What about the AI?

So, let’s briefly discuss the AI which will be available in the program.

In the first blog, I spoke about the approach we took for the initial design, focusing on replicating the tabletop experience. That remains our priority.

It soon became obvious that an in-game AI would be pretty easy to develop to deal with all the chart book decisions. So that is available – with the option to either have the AI automatically decide and roll its dice, or have the AI suggest a decision and you accept or change that choice.

The AI has also been programmed to make strategic decisions – use of H&R, bunting, field positioning etc. For version one, these will be stats driven – obviously based on the game situation, so that players who bunted a lot in real life will be used by the AI in the same(ish) frequency. There will not be any AI profiles which can be changed.

The AI will also make in-game substitution decisions, with a reasonable logic for ensuring players are used in a similar ratio to real life.

The above is an example of how the decisions can be enabled or disabled.

So that covers actual game play.

There are two additional AI routines which are required if any auto-play is to be achieved (unless using real lineups). They are starting pitcher rotation and lineup selection.

We provide basic routines for both of these. The objectives are to have a sensible batting lineup, a pitching rotation based on the Replay optional pitcher’s rest chart balanced against the need to use players in the same frequency that they were used in real life.

All this therefore means that games can be auto-played alongside manually played games.

No AI will ever be perfect since people have different views on how a manager should manage. Our goal for version 1 is to make the AI sensible – i.e. not to do anything which is plainly wrong. It is certainly a challenge even to get to that stage.

Following on from the AI, we wanted to simplify the usage management of players. So we took what is probably a unique approach to this.

The screenshot (please note this is still very much in-development) above shows a graphical display of the pitching roster. It clearly shows:

Available players
Upcoming starters
Previous game usage
Replay vs Actual stats

You can actually set availability and starters from this screen as well. So it clearly shows the state of the roster and allows you control over how you want players to be used. There is a similar screen for batters showing at bats.

Hopefully this will answer some of the questions regarding this aspect of the program.

Not sure at this moment what the next blog will cover.

Richard.

The Design Approach

Welcome to the first in a set of blogs which will discuss the upcoming PC version of Replay baseball.

This first blog attempts to clarify the approach we have taken to the program, and what our expectations of the program are.

When Pete first approached me about producing a PC version of the Replay board game, we came from opposite poles in terms of our vision for the game. Pete was very insistent that any program would be true to the game and it primary function would be to help the gamer enjoy the Replay experience whether it be on the PC or on the tabletop. I was thinking more of the other PC games I had experienced where you knew you were playing a PC game. We had quite a few ‘discussions’ on these visions, and we began to move from our poles to more middle ground.

We wanted the Replay PC version to feel different from the other games on the market (why bother otherwise?). So Pete’s vision of the game became the blueprint for the initial design.

A replication of the board game on the PC

This gave us a clear design goal for the main game screen, make it look like a tabletop. So:

• You can see the batter and pitcher cards on the screen
• You can see the ‘Replay-style’ line-up cards on the screen
• You can see the ballpark cards on the screen
• You can see the chart-book results on the screen
• You can see the additional charts (bunt, third base coach etc) on the screen
• You can see the dice on the screen

We then added a few basic animations and sounds to add to the tabletop feel (some of which arrived in my inbox this evening and are true ‘Replay’ recordings!). So the experience you get is pretty close to what you experience on the tabletop.

As far as the actual Replay game is concerned:

• All the official optional rules have been included
• The full rare play book has been included
• We include both the 6x6 and 1x6 (Tall) pitcher cards as an option

During the initial discussions one word kept coming up 'helper'.

So how could we design the program in such a way as to help the gamer during projects? There are many tools out there which already help gamers - real line-ups and transactions, game scoring and stat tracking software and several user-designed spreadsheets to help with setting up, playing and scoring the game.

So our objective in this area was to try and implement as many of these tools into one package, and give as much flexibility as possible.

• For those seasons which have every player rated we provide the option to use real line-ups and real transactions
• We allow you to roll the dice and enter these rolls into the program
• We have built in a play-by-play entry system so you can roll the dice look up the charts manually and key in the play results (or key in the play-by-play after manually ‘rolling’ the game)
• We allow you to set the line-ups in the program and print out a score sheet (Replay-style) complete with the players and ratings.
• We allow you to manually enter a box-score (including fielding stats)
• We allow you to enter game summary stats and then enter player stats for a series of games
• Oh and we actually allow you to play the game on the PC as well!

The other feature which had to be implemented was the ability to play games head-to-head over the internet. This opens up a completely new Replay experience to most gamers.

The first version of any program which is released is, well, Version 1. Prior to this release we have our own visions and the feedback from play-testers to guide us. Future versions benefit from much, much more feedback and like any project can only improve with this.

There also comes a time when we actually need to release the game! To attain perfection would mean the program never sees the light of day. By perfection we mean a program which satisfies all the needs of all the people.

So please bear this in mind and perhaps temper your expectations. We are very pleased with how this first version is progressing and, by release day, will have achieved all our goals for the program.

We can then move on to Version 2....

Next time a brief introduction to the AI (oh yes I got that one in!) and what you can expect from the computer opponent.

Richard.