In the game Conquest of Amaris you are put into the medieval fantasy world of Amaris with many island continents. You are plunged into a series of wars against 13 other factions (there are 14 total) for control of the vast realm. The game is a RTS with a new key element....many maps in one. The whole world of Amaris is played on however the vast world is split up into different maps. You and other factions set up colonies by claiming or conquering land and adding them to you, when you send settlers and soldiers to set up the colony you draw the borders yourself and you click on each colony on a world map to go to the specific map and control the settlements, ports, or fortifications in that colony. Something I will have to ask is if my theory about AIs is correct...do they control everything at the same time in RTSs or are they limited like the player and must go to the unit to command it like the player. Because I feel that the AI is all over the map controlling every single unit and building at the same time. If so I am going to have this changed in my game. Factions Alarian Republic…………………………………………Civilized Humans and Halflings Troites ………………………………………………….....Cultic Humans Moon Protectors………………………………………..Moon Elves Rockforge Dwarves………………………………………Dwarves Bonetooth Goblinoids………………………………Orcs, Goblins, Bugbears, and Gnolls Bloodpaw Goblinoids……………………………….Orcs, Goblins, Bugbears, and Gnolls Mountain Horde Tribe………………………………Barbaric Humans and Minotaurs Plains Horde Tribe……………………………………Barbaric Humans and Centaurs Nightdark Cult…………………………………………..Dark Elves Shadowfang Legion…………………………………….Vampires, Werewolves, Liches Lasili Swamp Kingdom………………………………Krin Hisssakesh Kingdom……………………………………Shral Starwood Protectors…………………………………Wood Elves Sentinel Legion………………………………………….Sentinels and Civilized Humans I will soon give you the list of units because that is what I am working on now.

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Original post by Linkin Park Fan Something I will have to ask is if my theory about AIs is correct...do they control everything at the same time in RTSs or are they limited like the player and must go to the unit to command it like the player.

AI is essentially done "at the same time"--any binding takes _some_ time, so you can never have two processes execute at the same time unless they are performed on separate processors. In the manner you're asking, AI in an RTS can send as many commands as it likes (most games will cap this command limit, however) at any time to as many units as is logically applicable. Essentially, AI is "all seeing" and doesn't have to "go" to the unit as you've implied; it simply knows where the unit is at and gives it commands.

thats what I meant but thanks for putting it in better terms for me. So i'm hal right in otherwords? they have that quality but its finite.

AI doesn't work like a human in that it uses a mouse and keyboard to issue commands. It doesn't look at a map with a human eye. All it sees is the values representing the current situation, without the whole visual interface that we use. Based on this data, it decides it's actions, and to execute them, it would normally use the same underlying command interface, technically speaking.
AI is usually limited by the processing power and by the programmers insight: deciding which actions to take costs some time, and without a proper system behind it these decisions will usually be quite dumb.

For example, the average platformer enemy only walks left and right, and runs towards the player when he sees him. That's a very easy AI, with a very predictable pattern. A smarter AI should take into account where the player is heading to, so he can try to intercept him. This system needs more information (player speed, direction) and needs to handle it correctly, which means more programming work and more calculations to be done. Expand that to a RTS game, where the situation is a lot more complicated, and you'll see creating good AI isn't that easy. Especially since players are very good at recognizing patterns and finding ways around them... :)


However, if you're not familiar with issues like these, how do you plan to actually create your game?

I like the concept of a part real time strategy part empire building game a lot. If you can pull it off, it'd certainly be a lot of fun, I think.

One question, though. Will each seperate colony map continue to run even when the player is "at" a different map?

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Original post by 1337-n00b One question, though. Will each seperate colony map continue to run even when the player is "at" a different map?

yes, it will keep your orders going or you can have it automanage to do what is needed. So even though you may be at your third colony the home, first, and second are still running seperately.

This will probably be difficult to program I realize.