Chat Gamespy du 16 juillet 2004
Ce chat portait principalement sur l'intelligence artificielle du jeu, mais comporte aussi quelques questions générales sur le jeu.
<MarkSkaggs> Hey everyone...hello and welcome.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> Hello everyone, and welcome to GameSpy Arcade's featured event for the day...
<[GSI]WolfBlade> A live developer Chat event with VP and Executive Producer Mark Skaggs about the game The Lord of the Rings: The Battle For Middle-earth!
<MarkSkaggs> Hey Wolf....let me start with one answer to a question that everyone always asks....yes the map editor will ship with the game.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> Mark is joining us for a second time round to chat about the A.I (Artificial Intelligence of the game and will of course be taking some general questions
<[GSI]WolfBlade> awesome!
<MarkSkaggs> this will be the same editor we used to create the game.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> For more information about tonights event please visit: http://www.gamespyarcade.com/events/chats/markskaggs_lotrbfme_16072004.shtml
<[GSI]WolfBlade> Tonights chat will focus on the games A.I (Artificial Intelligence) Please ask your questions related to that feature, but we will also take some general questions.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> Questions can be directed through me, the chat's moderator. Just type /msg WolfBlade and your question to submit - Please do not page our guests as they will be unable to answer you.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> And now, without any further delays, I'd like to introduce our guests!
<[GSI]WolfBlade> Please Welcome VP and Executive Producer Mark Skaggs!
<MarkSkaggs> Greetings!
<[GSI]WolfBlade> Also Mike "BFMEMike" Murphy - Community Manager, EA GAMES - Welcome Mike
<BFMEMike> Hey All!
<[GSI]WolfBlade> Now with all that said - let's get those questions going.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> If you would like to ask a question to our guests pls type /msg WolfBlade and state your question - Please do not page our guests as they will be unable to answer you.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> *Jemburula-gs* I heard the editor is a tweaked version of the Generals Editor. How have you tuned the map editor to allow us to build upwards say if we wanted to build MT?
<MarkSkaggs> Yes, we've amde quite a few changes to the world builder tool as we call it. We've increased the height and made it easier to add huge stuctures like MT, Helm's Deep as well as deep places like you see in the Mines of Moria.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> *Jemburula-gs* I was wondering if you are going to be adding cinematic depth in that for Minas Tirith you will see Denethor set himself on fire and run off the edge?
<MarkSkaggs> I've seen the early versions of that cinematic and yes...you do get to see poor Denethor....:)
<MarkSkaggs> We're doing what we can to recreate events from the film, but not do a shot for shot copy of the film....after all if you want that...just watch the film right?
<[GSI]WolfBlade> *[HH]SharpShot-gs* Do the A.I. retreat, change course, ambush, or regroup in intense situations?
<MarkSkaggs> You're touching on the emotion system a bit here. The AI will scatter in certain cases when they are frightened by the fell beast for example, and then yes, they will regroup by themselves
<MarkSkaggs> We're setting up the emotions system to never overrule what a player tells his units to do, but also want the units themselves to show that they are afraid, happy, and generally recognize what's going on around them.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> *Mystified_Wolf-gs* Hey Mark! wats up! will there be a skirmish mode in bfme with the main map and everything?
<MarkSkaggs> Hey Mystified....yes there will be skirmish in the game... how could we ship with out that? hehe....we've got a new AI system that's a good step beyond what you saw in Generals and early play testing shows some interesting tactics.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> *Helhound2000-gs* How will BfME deal with knowing your units health status. Will there be the typical green bar above there heads or will there be a better visual representation such as cloven shields on units among others?
