quote:
Let's think from the king's viewpoint instead. King's motivation to support X instead of V could be one of the following:
- The king thinks X is more loyal, or X is a friend of his.
- He thinks V is dangerous if he get too much power
- X gives the king something in return.
- X has threatened or blackmailed the king
- V is more powerful than X already, and the king wants to keep a balance between his underlings
- etc etc
I'd favor this approach because, in terms of AI, it can be systematized. For instance, you could make loyalty a stat and have the king do a search on the most loyal character (heh, which could be the player too
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). With this sort of key and lock approach, the king AI might be able to look at X in the same way a player looks at heroes in an empire game (as a modifier for armies or cities or some other important post). On a basic level, the king really seeing solutions that will fill a puzzle (which we'd hardcode as his motivation, too keep the kingdom running).
It seems you'd get interesting conflict when you juxtapose a character's skills and abilities. V wants to be powerful (a measurable stat). If his loyalty (measurable) was high enough, he would have been picked and there'd be no problem-- or story, for that matter. But the stats don't mix right.
Again, for the purposes of AI, V (and everyone else) has a "pathfinding" problem thru and around measurable obstacles. Maybe V sees that X's only support is the King (so we then need a support stat); he can choose a number of ways to attack that support stat. Now if you have all characters solving toward their goals I think you'll get the kind of conflict you see in a strategy game, but the actions the characters take will be storylike.
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Just waiting for the mothership...
Edited by - Wavinator on September 12, 2000 5:34:16 PM