This is just a thought I've had while playing a few RTS games, especially Age of Empires (although it could be applicated to most RTS games). In AoE there is quite a large map, and a human's isometric view of the map is quite limited. This leads to choices about where the human player should concentrate his efforts; he cannot be everywhere at the same time. Pleae forgive my spelling and grammar; I am in a hurry. Skip the following two paragraphs to read about my main point. So where does the AI come into this? In AoE I found it very annoying while observing the AI that it could be everywhere at once. For example, when one of my catapults attacks an enemy catapult, the enemy catapult automatically drives aside (we're not talking about realism here ), just enough not to get hit. However, my own catapults have no such reaction, and to make them survive such encounters I have to order them myself. Consider this with the fact I must fight multiple front battles at the same time, still meanwhile I have to expand my town. The AI can do everything of this at the same time, which gives a feeling that either the AI cheats or is god. Let's face it, I like micromanagment in AoE. It makes the game challenging; removing the stressed situations where one needs to fight at multiple fronts at once would not improve the game. Therefore I feel cheated when I see the AI players easily march armies in all directions while still do the regular work at home. If a human player wants to accomplish that he jump between different places all the time, which of course is very exhausting. Now for my point: Could it be implemented into a RTS where the computer had a limited view area, in which the AI could only see and take actions. To move this "virtual AI display" would take time, and thereby simulate human reflexes. As the difficulty level increased, these reflex delays could be decreased to simulate a veteran human player. Pros: - If one closely inspects the AI, one will find that it fights on equal terms as the human player, which gives satisfaction. - Different reflex times can easily be implemented. - Also only the units in the virtual view for the AI would be need to be searched for potential actions (although the AI would still need to remember what to do on a global level). This would speed up some calculations. Cons: - Can make a poorly designed AI less of a challenge. - Of course there would be an processing overhead, which could increase the CPU load significantly (yes it contradicts my third pro point). Does anyboy of you guys know a RTS which has already implemented this feature? I'd be interested to play that RTS just to study the AI in that case. EDIT: Fixed a serious misspelling. [edited by - Unwise owl on May 15, 2003 8:46:03 AM]

You could give the player better AI...

eg...
The player contols buildings etc orders troups where to go etc etc

but each troup has basic AI, eg will attack enemies if it see''s them and dodging enemy attacks and things like that.

that way the human gets the same advantages as the enemy

for simutaneous battles you could setup a path system like Red Alert 2...

what this allows you to do it you press the path button, give all your troups orders and then what to do when they have done that order and so on an so on.
when you have told all the troups the battle plan you just click the path button again to send all your troops into action

(that trick is really good with the chronotroopers, if you get enough, close enough, you can take all thier units in one go & they cant do anything because all thier units & buildings are paralysed :D)

I think the AI designers of RTS games have just been doing everything they can to make the game challenging. Letting the computer cheat by being fully aware of everything happening makes things a lot simpler, and it makes up for the computer being stupid. To be able to work with a limited view into the world would really make things a lot more difficult for the AI, and it would probably make a lot of really stupid mistakes unless it was done really really well. The AI players already do a lot of stupid things because of their limited inteligence, and restricting their view would just make them act even dumber. So I don''t think any RTS games have ever tried this, it just seems prohibitively expensive in terms of both processor power and the amount of advanced AI work it would require to get the computer to be at all competitive with this restriction.