<MarkSkaggs> This is something that we're experimenting with for B4ME. Right now only big monsters and hero's have health bars on them. You can tell the status of your infantry by how many people are left in their group. We originally had health bars on everyone,
<MarkSkaggs> but then we found that the screen got really cluttered. You will also of course have health bars on your buildings.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> *Alibubble-gs* About the games A.I will units attack on their own or will they think about wheter they can beat an oponent. Or will they only do what the player commands
<MarkSkaggs> One of the things that we believe in as a team is that the units should do what you tell them. There are times that as the person in charge of your army you might want to send a group of soldiers against
<MarkSkaggs> an unbeatable foe just to delay that foe while you marshall your forces.
<MarkSkaggs> This might sound harsh for the little guys, but that's one of the hard decisions a commander has to make. When you think about it though....if you're sad that you have to send your guys to their demise...you must be developing some sort of connnection with them right?
<MarkSkaggs> And if you're developing a connection with them...then I'm happy as a game maker, because this means that we've succeeded in making them meaningful to you either by their emotions, the fiction or the graphics. :)
<[GSI]WolfBlade> *S31-Data-gs* Will there be a detailed story line that follows the Movies staight through, or will there also be extras that the producers put in?
<MarkSkaggs> We're not going to change the plot of the movies, but players will get to see the time line proceed in a nonlinear format. In the films, it's sometimes hard to tell the number of days between the events and also how much of a distance Sam and Frodo have to travel between scenes.
<MarkSkaggs> The game will allow players to experience events pretty much in the real time order they happened in the fiction outlined by the films. This is something people find compelling, esp when they get to see it play out in the living world map.
<MarkSkaggs> See my other answer above about us not wanting to copy the film scene for scene.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> *_RU_Newbiewinner-gs* Ive seen that units are controlled in groups, but i was wondering whether the units think like a group or as a single individual?
<MarkSkaggs> Great question. Yes they are in groups but they are a group of individuals. Each unit in the group fights, moves, acts and dies separately from the other. But as a group they stick together.
<MarkSkaggs> We've found this makes it easy to control, but keeps all the coolness we like to see in our units.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> *Sirus198-gs* In the campaign do you choose a specific group like Gondor or just the generic good or evil sides?
<MarkSkaggs> When playing solo, you pick "good" or "evil". When you pick good, you play through the events of the films from the good point of view. This means for a while you fight with Rohan troops and then move on to Gondor troops. Just like in the film.
<MarkSkaggs> When you pick evil, you try to take over ME and fight as Isengard and Mordor. Because each of the armies is different, you have to use different strategies and of course get different upgrades, spells, etc.
<MarkSkaggs> For the good side, you also get missions with the Fellowship, like Mines of Moria.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> *DonahueMan-gs* Hey Mark! When can we expect a demo?
<MarkSkaggs> Hey DonahueMan! We've decided against doing a demo before we ship the game. The main reason for this is time constraint. Doing a demo before shipping basically means finalling and testing the game twice...which takes time. We want to have this product out in November. That being said, we are considering a demo after the game releases, but I can't promise that right now.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> *Ner0^^Lotr-gs* if e.g theres a big battle and theres one man thats supperior to all the others, will the A.I then change target to him? to get the hardest one down first?
<MarkSkaggs> we have an attack priority system in the AI that allows us to set that on an indvidual unit basis. It's a cool system, from our point of view though, what might be logical in terms of the attack priorities might not be logical from the game player's point of view so we have to be careful when we set it up.
<MarkSkaggs> It all comes down to user experience and we want to make sure that we do the "fun" thing rather than always doing the "right" thing.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> *BlazingSaddles-gs* Will armies be able to travel to all parts of Middle Earth that weren't featured in the films?
<MarkSkaggs> You'll be able to go to parts of ME that were shown or referenced in the film and fight battles there. One of the things we know people want from B4ME is the opportunity to experience more of ME so we're doing what we can to deliver there.
<MarkSkaggs> If the location was not shown/referenced in the film, then because of license issues we won't be going there.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> *Helhound2000-gs* Will heroes and other such units be able to nullify fear and makes soldiers around them more fearless?
