Wednesday, April 29, 2020

The systems, at least

I recently bought the online version of Terraforming Mars, and it was something of a disappointment. The graphics are fine, and the implementation seems to be complete, but there are serious problems with both the AI and the multiplayer stability.

I totally understand when an AI isn't good at a game.  It is a complex problem to make an AI understand the fine points of a game, especially when you want that game to be moddable or extendable.  Chess is an easier problem that other games, in a way, because the rules are set in stone.  Unfortunately a game like TM needs an AI that can cope with card changes, expansions, and variable numbers of players, and this dramatically increases the challenge of coding it.

Given all that, I get why the AI in TM is bad.  What I don't get is why it isn't even capable of understanding game systems.  Some cards in TM take a production from one person and give it to another.  Unfortunately the AI doesn't understand this, so it will try to play a card that takes steel production when it is the only one who is producing steel.  It ends up stealing production from itself, completely negating the card.  I am fine with an AI that plays cards suboptimally, but an AI that plays attack cards to blow up its own stuff?  That is unforgivably sloppy coding.

This reminds me of the AI in Civ 6.  I get that the AI there is weak and makes random choices.  That is fine, if unfortunate.  But when the AI is completely incapable of understanding an entire game system I get grumpy at the developers.  You can't just make aircraft a big portion of the game and then forget to tell the AI how to build or use them!  (It turns out you *can* do this, and they did, but it makes them look foolish in the extreme.)

The other issue with TM is the buggy multiplayer.  When I tried multiplayer there were serious disconnect problems and the chat window just stopped working.  I get that online games are not a simple problem, but if your game can't even maintain a basic chat window, you are not ready for release.  It is not just me either, as lots of reviews on the product on Steam talked about similar bugs in online play.

Really the TM game is best played solo.  It is a fine game for that, and seems to work flawlessly.  I just can't get past the game having massive issues with any number of players beyond one, and it irks me that the one company to get the rights to produce the game I like so much really screwed the dog on this one.

I am not asking much here.  An AI that takes random actions that all forward its position in some way, and an online mode that lets players stay connected, play the game, and type to each other.  That doesn't seem like a lot to ask, and yet apparently it is too much.

Maybe someday TM will be sold to a competent developer.  Until then, I guess we are likely stuck with in person play, playing solo, or a buggy, half baked mess.

Monday, April 13, 2020

Do it again

World of Warcraft has recently captured me again.  I suppose it wasn't much of a surprise because I am stuck here at home and I need something to soak up 8 hours a day of downtime.  What actually got me to do the thing though was Wendy being eager to go back to our old haunts and reignite the addiction.  Wendy and I have been looking to find games to play together again and WOW absolutely fits the bill.

I was nervous coming back because there have been some expansions that have deeply disappointed me.  Cataclysm was the worst offender because they designers decided to make all content purely on rails.  No choices or flexibility - you do all things in a single order, or do nothing at all.

Thankfully Battle For Azeroth doesn't seem like it has that problem.  There are some big storylines to do, but there are tons of random quests all over and there seem to be tons of choices in how to play.  I suspect it will be really weird when we hit level cap though because we are almost 2 years into this expansion so there are going to be huge gear gaps to make up before we can do anything even near the current raid tier.  I am used to being into an expansion on time and going through content at a slow pace, but everything is already out there to be had.

I remember the old days when I knew everything that was happening in the game, but I know nothing now.  I looked at the level caps for expansions and saw 60, 70, 80, 85, 90, 100, 110, 120, 60.  Wait, what?  That sequence of numbers has something really odd in it...

And apparently in late 2020 the entire game will radically shift.  All level 120 characters will drop to level 50, and the entire world will be set up so you can level from 10-50 in any expansion you want, and 50-60 in the new xpac. This seems amazing to me, because the current levelling situation is a mess.  When you want to go to a given expansion it is a puzzle to figure out how to get there, and travelling from one to another feels strange.  You also outlevel an expansion and have to abandon all the content there.  With the new update you can just adventure anywhere you want from 10-50, so you won't have to worry so much about how to get to each expansion.

This seems like a fantastic change.  Instead of progressing through the entire story of more than a decade you can just pick the story you like the best and bash through that on your way to the level cap.  So many choices, and so much less being lost at how to get to the next area you are required to visit in order to play.

WOW certainly is slowly fading away, but it does seem to me that the people running it are getting better and better at their craft, finding the best possible way to craft each part of the game.

I am already dreaming WOW.  Thinking about gear upgrades, rolling spec choices about in my mind, wishing for addons to streamline my play.

It has me again, and I don't know when it will let me go.