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Discussion / RA2: the community in review.
« on: August 11, 2011, 10:34:29 PM »
Okay, okay, this thread is useless. The whole reason I have it here is to promote a discussion into the direction we are going in, and to encourage as many niches in RA2land as possible.
Disclaimer: I'm not an older veteran, but I'm a listener. I may be wrong here.
To start with: Building today, and how it got there.
RA2 has several factors that have the effect of making RA2 building the way it is. I'm talking to the bigest and most obvious of them.
AI, Arenas, Culture.
AI.
AI is pretty basic. the main tactic is to shove whatever is nearest and keep on shoving until a timer pops up. This works, because all stock AI never had tactics like driving backwards when something gets under them, or attacking from the sides. The main reason I see for this is the fact the arena hazards never were a threat (I'll deal with this next), they are always off (I'll tackle this later, too) and Online play was broken (Discussed here.). Only in recent years thanks to modders have more and more advanced AI tactics showed up. For a personal example, I tried to create a Popup specific AI using an AI suited to popups and an AI that makes bots flank foes before attacking. I failed, but it is a prime example of some of the variation within RA2 AI in the modern day.
AI is more effective than man. There are rarely small mistakes, hesitations and ingenious tactics such as dancing around a hazard or going for a wheel over the main bot. In RA2, the AI usually charges blindly, and everything usually supports that.
Additionally, the judge "AI" (Or mechanics for judging robots in fights) is simple, and chooses a simple factor to seperate winners from losers: Damage. Flipping an opponent out isn't as highly regarded as outright killing them. There have been steps to counter this, as one 2011 tournament has recently used non damage based judging.
Arenas.
Arenas are made by modders of the community, and by proxy the culture or RA2 decides the arenas, creating an echo chamber. Thus, the arenas in RA2 (or the popular ones) are usually flat, rectangular, have no hazards or weak ones and might have a wall to flip out opponents. The BBEANS arena has a hazard in the center to change that, and a set of flippers to prevent the "pinning" mechanic that occurs frequently which gives some types of bot an edge over another.
This is one of the few exeptions to the rule, as some deaths caused by arena hazards are seen as unfair and cheap. Even the BBEANS arena's blade is weaker than it could be, to prevent "unfair" losses. The fact that the bots are put under the care of AI and as such leave the builders feeling subconciously that their bots are "vulnerable" encourages this sort of arena.
The only way for more hazardous arenas is for the community to lighten up over tournaments and thus losses from arena hazards and other threats not related to the direct opponent.
Culture.
RA2 is a primarily online game nowadays, with little to offer in singleplayer. All the challenge is made by the community and as such there is a competitive feel that is everywhere. This feel makes loss worse than it usually is from an outside observer, and as such arenas and tournaments are made in a way where any unfair losses due to luck are removed.
This feel drives away some light-hearted builders, and changes the rest due to peer pressure. (I don't have anything else to put here, exept that if we took stuff like tournaments a little less to heart we might have a better game, from the varied and entertainment stadpoint. Keep in mind that was subjective, and the "No items, fox only, final destination" style gameplay may be more entertaining to some.)
tl;dr: Just read it, moron. I don't have time for idiocy.
Disclaimer: I'm not an older veteran, but I'm a listener. I may be wrong here.
To start with: Building today, and how it got there.
RA2 has several factors that have the effect of making RA2 building the way it is. I'm talking to the bigest and most obvious of them.
AI, Arenas, Culture.
AI.
AI is pretty basic. the main tactic is to shove whatever is nearest and keep on shoving until a timer pops up. This works, because all stock AI never had tactics like driving backwards when something gets under them, or attacking from the sides. The main reason I see for this is the fact the arena hazards never were a threat (I'll deal with this next), they are always off (I'll tackle this later, too) and Online play was broken (Discussed here.). Only in recent years thanks to modders have more and more advanced AI tactics showed up. For a personal example, I tried to create a Popup specific AI using an AI suited to popups and an AI that makes bots flank foes before attacking. I failed, but it is a prime example of some of the variation within RA2 AI in the modern day.
AI is more effective than man. There are rarely small mistakes, hesitations and ingenious tactics such as dancing around a hazard or going for a wheel over the main bot. In RA2, the AI usually charges blindly, and everything usually supports that.
Additionally, the judge "AI" (Or mechanics for judging robots in fights) is simple, and chooses a simple factor to seperate winners from losers: Damage. Flipping an opponent out isn't as highly regarded as outright killing them. There have been steps to counter this, as one 2011 tournament has recently used non damage based judging.
Arenas.
Arenas are made by modders of the community, and by proxy the culture or RA2 decides the arenas, creating an echo chamber. Thus, the arenas in RA2 (or the popular ones) are usually flat, rectangular, have no hazards or weak ones and might have a wall to flip out opponents. The BBEANS arena has a hazard in the center to change that, and a set of flippers to prevent the "pinning" mechanic that occurs frequently which gives some types of bot an edge over another.
This is one of the few exeptions to the rule, as some deaths caused by arena hazards are seen as unfair and cheap. Even the BBEANS arena's blade is weaker than it could be, to prevent "unfair" losses. The fact that the bots are put under the care of AI and as such leave the builders feeling subconciously that their bots are "vulnerable" encourages this sort of arena.
The only way for more hazardous arenas is for the community to lighten up over tournaments and thus losses from arena hazards and other threats not related to the direct opponent.
Culture.
RA2 is a primarily online game nowadays, with little to offer in singleplayer. All the challenge is made by the community and as such there is a competitive feel that is everywhere. This feel makes loss worse than it usually is from an outside observer, and as such arenas and tournaments are made in a way where any unfair losses due to luck are removed.
This feel drives away some light-hearted builders, and changes the rest due to peer pressure. (I don't have anything else to put here, exept that if we took stuff like tournaments a little less to heart we might have a better game, from the varied and entertainment stadpoint. Keep in mind that was subjective, and the "No items, fox only, final destination" style gameplay may be more entertaining to some.)
tl;dr: Just read it, moron. I don't have time for idiocy.
