Author Topic: Are Warp gates Wormhole specific?  (Read 2199 times)

Offline waybryson

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Are Warp gates Wormhole specific?
« on: April 22, 2010, 01:33:09 am »
When the AI initiates warp raids can I predict the ingress point in a system if I have destroyed all adjacent warp gates except for one.  In other words, if my home world is bordered by planets X, Y, and Z; and if I destroy the warp gates on X and Y; then will enemy warp raids into my home world be limited to planet Z's wormhole.  Or can the warp gate on Z launch a wave into any of the three wormholes? Basically, I want to know if I can concentrate more defenses on a loan wormhole or if I should spread them evenly across the system.

In my current game, my home world is 2 jumps away from a Mark IV world that is bottling half the galaxy as well as two relatively tough Mark III worlds that share the same pocket of the galaxy as me.  At least one of the AIs seemed very fond of sending large groups into my system from the start, so I spend a lot of my early game resources beefing up my home world defences.  So if I would like to take the gamble of leaving it to take the brunt of the enemy for a while.  This whole strategy hinges on my ability to predict exactly where the enemy waves will enter the system.  My current plan is to rapidly gate raid and expand around the 2 Mark III worlds in my pocket of the universe, thus gaining enough of an economic base and research to take them and then use my forces to knock out the Mark IV world.  This will be much easier if I don't have to expend resources heavily defending another whipping boy planet.

As always, thanks again for the great game.  It is the most fun I've had in a long while!  I've convinced my brother to buy it so we can play online.  He is a graduate student at NYU in the mathematics department specializing in biological mathematics.  As soon as I mentioned the game uses emergent intelligence in the AI programming, I am pretty sure he went around slapping high-fives for the next day or two. 
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Offline RCIX

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Re: Are Warp gates Wormhole specific?
« Reply #1 on: April 22, 2010, 02:08:29 am »
This is correct, and in fact one of the central tactics in the game :)

I'm sure Ninja Chris (or Keith) will (or has) come along and post a 2 paragraph reply though, so consider this the short and sweet version.
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Offline waybryson

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Re: Are Warp gates Wormhole specific?
« Reply #2 on: April 22, 2010, 02:12:42 am »
Awesome!  Thanks for the quick reply. 
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Offline x4000

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Re: Are Warp gates Wormhole specific?
« Reply #3 on: April 22, 2010, 10:53:01 am »
Actually, I think you pretty much handled this one, RCIX. :)

And thanks for your support, waybryson -- glad you're enjoying it so well!  Cool to hear about your brother, too.  If he's curious about more details of the AI, I've written about it extensively, which he might enjoy.
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Offline RCIX

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Re: Are Warp gates Wormhole specific?
« Reply #4 on: April 22, 2010, 07:07:07 pm »
Actually, I think you pretty much handled this one, RCIX. :)
:o :D
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Offline x4000

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Re: Are Warp gates Wormhole specific?
« Reply #5 on: April 22, 2010, 08:26:57 pm »
:)
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Offline waybryson

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Re: Are Warp gates Wormhole specific?
« Reply #6 on: April 22, 2010, 08:59:15 pm »
Thanks for the link :-)  I enjoyed the read and I sent it on to my brother. 
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Offline x4000

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Re: Are Warp gates Wormhole specific?
« Reply #7 on: April 22, 2010, 09:01:43 pm »
My pleasure!
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Offline RCIX

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Re: Are Warp gates Wormhole specific?
« Reply #8 on: April 22, 2010, 09:04:34 pm »
THere's actually a kind of interesting story behind me and those AI design blog posts; a friend sent me the first one which i first read (since i'm very interested in any topics relating to AI), then shorly thereafter bought the game (and the rest is history). :)
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Offline x4000

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Re: Are Warp gates Wormhole specific?
« Reply #9 on: April 22, 2010, 09:06:50 pm »
Nice!  Yeah, those really did help gain the game a lot of exposure, I think.  The first article was featured on Slashdot, Reddit, Hacker News, MSDN, even HowStuffWorks.com... amongst dozens of others.  Definitely was a unique way for Arcen to debut to the world, I guess. :)
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Offline waybryson

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Re: Are Warp gates Wormhole specific?
« Reply #10 on: April 22, 2010, 09:29:00 pm »
That is pretty rad that the under-the-hood mechanics got the game exposure.  I don't have the background for AI or programming -I studied philosophy- so I can't truly appreciate the modeling that goes into designing such a system.  Nonetheless, my brother gave me "Sync" to read, which is about how oscillators align in nature and this underpins everything from planetary orbits to the movement of schools of fish and of fire flies, and even the intelligent decision making of bee colonies.  So, to make a long story short, I was pretty stoked when I saw that emergent behavior had been programmed into a game.  I wish you all the best of luck!
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Offline eRe4s3r

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Re: Are Warp gates Wormhole specific?
« Reply #11 on: April 22, 2010, 09:30:42 pm »
This is correct, and in fact one of the central tactics in the game :)

I'm sure Ninja Chris (or Keith) will (or has) come along and post a 2 paragraph reply though, so consider this the short and sweet version.

Actually this is a unfixed bug ;) And yeah, it could have been a 2 page reply, but i was asked to report it and keith has yet to fix it!  ;D
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Offline x4000

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Re: Are Warp gates Wormhole specific?
« Reply #12 on: April 22, 2010, 09:32:14 pm »
Many thanks!  I thought it was a fun thing to do, too. :)

eRe4s3r -- yeah, the "different per AI player" part is a bug, but it's the current functionality anyway.  But the thing about it being wormhole-specific based on which planet it is coming from (where there are warp gates) is not planned for change, and is definitely really central to the game.
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Offline eRe4s3r

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Re: Are Warp gates Wormhole specific?
« Reply #13 on: April 22, 2010, 10:03:09 pm »
Yep, but to reply to OT.

If you only leave 1 warpgate alive that borders you, then the 2nd AI forces (who can not raid anywhere currently) are freed and do not come in as raids, but as faux-cpa's ;)

This means you need to have at least 2 bordering warpgates at the moment. And you have to watch closely which AI owns it.
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Offline RCIX

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Re: Are Warp gates Wormhole specific?
« Reply #14 on: April 22, 2010, 10:15:56 pm »
That is pretty rad that the under-the-hood mechanics got the game exposure.  I don't have the background for AI or programming -I studied philosophy- so I can't truly appreciate the modeling that goes into designing such a system.  Nonetheless, my brother gave me "Sync" to read, which is about how oscillators align in nature and this underpins everything from planetary orbits to the movement of schools of fish and of fire flies, and even the intelligent decision making of bee colonies.  So, to make a long story short, I was pretty stoked when I saw that emergent behavior had been programmed into a game.  I wish you all the best of luck!
I actually read that book and it's really good! But then i'm known to my friends and family as "Mr. Bemis" (from the classic Twilight Zone) :D
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