What?! Adding AI to Realm Of Empires?

 Hail!

As you probably already know, we are adding a bold new feature to Realm of Empires - AI ( or  Computer controlled / NPC)  players.

This is a rather bold move on our part, as the main attraction of Realm of Empires is the intense player-vs-player game play, the zero-sum contest that mimics what real-life is like. So I wanted to take a moment and explain the through process behind this and hopefully address your worries. 

The idea is obviously not new. We've been considering this for many years. But it is not an easy feature to get done right. After much brain storming sessions, we started to see potential for it that we have not considered before. 

While the intense pvp zero-sum game is exciting, there is no way to pickup fighting skills without an all out war. Clan leaders complain that players do not know how to coordinate attacks because they where always too afraid to attack. There is no place to practice. 

This is where AI comes in! AI players, that are clearly labeled such in the game, could be fun practice targets. If they never attack you back, if they do not support other players, there is no fear in attacking them. At worse, you will lose troops on the attack. At best, you will gain experience and capture a really nice village - oh yea, AI players, unlike Rebels, grow their village nicely.

Right now AI player is limited to one village, but what if they were allowed to expand slowly and capture rebels? Then, when defending, they could move support around thus making them even harder target that requires coordinated attacks, perhaps even with other clan members? Now THAT is a valuable lesson! 

What is AI players could band into small AI-only clans and thus support one another? Even better challenge!

Currently, that is how far ahead we are looking. There is of course the possibility of rebels attacking real players. That is VERY tricky! I certainly would not want to invest months of my time in a realm just to be taken out by AI! Or perhaps weaken enough by AI so that I I am an easy target to another player. That seems to me like game-breaking change! 

However, perhaps it does make sense to give a AI player the ability to attack you back? That is, once proved, via an serious attack, an AI player will attack you, and only you back? That is also problematic but perhaps something to consider. 

But what about having such fearless attacking AI in a short RX? Would you invest a few hours for a non-stop real vs AI players battle? How about in 2 week realm? It is certainly easy enough to try and we will consider that, based on your feedback. 

Lastly, I will just add that we designed the AI players to mimic human behavior. They are not, for example, able to perform actions like attack or defend at lightning-computer speed. We have added human like gaps with randomness built in, that actions like snipping a governor attack will not always be possible and even if possible, not always successful. AI computers must also step away from the keyboard on regular basis, must use their sleep mode etc. 

Will this all "work"? After 15 years or ROE, I have learned to expected the unexpected. I cannot be sure, but I think, some variation of these features, will be an a fun and useful addition to the game.