It’s the ”equivalent of DotA for a TBS,” says lead AI programmer ‘Quantomas’. It’s been in prototype since ‘08, and active in the community for 10 months.
”It is the equivalent of DotA for a TBS, and as such foremost an AI project. It is a little known fact that the AI for a TBS is much more demanding than for other genres,” the projects lead AI programmer informed us via email.
”Our premier goal is to create a non-cheating AI that can hold itself against veteran players and dynamically adapt to a player’s strength to offer unlimited replay value.”
”The project has been developed as a prototype since 2008 and in the last 10 months actively as a community project.” The team have released a fully playable build of their ambitious project for Heroes of Might and Magic 5, available on their website.
”Our next step will be to establish the project as an independent production, to develop the TBS genre to new heights and in general raise the bar for the AI in computer games and awareness for it in the industry and market,” continued Quantomas.
The AI programmer bemoans too many studios treat AI coding as a ”nice to have component instead of an essential core element” in their games. ”Once it becomes clear what an AI can truly do for a game, they won’t be able to get away with this so easily.”
Ubisoft is releasing Heroes of Might and Magic 6 and according to the ‘Eternal Essence’ project team, they had convinced the publishing giant to incorporate their AI, ”but Black Hole, the developer, insisted to develop its own AI.”
”This move has been contested by many fans in the community and the result is not pretty, with H6 featuring an AI that is reminiscent of a RTS. As a result H6 lacks depth and replay value, which will become notable after several days of playing time.”
”There is hope that this can be rectified at some time, but the outcome is uncertain. A powerful non-cheating AI for a TBS is still a rarity in the industry,” they added.
For more information on Heroes of Might and Magic 5’s ‘Eternal Essence’ project visit the official website, where you can also offer financial support if you so choose.
