Tag: AI thoughts

Update 0.65 is out!

Update 0.65 is out!

by Gus Martin ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hello folks!

Took some time, but it is here, the update 0.65 for Boss Golf closed alpha!

newholetester.png

Changelist for this version includes:

  • Fixed issue where golfers couldn’t acquire an open hole if the number of open holes was less than the number of available holes.
  • Added a radar display for overview of the golfer abilities.
  • Separated golfers into rankings: Casual, Recreational, Serious, Competitive, Professional, and Legend. Rankings determine the starting ability of the golfers. After a lot of play, once their attributes increase, they may achieve a higher rank. This system will tie in with the “perks” system that I described some time ago.
  • Added proper calculations for draw, fade, hook, push, pull, and pure. Now when golfers hit the ball, based on their attributes, there’s a chance for either of these forces to be added to the golfer. Includes your own golfer! (Right now no way to increase it, so bear with it)
  • Added golfer dominant hand, now you’ll see golfers taking a stance according to their main hand.
  • Increased variety of golfer thoughts and improved the display of the thoughts in the character panel. Added more thoughts for analyzing the results of a hole playthrough.
  • Improved calculations for stroke generation to give golfers better/more realistic options. There’s still some issues with some edge cases, since we can’t set OB areas yet. Once that’s in, it should be more accurate.
  • Added a display for the state of the hole (open or closed).
  • Added a panel showcasing the statistics of the hole (average score, number of plays etc).
  • Added a panel showing a history of plays on that hole with the ability to see the shots. Simply click the play you’d like to see, and it will be shown. Golfers also keep a memory of their playthrough at any given hole.
  • Added shot evaluation buttons based on golfer ranking. In the Edit panel of the Hole panel, you can click on the button for each golfer ranking, and see more or less the average path they will take. Works with multiple tees as well.
  • Closing a hole will now make the AI abandon the current hole, if they are queuing for it or playing it. May lead to bad thoughts 😉 (The player will never be booted)
  • Fixed issue with golfers roaming outside the resort grounds.
  • Tweaked the graphics of the terrain by adding some better boundary effects. Still heavily work in progress.
  • Increased the size of the character collider to make it easier to click them.
  • Added snapping option for decorations. On the decoration selection, you’ll see a little magnet button that you can toggle to snap the decoration. It’ll snap on a 1 meter grid.
  • Tweaked speeds for detecting when the ball successfully enters the hole.

Phew! That’s it for 0.65. Now onwards to 0.66. And also might have some bigger news to share soon!

Enjoy!

Boss Golf Updated to 0.5!

Boss Golf Updated to 0.5!

by Gus Martin ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hello folks!

Newest version is finally here! Boss Golf is now at alpha 0.5!

New features in this version include: (For more information on scheduled tasks, check out the task roadmap!)

  • AI Needs System
  • AI Thoughts System
  • AI Confidence which affects their golf play
  • AI Brain for better/more interesting generation of choices through a course
  • Updated golf gameplay with a selection of clubs
  • Possibility to pan the character panel directly to the AI
  • Auto pan the camera when the mouse moves to the edges
  • Panel for showing progress on the hole

Some bug fixes in this version include: (For more information on currently reported bugs, check out the bug board!)

  • Wrong tooltip for paths
  • Grid tooltip also showing path tooltip
  • Resort info window not being moveable
  • Paths not connecting to gree/hole/tee/building tiles
  • Landscaper moves too slow
  • UI gets stuck on finalizing

So yeah, this update focused on AI, and some more quality of life fixes. Check it out!

-Gus

Needy Golfers!

Needy Golfers!

by Gus Martin ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Hello folks!

It’s been a busy week, but I was able to implement the first pass of the needs system for Boss Golf!

myneedsforahorse

As it is, the golfer’s needs will decrease over time based on their own attributes, as well as the place they are in. It works more or less like this:

  • Energy: Decreases by walking around the course for long distances, walking on difficult terrain (paths are important!), hitting the ball, falling in the water. Increases by drinking energy drinks, sitting down on benches, standing around talking with friends. Later on, when I have a weather system implemented, high temperatures will make the golfers tire faster too!
  • Food: Decreases a specific amount based on the golfer’s physical attributes. Some golfers don’t need to eat as much as others. It’ll be good to place vending machines in key areas, and later on you’ll be able to better diagnose where the golfers are getting hungry, and adjust accordingly!
  • Drink: Keeping hydrated is important, and drinking needs will decrease faster than Food. Again, vending machines come in handy, or even simple water fountains.
  • Environment: This one is more interesting! It doesn’t decrease/increase by a set amount: instead, it’s base value depends on the environment that the golfer is in, according to their preferences. If a golfer likes the Links, with wide open areas and no trees, his environment meter will be higher in those areas; if the golfer likes woodlands, then trees will make him happy. As well as keeping everything in a good condition!
  • Social: This will decrease and increase according to the interactions of the golfer on the course (with other golfers, with staff, with you), and also dependent on the golfer’s personality. Some golfers will seek out contact constantly, which can be a hassle to the more quieter golfers. You may even need to ban some people!

Not only needy, the golfers now have their own thoughts!

The basic system for thoughts has been implemented, and golfers will come up with their thoughts based on the action that they did, and their current state of mind at that time. If he hits a nice shot, he’ll likely have a happy thought; unless his confidence is low, then he may shrug it off to luck!

For now the thoughts are a bit limited, but I’ll expand them prior to 0.5, as well as over the course of development. The current panel looks like this:

deepthoughts

It adds a nice bit of flavor to the game too. Specially after I saw one golfer miss an easy putt and immediately think “I hate my life”. Got quite the giggle out of me!

And here you can see an animation of how the current character info panel looks like. A long way since the previous iteration:

charPanels

The confidence system is also in, but needs a lot of tweaks, as is the case for most of the game.

Next up, I’m gonna tackle how the AI goes about the holes. Right now, the logic is very simple and they pretty much just aim straight down the hole, and hit as close as they can. Which is viable in some cases but if you place a strip of sand in there, they’ll just hit in the sand!

Stay tuned for more updates!