I am currently working on a MMORPG/RPG that involves multi-world travel and politics and all matter of things, but one of the features I may want to incorporate is AI controlled PCs. Basically, it''ll work like this: the player will be his character and build an army or something (whatever they want to do) and then log off. While they''re logged off, the AI will take over and first sleep for a few hours, then will mimic the player''s actions to a lesser degree; they will act the same way, but not commence any major actions. The game will be synchronized with the computer clock or something, so that it "constantly" runs or maybe only while the machine is on in single-player mode. This way, when the static AI NPCs engage in warfare with the PC they can do so, and the PC can defend without the controlling player actually being there. Furthurmore, if another PC who uses the same machine/game attacks the original PC, they can do so. What are some opinions about this? Since it probably matters, here is a lengthier description of the game: PCs are basically these godlike people that have enormous power including the power over moving across worlds (known as shadows). They (may) fight for control over some worlds or even possibly all worlds, but there is no true "main" goal. Of course, the computer characters will have goals of their own and thus create conflict. Also, there may be "scripted" events that create more goals. The game is first person but has an RPG style of play.

I don''t see anything wrong with this overall (in fact, I''ve wanted to try it myself for a while), but you have to be very careful with it, I think. The most important thing in a feature like this is that you can easily piss off the player if the AI doesn''t perform up to par with what he would normally do... so there are a couple of options that I can see.

You have to make it very clear to the player that the AI will be controlling, and give him options to control what it will do for him while he''s gone (think of it like setting up a turn in a turn based battle game). They could setup certain responses that the AI would take in predictable situations, etc.

The other option is to make it so that it is extremely hard for the player''s stats/ranking/whatever to go down when he isn''t actually physically playing. There were a few games I was looking at that did things like this, and they just made it so that when the player was engaged in battle by a third party, while he wasn''t involved in it, his statistics wouldn''t degrade. Rather, the only the engaging party would be directly affected.

Why not set it up for the player to choose what the AI will do for him while he is gone like train more units or increase units strength, speed and defense and stuff like that. That way the player will not have to worry about something not being up to par of what they expected or will not do too much.

Letting the computer fight for the PC is a good way to make people angry. Even if the PC would have lost had they been there, it would still make people angry. I''d figure out another system.

I can also forsee abuse coming from another direction - players signing out just before a battle to get the AI to take over.

The other problem that springs to mind comes from those players who only play once a month or for a couple of weeks a year or something similar, who end up having to leave the AI to play for them pretty much all the time.

Otherwise, provided the AI is reasonably easy to customise, it could work.

One way of making it more palatable to players could be to have NPC characters also have down-time when they''re played by a (slightly) inferior AI so that the player can take advantage of the corresponding weaknesses in others.

Perhaps if the AI would have boosted char stats and would be only defensive, some of the problems could be averted. The AI might chase an assaillant for some time, but will only incapacitate rather than kill, excluding NPC monsters, etc. of course.

i was planning something similar, where logged-out players have their characters controlled by AI. they will be able to script it to an extent (i.e. "continue running the shop", "train your axe skill", "go to the pub every night at 7", etc), mainly for the players who can''t sit around playing 12 hours a day.

one thing that i think will help alleviate the frustration of bad things happening while they are gone is... da da dum... PERMADEATH! or, in fact, the lack of permadeath when logged out. now, i wasn''t planning on every death being permanent (mostly people would "swoon" and recover, or be rescued, or reurrected, etc), but it would be possible in some circumstances (such as doing something extremely foolish, or dying repeatedly before one''s "constitution"-like stat recovered). but, when not logged in, death has little effect on stats, and good items can''t be looted (so you don''t have to worry about someone killing your guy when he is on AI control, and stealing your Platinum UberSword of Doom).

i think this will only apply if you leave your character in a town or something though, to prevent people from starting a fight and then unplugging their network cable when they start to lose.

It depends on what the AI does when the player is not around. I would hate to quit for the night in the saftey of town only to log on the following to discover my character has wandered off into the middle of one of the more dangerous areas.

But here''s an idea how about using jobs. When the player quits the NPC goes to work at whatever job you have assigned to it. That could be running your store or Forging weapons from the list you left with it. In other words doing all the non adventuring tasks a character might do.

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Writer, Programer, Cook, I''m a Jack of all Trades
Current Design project
Chaos Factor Design Document

I agree with Techno(Techie? Gothy?). By defualt AI is always stupid compared to the player, however, it will be a nice thing to be able to have your chartacter level up while you are offline.

The ability to script the AI''s actions is an absolute must. Perhaps not every single action as that could become tedious but at least general instructions should be cool. And as a rule I would recommend having the AI totally avoid violent situations if possible, cuz when on equal levels a Player will always beat an AI.


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There are two things he who seeks wisdom must understand...
Love... and Wudan!

Why not just make a game with no AI controlled PCs and wait for some cheaters to make a robot for it then incorperate what they write back into the game?