adrien allard florian brulhart sebastien...

Adrien AllardFlorian BrulhartSebastien Broussaud

Decision making in Endless Space 2

Background

Our Stud io

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 201712 Dev 20 Dev 30 Dev 40 60 Dev

Our 4X

Explore

Search points of interest

Discover the world

Gather Intel

Expand

Increase territory

Expand to new places

Exploit

Build / research

Gather resources

Optimize economy

Fight in battles

Unit management

War management

Exterminate

Asymmetric factions

Quests

Amplitude touch

Relation with players

Evaluate deals

Diplomacy

Post -mortem: Endless Legend

• Decisions are difficult to control

• AI doesn’t have global strategy

• Diplomatic relations can seem

irrational

Control

• Heuristic results are just numbers

• No access to intermediate

reasons

• Decision process is opaque

Understand Technical

• Code is spread and duplicated

• Code base is not incremental

friendly

• Tools are too complex

Object ives

• High level control

• Low level control

• Handle each resource

differently

For design

• Understand each decision

• Understand resource

allocation

• User friendly

For debugging For programming

• Incremental

• Allow different AI techniques

• Isolate data refining from

decision

MeetE.N.F.E.R.

Process Over v iew

Game

SyncData

Analysis Tasks generation

Tasks allocationExecution

Process Over v iew

Game

Tasks generation

Tasks allocation

Tasksgeneration

S i tuat ion

Des igner needs

Aaah, the Cravers are invading! The AI should definitely defend

its system here!

Goal

Defend system against enemiesDefend System

Des igner needs

Hum ok … but how do you defend the system?

Des igner needs

Details, schmetails… erm... well… you know… it could build

defenses or create ships.

Tasks


Create ships

Build defense

Des igner needs

Hum ok … but how does the AI decide which action to

take?

Des igner needs

Well, we're talking about Cravers. Insectoid, psycho, warmachines. We need the best defense against them.

Scor ing


Create ships 0.4

Build defense 0.8

Des igner needs

Oh, but I forgot, it's that crappy system we stole from the Lumeris

earlier. The AI shouldn't prioritise it.

Scor ing


Create ships 0.4

Build defense 0.8

Scor ing

Defend system against enemiesDefend System 0.5

Create ships 0.4

Build defense 0.8

Scor ing


Create ships

Build defense

0.2

0.4

Des igner needs

And one more thing! If the AI's planning a war against the Cravers in any case, ships should be preferred.

Mult ip le reasons


Create ships 0.2

Build defense 0.4

Mult ip le reasons


Create ships 0.2

Build defense 0.4

Attack Cravers 0.7Improve military power to attack

Mult ip le reasons


Create ships

Build defense 0.4


0.5

Mult ip le reasons


Create ships

Build defense 0.4


Reduce upkeep 0.9

0.5

Mult ip le reasons


Create ships

Build defense 0.4


Reduce upkeep 0.9

0.3

Assoc iated too l

Post -mortem

• Ability to iterate before implementation

• Force separation between each decision step

• Improve decision debugging

• Feedback decision chains

• Understand decision at different granularity

Tasksallocation

Tasks a l locat ion

• Tasks in the game have costs

• Can I afford this task?

• Concurrence between tasks are due to shared resources

Build defense 0.3

Create ships 0.6

Context

80

Tasks a l locat ion

• Tasks in the game have costs

• Can I afford this task?

• Concurrence between tasks are due to shared resources

100

Build defense 0.3

10Create ships 0.6

Context

Tasks a l locat ion

• Use motivation to split resources

• Task motivation must be independent from the cost

• Each resource has its own way of being split

• Handle tasks with multiple resources

Objectives

80

100

Build defense 0.3

10Create ships 0.6

0/10

Tasks a l locat ion

0/80

0/100

Build defense 0.3

Create ships 0.6

0/10

Tasks a l locat ion

0/80

0/100

Build defense 0.3

Create ships 0.6 100

allocator

Stock:

0/10

100/100

Tasks a l locat ion

0/80Build defense 0.3

Create ships 0.6

allocator

Stock: 0

0/10

100/100

Mult ip le resources


Create ships 0.6

0/10

100/100

Mult ip le resources


0

allocator

Stock:

Create ships 0.6

0/10

100/100

Resource rea l locat ion


Create ships 0.6

0/10

100/100



Create ships 0.6 0

allocator

Stock:

0/10


0/80

0/100

Build defense 0.3

Create ships 0.6

allocator

Stock: 100

80/80

0/10


0/100

Build defense 0.3

Create ships 0.6

allocator

Stock: 20

80/80

0/10

Val idate tasks for execut ion

0/100

Build defense 0.3

Create ships 0.6

Assoc iated too l

Post -mortem

• Simplify the task generation by removing cost handling

• Handle concurrence between tasks

• Centralize allocation algorithms

• Each resource behaves differently so we can allocate them differently

Uses andimprovements

Where to integrate features

Decision graph

Economy

Diplomatic contracts

Fleet management

Fleet production


Diplomacy relations

Analysis Decision graph

Ship/Fleet Design

War topology

Economy


Fleet management

Fleet production


Diplomacy relations


Ship/Fleet Design

War topology

Economy


Fleet management

Fleet production

Execution

Fleet behavior

Battle behavior

Dip lomat ic re lat ion behav ior

Empire destroyed our explorer AND We are a military faction

Prepare war

In alliance

Ask for Alliance


Increase ship number



Prepare war

In alliance

Ask for Alliance


Build alliance contract



Prepare war

In alliance

Ask for Alliance


F leet Management

Defend empire

Defend empire 0.9Defend system

Pegasus0.6

Defend attacked system

A fleet is a resource for military decisions

Taskforce

F leet Management

Defend empire


Pegasus0.6

Defend attacked system

A fleet is a resource for military decisions

Advance tasks generat ion

Goals can generate goals

Defend empire


Pegasus 0.3Defend attacked system


Goals can generate goals

Defend attacked systemDefend constellation Defend constellation

0.5Defend empire


Pegasus 0.3


Tasks can generate tasks

TaskforceDefend system Pegasus 0.3

Defend attacked systemDefend empire

Defend empire 0.9


Tasks can generate tasks

Assist

Escort defensefleet

0.2Taskforce

TaskforceDefend system Pegasus 0.3

Defend attacked systemempire

Defend empire 0.9

1000

1000


Link tasks with an allocation rule

Build unique wonderon Pegasus

0.3Build wonder

Build unique wonderon Andromeda

0.6Build wonder

1000

1000


Link tasks with an allocation rule

Build unique wonderon Pegasus

0.3Build wonder

Build unique wonderon Andromeda

0.6Build wonder

Only one in empire

Mult ip le Personal i t ies

We have 8 different factions.


And we want to add someflashy, new, exotic gameplay!


Sheesh. Alright, we've got this. Wecan add a specific decision branch.


And we want somegameplay restrictions!


Well then we can cut a specific decision branch.


And the personality of the new AI faction must match the lore!


In that case we can modifya specific decision branch.

Some numbers

• 90 analysis computations

• 45 types of goal

• 90 types of task

• 300 generators

• 50 types of game action handled

• 70 diplomatic states

• 3 programmers and 2 designers

Summing-Up

• Create a language to talk about AI decision

• Keep it simple

• Ensure modular approach so new content

doesn't break decision system

• Understanding the AI is mandatory

• Emergent behavior must be controlled

• Tools must display a system the way you design it

Thank you

adrien allard florian brulhart sebastien...

Documents