Making the G.R.A.I.D.

The Graid was created in response to several outstanding needs and problems in computer-based strategy games.

Strategy games are distinguished from puzzle games, social games, first-person-shooters, and role-playing games.  The critical element being: play to win against one or more opponents, based on long-term planning and resource management.  For example, Chess and Go are strategy games, as are the computer-based games like Civilization, Shadow Magic, Empire Earth, Age of Mythology, Total War, Command and Conquer, Supreme Commander.

Computer-based strategy games come in several forms:

1. “Real-time” strategy games in which events proceed without waiting for a player’s actions.
2. “Turn-based” strategy games in which players are given adequate time to discover and react to the situation before the game progresses.
3. Computer-based versions of (formerly non-computer-based) board games (which are generally of type 2)

The problem with “Real-time” strategy games:

Real-time Strategy (RTS) games are are very popular, and exciting to play and watch; the action moves continuously forward, generally leading to the demise and annihilation of all but the winning player.  The “problem” is that whether one wins or loses is based more on the limits of attention and reaction time, rather than strategy in depth. That is, the “strategy” is to execute a memorized game-plan, often limited only by the speed of clicking and map positioning; especially in the early game where interaction with the opposition may be minimal.  This is not a bad thing altogether, in fact, it will be a key mechanic of any strategy game; the problem is that the scope of the strategic planning is limited to what a human can attend to given the rate of events and the number of elements to be monitored/managed.  The outcome is determined more by “real-time” than by “strategy”.

To attend to larger maps, more numerous units or agents, and more complex strategic objectives, something must be done to slow down the game (or integrate more attention or intelligence onto a team).  For example, Civ-IV attempts to model a larger world, with numerous strategic (winning) objectives; and being turn-based, the game can be run as slowly as necessary to allow a player to attend to all the elements on all the fronts across a global map. The trade-off is that it may take multiple hours or days to play out a complete scenario.

A key objective of the Graid is to create a framework for games that:

• Allows additional intelligence and attention to be deployed to aid the player.
• Allows some amount of ‘time-warping’ so large-scale maps can be played at one sitting.
• Allows a smooth transition from ‘short-games’ duels to a continuously running  multi-player ‘long-game’.

Bringing in additional intelligence is accomplished by a multi-player team mode, in which the attention and intelligence to manage a ‘player’ is spread across a team with each team member given appropriate tasks and responsibilities. The Graid framework then allows the team members to be augmented or replaced by AI components.  With AI augmentation (or other scripting, macros, acceleration) a game of broad or complex strategy and tactics can be played more rapidly, without slowing for human attention and action.

In all RTS games, there is some degree of automation: when a unit is given instruction, that unit will proceed autonomously to preform that action, there can even be some queuing of actions for a unit; but these actions are not reactive or adaptive, and the player has way to inject their own policy or logic into the programmed behavior.  That leaves the player with the “grind”: micro-managing the units, interposing on each action or each movement cycle to detect and correct the next course of action.  The Graid allows the player to automate this “grind” by adjusting the policies or defining their own behavioral logic;  and not just for individual units, but also for land-use planning, resource management, economic forecasting and budgeting, etc. The Graid is distinguished by giving the players unlimited capability to enhance and automate their game-play.

But wait, you say: can it be fun to play a game by watching the AI/computer do everything for you?  We believe: yes. The human players must first play to determine the strategy/tactics to be entrusted to the AI, and create their own policies and procedures to gain competitive advantage.  Even with automation and delegation, the human player is engaged to monitor, select, direct and correct the actions of the AI.  The games supported by the Graid can become large and complex, the AI is deployed to handle the rote and repetition, freeing the human player to focus on situational analysis and to react to plans and behavior gone awry.