Today we’ve got a new Feature Focus for you, about a feature that you have been getting glimpses of for quite some time but haven’t really gotten to play with yourself yet: Avatars and their AIs. Hang on... AI? Weren’t the Avatars meant to represent the players? Why would they have AI? Well, if you want to find out, you better check out the video and the blog below:
In a game where cultures shift frequently, how can a player recognize the different civilizations they are dealing with? Sure, there’s player color and perhaps an icon, but those are so impersonal. Dealing with the red player or the horse empire is just not as much fun as putting a face to those dastardly neighbors who just stole your outpost, or the good friend who will come to your aid (or not...) in the brewing war. So in Humankind, all civilizations will be represented by an avatar, and as a player you will get to customize your own and share it others.
Customizable characters are something completely new for Amplitude. It took a lot of work to develop this system from the ground up, and to find a style and the right techniques and shaders that will make these Avatars feel coherent with the rest of the game, like the art and terrain. The Avatars will also wear costumes that represent the cultures you choose, and we wanted these to feel as authentic as possible within our technical and production constraints, so we had to check pretty much every detail with our historian.
We wanted to give our players a lot of freedom with how their avatar looks, whether they are trying to represent themselves or a fictional leader they envision for their civilization. So we focused on facial customization with a lot of different features and a variety of options for each feature. On top of this, you will get to pick a Personality for your Avatar, which determines how they respond to diplomatic interactions with dialog and gestures.
Creating an Avatar for yourself is fun for single player, but it really shines with friends. Of course, your friends will see your Avatar when you’re enjoying a multiplayer match, but more than that, you can share your Avatar with your friends through Games2Gether so they can play against “you” even if you’re not around!
This is not just visual, either, as you can customize the way your AI will behave! There are three aspects to this AI customization, some of which you got to see in action in the Lucy OpenDev:
- Archetypes are the general tendencies and behavior of your Avatar. Do they try to plan far ahead, or do they fly by the seat of their pants? Are they staunch allies, or will they backstab you at the drop of a hat? Will they bear a grudge if you do the same to them? You can tweak these on several different axes in either direction, but you will only get to tweak so many of them at the same time, so choose carefully.
- Biases are a lot more specific than the archetypes. They represent a kind of quirk or almost an obsession your AI Avatar will have. Do you never surrender until the bitter end, or refuse to give in to any demands? Your Avatar can do the same. Or perhaps you love the idea of picking an Ancient Era culture, and taking it to the Contemporary Era? You could have your Avatar play to that, too.
- Finally, you can give your Avatar certain Strengths, passive bonuses you can use to supplement the play style you would like for your Avatar. If you’re a player who enjoys the warfare and battles in Humankind, perhaps you want our Avatar’s Emblematic Units to be more powerful. Maybe you prefer research and trade, so you’d rather give your Avatar a little boost to Science and Money generation.
Of course, some of these options and combinations may be stronger than others, so they are assigned a score you will have to spend to add them to your Avatar. Other options might not be available to you at first, and are unlocked through achievements in the game.
We hope you enjoyed this peek at what we have in store with the Avatars and their AI. Let us know what you think!