Today we released a larger update with a ton of improvements inspired by community requests!
Visual Upgrades - photorealism tweaks
- Tile height was increased to match the dimensions of the tiles from the table-top version of Hive (thanks for the suggestion, Eucalyx!).
- The gray, stationary background has been replaced with a table-top surface which the pieces actually sit on (thanks to Bob5453 and FeltHλt for the suggestions!).
- The camera projection was changed from orthographic to perspective which is more similar to how your actual eyes/brain work (things in the foreground are bigger, things in the background are smaller).
- To prevent you from knowing whether the table is truly flat or round, there is a fog obscuring the end of the world.
- Now that the pieces are resting on a surface, they have shadows.
AI Updates
- The AI now understands that it's better to measure a Pillbug's value based on whether it is covered (can use its special move) instead of whether it is pinned.
- If the AI could block you from moving, it got so excited that it couldn't differentiate between any of the moves that kept you blocked, so it moved almost randomly (that's annoying!) instead of going for the win. Now it can still think even when it's excited.
- The AI didn't value putting its beetle on top of the Hive, as much as it should have. It values it a little more now (may have to tweak the weight again in the future).
- Added a Randomness Quotient setting to introduce the possibility of randomness to all AI moves. The lower levels of AI have higher randomness. This change increases replay-value, and decreases predictability.
- Made the second-move in the opening able to place more pieces (not just the queen) and made it randomly choose between all possible placements instead of just placing off-center.
- Made the third-move in the opening, use a far-greater randomness than the subsequent moves. This ensures a wider range of openings, causing the games to diverge a bit more.
We are making a couple of blog-posts about adding randomness to AI. We posted the first part last night:
http://bluelinegamestudios.com/posts/adding-some-randomness-to-turn-based-ai-1-of-2/
Other Updates
- Technical bugfix: the 2D pieces weren't initially rotated correctly (until a queen was placed) the images were facing the point of the tile, not a flat side. That wasn't the same as the actual table-top pieces, so we fixed that.
- The HUD decreased in size to give a bit more breathing-room to the main game.
- Bugfix: if the same two players played sequential games with the same colors and the same player going first twice in a row, then the HUD wouldn't highly on the first move to show whose turn it was. The gameplay still worked but it was probably confusing for anyone who ran into that.
Although we've had a few new releases since the launch of the game almost 3 weeks ago, it's super-exciting to have a big update out with new features! Please let us know what you think! :D