0024038: Rework of how AI taunts are introduced (game option) - Arcen Idea Tracker (Bugs and Features)

ID	Project	Category		Date Submitted	Last Update

0024038	AI War 2	Audio Issue		Oct 27, 2020 12:45 am	Oct 27, 2020 12:58 am

Reporter	Asteroid	Assigned To
Status	new	Resolution	open
Product Version	Beta 2.621 Gorgeousification

Summary	0024038: Rework of how AI taunts are introduced (game option)
Description	(Splitting out an idea introduced in https://bugtracker.arcengames.com/view.php?id=23512) From the Background Story in the game's main menu and AI War 2\GameData\Configuration\JournalEntries\Lore_Journal.xml: "You are in command of the last substantial remaining human military force. It is so small that the AI is either unaware of it, or just doesn't care. Potentially coincidentally, something outside the galaxy seems to have distracted the AI far more than humans ever did. You must grow your forces, capturing and reactivating fleets from the old wars... but you must be careful not to grow so strong that the eye of the AI turns back toward you. Gain just enough power, capture just enough fleets, take back just enough planets, that you can destroy the massive structures known as 'AI Overlords' and end this new war before the AI is even fully aware it has begun. If you are too greedy, if you make yourself too threatening, if you let the AI realize you might be a true threat... expect us all to lose everything." Literally every single line in this text reminds you that the AI has all but forgotten about you, doesn't care, is too busy elsewhere to give a damn, <insert every other variant here>. Yet as soon as you move a toe it suddenly has a lot of time blabbering about how it's gonna watch you die in slow motion "over and over and over again", because it has nothing better to do after all. The taunts in the first game were already questionable on that level but at least they were short and subdued at the beginning, a garbled "Insignificant" could be interpreted as the remote echo of some processing thought. In the second game it's so over the top and mismatched to the theme, it's completely ridiculous. It's no wonder that when voice taunts were added negative reviews mentioning them came flooding in, as well as requests on both the forums and bugtracker to turn them off. The option to turn them off was adding incredibly fast. However I think that it's a lost opportunity that you just have the choice between ON and OFF. Something more lore-appropriate could be built. PROPOSAL Some people like the current taunts as they are and/or perhaps don't care about the game lore or don't mind that they don't make sense, so this should be optional. You can hack nodes that give you access to parts of the AI's thought, initially very scrambled. The more nodes you have, the more access you get. This way you can get glimpses of what distracted the AI from you, and see how it processes what's happening "back home" (i.e. in your galaxy) through your actions, and progressively becomes aware again of the humans' threat. This mechanic would completely take the place of taunts in the early phases of the game (though perhaps some voice lines that match certain "thoughts" could still be used. Only now they represent the AI monologuing, not speaking to you). When AIP has risen high enough that it "makes contact", the more subdued taunts could still be used, if from their phrasing it's justifiable that the AI took enough notice of your activity to say something like this. Needless to say, taunts suggesting that it's gonna spend its time watching your death in slow motion over and over and over again would never be used when this option is active. Since capturing stuff to merely get some lore dumps is not very appealing, hacking those nodes should be free. Or we could tie in a gameplay element of accessing the AI's communication network and therefore gaining some insight into the local AI forces' reasoning (priorities, objectives of the Warden and Hunter...) with an ability on a large cooldown. More nodes hacked give you more info, and perhaps eventually some active ability to mess with the AI's information: making it believe a large menacing force is amassing somewhere for instance, giving you a legit way to bait the AI fleets and perhaps unlock a stalemate in a very linar map.
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Date Modified	Username	Field	Change
Oct 27, 2020 12:45 am	Asteroid	New Issue
Oct 27, 2020 12:50 am	Asteroid	Description Updated
Oct 27, 2020 12:51 am	Asteroid	Description Updated
Oct 27, 2020 12:58 am	Asteroid	Description Updated
Jul 30, 2024 10:28 am	Chris_McElligottPark	Category	Audio Work => Audio Issue