is only this basic engine:
-2 Teams with X amount of Robots.
-Each Robot is being built out of different parts. For each part, there are 4 Tiers (For Each tier there are multiple choices) :
-Wheels (determinate Movement speed/Turn speed)
-Hull (determinates Robot's HP + Hull's Recharge rate)
-Weapon
-Chip asd
-The Chip is a bit more complicated. There Exists one Chip for each Tier as well. The Chip's tier selects the max tier you can select for your other parts. For example: If you want to select Tier 2 Wheels/Hulls/Weapons you need a Tier 2 Chip (or higher) as well.

-Also, The Tier of the Chip improves the AI. The Tier 0 Ai is really crappy. No Bullet dodging, No collision prevention, low detection range (how far they detect Enemy Robots), bad aiming (aims at the position where their target currently is), no communication with teammates... with each tier the AI gets better and better.
Now, my plan it is to make a game out of this. I have an Idea, please tell me what you think about it. Ideas, hints, and improvements are really appreciated :)

You select a win limit. For Example: Who wins 15 Rounds first, wins the whole game.

You get X money when losing, and X*1.5 (is 50% more too much?) money when winning a round. Also: If you win, you get the Money of your Robots, that were able to survive, back. (Or should the winner get back their original price*their hp? So almost destroyed Robots don't give you much Money anymore)

Before a round both Players (or Player vs. KI) build their robots and “ready up”. Then the robots fight. You can't affect the fight (or should you?). More Money = Better Robots. Better Robots=more likely to win. Typical snowballing. But it's possible to come back if you are behind:

1. Who wins is really random, worse Robots sometimes still win.

2. Money Reward after a Round gets much higher, in the end, so if you have a money advantage, in the beginning, 5 rounds later it's nothing worth anymore.
Thanks for reading! Hope you will give me some feedback! :)
 
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Snail Man

Guest
Seems like a good base game, but there are some issues with progression. The robot system seems to rigid and limiting to allow for any real creativity when it comes to robot design, and because you don't control the robots (which is not necessarily a design flaw mind you), that means the player will end up frustrated due to overall lack of choice. Unfortunately there's no real easy fix to this, and most of the ways out are pretty difficult programmatically speaking, but here are some suggestions anyway;
  • Instead of just having '4 tiers' in a straight progression, make the upgrades more nuanced: add hp/speed trade offs, make it so some weapons are faster and weaker, some are slower and stronger, make more diverse AI choices, so instead of just choosing bad to good, you could get aggressive, defensive, avoider, etc.
  • Add a more customizable robot system: it'd be hard, but very fun to be able to physically attach the different robot parts so that your design would have more direct impact on the action
  • Focus on custom AI; implement a simple D&D-style programming language, and make it so the challenge is not only to win against the enemy via better parts, but also to out think them.
Of these, the first one is probably the most in line with what you've already got going on, but I just thought I'd throw the others out there too.
 
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Rusty

Guest
Like Snail Man pointed out, this is just going to become a scrap battle game (the team with the better scrap wins). The ideal solution to this is to implement a points system or a maximum cost system. Each team has X amount of points to field their team, they can either use it to field multiple, low grade robots or a couple of better equipped robots.

AS an example, if you have built a robot with a flamethrower whose total point cost with it's combined cost comes up to 5,400 out of a 10,000 maximum, you then have to make the tactical choice of deploying a hardened partner with the remaining 4,600 or deploying multiple mini-bots to distract the enemy while your main bot takes them out one by one.

This is the system used by tabletop wargames to prevent players just deploying the most powerful figures and completely overwhelming a lesser equipped army. It means that all battles are put down to a series of tactical choices, that happen both before and during the each battle simulation and means there are a lot more variations of challenges to overcome.

For example of that, if you deploy a single 10,000 unit, it could be overwhelmed by a team of 3 or 4 cheaper bots with the right equipment or similarly the enemy could have 3 or 4 bots that are equipped to take on smaller enemies and you'll need to deploy a damage tank to push them back.
 
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iMilchshake

Guest
Thanks for your answers guys! I actually didn't expect such long ones ^-^.

Instead of just having '4 tiers' in a straight progression, make the upgrades more nuanced
I Guess I failed to explain that part. There isn't only One Wheel/Hull/Weapon for each Tier. There are about 10 Wheels, 8 Hulls, and 13 different Weapons all split up into 4 tiers.

you could get aggressive, defensive, avoider, etc.
Oh yeah! That is an awesome Idea. You first could select some kind of targeting (Max-HP, Min-HP, nearest, furthest, highest cost, lowest cost etc.) and also choose a Fight-Mode : Chaser, Avoider, Defender (sticks to a chosen teammate).

Add a more customizable robot system: it'd be hard, but very fun to be able to physically attach the different robot parts so that your design would have more direct impact on the action
Well, I guess I'm not that advanced. :/
But what about beeing able to add some extras to your robot that aren't included with the Chip. Antenna for Cooperation, A small laser that can detonate Missiles(also bullets?), A Saw for melee damage (Combine this with a shotgun and Chaser Fight-Mode and really speedy wheels for a rape), Maybe an emp cannon that can deactivate Robots for a short time.
That small laser, for example, Its completely useless against machine guns with 15 Bullets a second. But at the same time really strong against slow shooting guns.

Focus on custom AI; implement a simple D&D-style programming language, and make it so the challenge is not only to win against the enemy via better parts, but also to out think them.
I guess that is even harder.. but out thinking would be possible by being able to add those extras. The enemy loves to choose missiles? Equip that laser. Is the enemy just building squishy long range defensive Robots? Build fast chasing Robots with Saws to rip them apart.

Each team has X amount of points to field their team
Should you able to save not spend points for the next round? Should the Amount raise each round?

AS an example, if you have built a robot with a flamethrower whose total point cost with it's combined cost comes up to 5,400 out of a 10,000 maximum, you then have to make the tactical choice of deploying a hardened partner with the remaining 4,600 or deploying multiple mini-bots to distract the enemy while your main bot takes them out one by one.
Ooh, small Decoys :D Yeah that would be great. Select 4 Robots. 3 of them get no Weapon, a basic hull, and 💩💩💩💩ty wheels. and they will stick to the last Robot,he gets all the Points. :3

Tobi!
 
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Rusty

Guest
Should you able to save not spend points for the next round? Should the Amount raise each round?
No, not at all. That would unbalance the game again into a scrap battle with points. What you can do is implement a grading system. If you win the battle using less than 7,000 points, you get an Gold medal and so forth.
 
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iMilchshake

Guest
No, not at all. That would unbalance the game again into a scrap battle with points.
Oh yeah, i guess your right. ^^

What you can do is implement a grading system. If you win the battle using less than 7,000 points, you get an Gold medal and so forth.
hm. But what do you get the medal for?
 
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Snail Man

Guest
You could also make medals unlock new "paint jobs", which would do nothing, but look slightly different than the default parts
 
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