<MarkSkaggs> Yes, I think I've talked before about how happy I am that the fear reactions that show up in our new emotion system actually allow us to better highlight the morale effect of a hero being near. When your hero is around, your units will feel braver and not be as afraid when a big nasty creature is bearing down on them. Very cool and very fun.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> *Dragnarr-gs* Hello.Im a guild leader and interested in possible Multiplayer features TBFME will have. So what can you promise to the eager guilds? :)
<MarkSkaggs> Promise? hmmm...let me think....
<MarkSkaggs> :)
<MarkSkaggs> Actually, I'll tell you about some of the features that are currently in the game, knowing that as we're tuning, polishing and finishing the game, that the feature list may change.
<MarkSkaggs> For MP there will of course be human vs human up to 8 players at once. You'll also be able to add in AI players so that you can do things like "comp stomp". We've also got what we call "scenarios" where you can go back to some of the big battles you see in the films and fight them in MP mode.
<MarkSkaggs> This is like turning a solo play map into an MP map.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> *S31-Data-gs* Where you able to cast the actual actors for voices in the game? Or are there any?
<MarkSkaggs> We've got quite a few of the actors to lend their voices to the game and we're still waiting on one more who has an insanely busy schedule. They've been great about helping us out and it's a thrill to the team to get to work with them.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> *PDisBigCow9017-gs* Hey I have been hearing a lot about the battle of the last alliance in the first Lord of the rings movie! Will that battle take place inside the game?
<MarkSkaggs> Yes, the battle of the Last Alliance will be in the game. We had to get Sauron on the battle field some how....after all we've got a really cool model and he's a ton of fun. The current plan is to have this mission be a fun tutorial mission to start off the game.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> *Tavros@MECenter-gs* On the living world map, say Minas Tirith is destroyed. Will that be reflected upon on the world map?
<MarkSkaggs> Yes, a couple of weeks ago, Dustin and I sat down to go over the cool features and polish the team wants to add to the LWM(living world map). Making sure that the fortresses and the world.
<MarkSkaggs> shows the effect of the battles happening is at the top of the list. There are some other things that we're going to experiment with as we go. BTW - I'm still in awe when I see that. I'm a big LoTR fan at heart and I'm still get excited when I can look over all of ME that way.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> *rexer@me-mw-board-gs* Regarding A.I; Will high lvl. units, like Heroes, be able to do some micro maneging? Like making a prober formation if the player isn't around to make a prober formation to defend against an attack?
<MarkSkaggs> you will manage each hero individually rather than as a group. The heroes will do the things you tell them to do, automatically attack if an enemy gets too close, but they won't go out and automatically do probe attacks or anything like that.
<MarkSkaggs> Our philosophy is that most people would find that sort of independence a bit problematic, especially if they are trying to set up a complex attack pattern. Imagine if you had all of your forces setup, only to see that one of your best units ran across the map and got killed in an ambush?
<MarkSkaggs> yikes.
<MarkSkaggs> That being said, we did add one auto feature to heroes. When they are fighting the enemy, they have the option of automatically using one of their special powers in the fight. Besides looking cool, this means the player doesn't have to micromanage them as much
<MarkSkaggs> and that the heroes can defend themselves better.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> *{CD}_Guardian_[slo]-gs* will the place we're moving in be limited so you cant move further and will the weather change?
<MarkSkaggs> There will be territories you move to across the LWM. We originally had scoped the game to let you go to any place all across Middle-earth. After we started working on it, we found that doing so would mean that either much of the terrain would look the same or that we would have some relatively boring areas in the game
<MarkSkaggs> compared with some of the more exciting areas like Helm's Deep or MT. Because of this, we decided to go for quality rather than quantity. This means that we want every area player's see is as special as we can make it for therm.
<MarkSkaggs> Since we made that decision, the quality of game has gone up. We've got some great map beautification artists and they are doing an amazing job at tricking out the levels.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> *Alphanumber-gs* Would I be able to program my own A.I.? Or will the units we use always be dominated by the same A.I. you have created. For example, attacking when the enemy is in range as opposed to attacking when attacked, or something even more complicated as running away when facing a more powerful enemy.
