Solo-wargaming the Enemy

[Joelegan]

FF,  Yep agreed!
Harry,  I am sorry to hear of your loss; that must be hard to lose such long time friends.   Well, at least you are still playing.  It took me 2 years to start after my dad died.

Joe

[tikitang]

...you can sit and look at yer lovely toys for an hour each move, if the fancy takes you. Without some tosspot telling you to get on with it!

Yes, this is what tends to happen in most of my solo games.

Unfortunately, I also frequently lose interest in finishing half way through...

[ced1106]

Thanks to everyone who read the ChatGWhateverP transcript. Hope you're feeling better after a few days rest. (:

So I've been playing "Five Leagues from the Borderlands" and find its "one size fits all" AI a disappointment. A pack of hungry dogs shouldn't act the same way  cowardly bandits would. I like the idea of different enemies *behaving* differently, so went with a traits system. It provides guidelines over the usual definitive AI flowchart you see in game rules (many of which I've managed to break or find faults with). Still, the problem of "behavioral" AI is that it often conflicts with "optimized" AI, where you play your units to the best of their abilities, even if it would break immersion. Usually, if you remember the 80's videogames (: the AI just has more units on their side to overwhelm the player, rather than fight optimally. So any game AI that's not as good as a good player (ie. all of them (: has to balance the poorer decisions of the AI with more units on their side, which 5L does.

*****

Setup: Most enemies will attack in groups. Depending on terrain, divide up the enemies into groups (eg. ones attacking to the right, ones to the left), with one group led by a leader. An Unexplored Marker is its own group, and heads towards the center, though not necessarily directly.

Traits: To simulate different behavior among enemies, enemies have traits which determine how they behave in an encounter. Feel free to modify. An enemy's traits are listed in order of priority.

Leaders: Flash of Insight.
Dust Dogs: Animalistic, Fixed, Pack.
Bandits: Cowardly, Fixed, Pack.
Fiends: Animalistic, Fixed, Cunning, Pack.

Flash of Insight: This enemy and his group will attack to the best of their abilities.
Animalistic: This enemy will not take magic or ranged weapons into effect. Cannot distinguish individuals (eg Mystics vs. non-Mystics).
Fixed: This enemy will not leave a melee with an opponent once engaged.
Cunning: These enemies have some intelligence. Will use cover.
Pack: These enemies hunt in packs. Will use the 1" ally rule whenever possible, even if it means not attacking.
Cowardly: Unless they can attack, these enemies will prefer not to leave cover if their enemies are nearby.

[Ethelred the Almost Ready]

Cheers Ced.
I am also trying to have some degree of different behaviour for creatures.  I agree that animals will behave differently from humanoids.  I am also trying to have a simple system for enemies that are either "melee" troops or "missile" troops. 
Other traits I am considering are: Stupid, Impetuous.

Do you have any traits/AI for allies of the "players"?
I want to differentiate the party using D&D terms Player Character (PC) and Non-player Character (NPC).  I would have less control over the latter and some could have interesting traits like Greedy or Treacherous.

[Bloggard]

Makes sense, or at least those who get the most out of solo games are probably dreamers. I am definitely a dreamer, I love to lose myself into the narrative of a game. I have absolutely no problem solo-wargaming the enemy even without any kind of AI rules, simply because I more or less "roleplay" what the figure/character would do in any given situation*. The dice provide the variables and keep me (or the characters) on their toes. I'm enough of a dreamer that I've often thought of playing entire narrative-focused campaigns on my own, keeping a track of it all on a blog or something.


*I've considered using this approach combined with something like the Mythic GM Emulator to determine what NPCs/the other side might do based on various likelihoods in their current situation etc.

spot-on.

[ced1106]

Do you have any traits/AI for allies of the "players"?
I want to differentiate the party using D&D terms Player Character (PC) and Non-player Character (NPC).  I would have less control over the latter and some could have interesting traits like Greedy or Treacherous.

I use my NPCs like meat shields.

I've noticed that when I do creative writing (not gaming), my characters develop as the story progresses (Not everyone who writes writes like that, of course.) I've only noticed this happening in gaming when it's "Five Leagues from the Borderlands" as the narrative mechanics et. al. need you to "glue" the random table results together into a story. For example, I have a Follower who is a "Wandering Traveller", the map has a river, and I have a boat miniature. None of my heroes are really travellers, so he ends up being the guy who steers the ship, even though no mechanics explicitly support this. Since he's a Follower and in charge of the boat, his behavior is that he's not as heroic as the rest of the party. That sort of thing.

Sort of related to the Frostgrave Ulterior Motives deck (and the old GW Warhammer Quest player deck) would be a deck for "unreliable NPC" behavior (eg. you have a crew of pirates or green individuals). On the back side of the cards would be a condition (eg. sees an enemy) and the back would be the NPC's behavior (eg. Coward: If the enemy looks threatening and no leader is present, run away). Once an NPC draws a card, the NPC follows its behavior. Depending on your Leadership or Charisma skill, you can negate cards from the deck, or assign cards to NPCs, reflecting your character's ability to perceive character traits before they affect combat. Or... something like that.

Warhammer Quest : See the Dark Secrets files! : https://cutandassemble.com/index.php/print-and-play-warhammer-quest/#WHQFiles

***

EDIT: Also asked ChatGWhateverT and asked it to generate a table. ChatGPT does a better job of formatting than copy and paste, so ask it to generate a table of personalities *for combat*.

| NPC Personality           | Combat Effect                                         |
|---------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------|
| 1. Hot-Headed              | Rushes into combat without thinking, sometimes recklessly. |
| 2. Cautious                | Hangs back and prefers a defensive approach in combat. |
| 3. Tactical                 | Strategically plans and coordinates attacks with allies. |
| 4. Impulsive               | Makes quick decisions and acts on instinct in combat. |
| 5. Calculating             | Analyzes the battlefield and opponents to exploit weaknesses. |
| 6. Cowardly                | Avoids direct combat whenever possible, preferring to flee or hide. |
| 7. Aggressive              | Always charges head-on into combat, seeking to overwhelm opponents. |
| 8. Defensive               | Focuses on protecting allies and maintaining a strong defense. |
| 9. Berserker               | Goes into a frenzy, attacking relentlessly but ignoring personal safety. |
| 10. Team Player            | Prioritizes teamwork and cooperation in combat situations. |

[ced1106]

Not exactly AI, but giving the enemy a different objective from yourself should punch up a game. If you play Frostgrave, you may be familiar with the Ulterior Motives deck, which gives each player a secret objective. Obviously, if you're playing solo, you know your enemy's objective. But what should be amusing is that you play the "bad guy" when the scenario's objective is to kill off the enemy, while your enemy needs to complete an objective. Again, it's not AI because you're playing both sides, but at least the different objectives will allow you to play the game differently.

[Burgundavia]

There is a Sci fi version in the pipeline written by Burgundavia from here.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/744326026327690/permalink/1379694239457529/

There is, I should definitely get to finishing that. I've bumped into a few different issues with SciFi (or modern) vs Fantasy - shooting vs melee. Almost all combat in scifi is shooting, which means it needs to be less deadly (Sellswords' ranged can be deadly). Also, opponents are by default smarter in a modern/scifi setting - they are using ranged weapons and technology. That means you need different AIs for "smart" vs "dumb" foes.

Spectre Operations community has some interesting ideas for solo play too - I've attached one of them here (this is not my work, it is from this post) https://www.facebook.com/groups/spectreopwargame/posts/9992843387408050/

[Spinal Tap]

There is, I should definitely get to finishing that.

Yes, you should