<MarkSkaggs> In a word yes. There's several ways you'll be able to do this. The first is just tweaking data values in our INI files. From here you can basically reporgram units to move differently, act differently, have different hit points, and different spells.
<MarkSkaggs> You'll also be able to go in and modify the AI scripts for each level, as well as the AI used for skirmish and online games. It's pretty complex stuff and I'm not sure how many people will want to go into the guts of the game that deeply, but you'll certainly be able to do it.
<MarkSkaggs> I expect modders to have a field day with this and that there will be several mods and even possibly a total conversion created. After all...the engine comes from Generals which many people have already learned how to mod.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> *IamGandalf_-gs* I have a question in regard to various 'balancing' issues. In particular, the idea of '9 Nazgul' (for Mordor). How will 9 Nazgul be countered?
<MarkSkaggs> We're still working on balance. Right now, the best defense against Nazgul/Fell Beasts are archers and of course Gandalf. I've got a huge amount of confidence in our design team, not only to make great solo/MP missions, but also on the balance front.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> *Monstrouslordmelkor-gs* how will the economy work, will the A.I automate what the peasants do or will you have to command the peasents to find jobs?
<MarkSkaggs> There's too many other things going on so we decided to have the AI command the peasents to do their jobs. There are some peasents that you can recruit to your army and those you'll be able to move around at will.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> *Dragnarr-gs* in the E3 Movie we saw Balrog do all kinds of nasty things. There weren't automated as I recall, will there be many of these "micromanagement" features or will all these be handled by the unit A.I?
<MarkSkaggs> At E3, the balrog was under player control. When the balrog is under AI control, he'll do those nasty things against you automatically. Basically when you see the AI summon a Balrog, you better bring Gandalf up to help out.
<MarkSkaggs> I was playing the Moria mission yesterday and it's quite scary to see that thing pop up out of the ground and come at you.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> *|E.Jones|-gs* Will the shire be full of hobbits and can we fight there - the same for Hard, will we be able to seige Haradrim cities? And how will these supposedly non-playable AI people react to the player’s units?
<MarkSkaggs> At the request of New Line, we decided to not have any fights in the Shire. For creative vision reasons, they wanted to keep it safe from harm and we agreed.
<MarkSkaggs> You'll fight a battle with the Harad, but not seige a Haradrim city.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> *MadmanAgent-gs* how long would it take to repair a city like MT after a massive battle?
<MarkSkaggs> The real question is how long it will take to repair a city during a battle. After the batte is over...you're moving on to the next mission. We do have wall repair as a feature and we're tuning how long it takes.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> Great questions folks!
<[GSI]WolfBlade> Any last advice, tips or info that you'd like to share with the fans? or are we all finished?
<MarkSkaggs> Hmmm...last bit of info.....We're pushing to alpha in the next few days. This means that the game will have all the features, be playable start to finish and that we'll be able to start polishing art, upgradeing some of the graphics, fixing bugs, doing performance optimization and in general polishing the game experience.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> nice!
<MarkSkaggs> I'm excited because we're quite a ways away from the ship date and this means that we're going to be able to have the time to do our best work.
<MarkSkaggs> Last note is to remember that I'm a spokesperson for a whole team of people working on this product. We've got about 80 people
<MarkSkaggs> and they're all very good at what they do.
<MarkSkaggs> See you all next time. Thanks for the questions.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> A HUGE thanks to Mark Skaggs and Mike Murphy for dropping by. Great to have you!
<[GSI]WolfBlade> Another BIG thanks goes out to everyone who came by to participate. Great questions, folks.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> We'll have a chat log of tonights event posted for everyone real soon!
<BFMEMike> Thanks Mark and thanks to everyone who showed up today
<MarkSkaggs> nite all.
<[GSI]WolfBlade> Night all!
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