Name: 幕府將軍的AI。全面戰爭（第一部分5）｜人工智能與遊戲。 (The AI of Shogun: Total War (Part 1 of 5) | AI and Games)
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T08:01:21.000Z
Duration: 15 min 59 s
Description: 【看影片學英語】數萬部 YouTube 影片，搭配英漢字典即點即查，輕鬆掌握單字發音與用法，長久累積看電影不必再看字幕。

Hi I'm Tommy Thompson and this is AI and Games:
a series on research and applications of Artificial

Intelligence in video games. Since the beginning
of this channel I've explored a variety of

AI techniques to solve specific problems within
video game design that require both immediate,

reactive behaviour in conjunction with long-term
and strategic decision making. First-person

shooters are certainly a common genre from
which interesting AI can emerge given its

predicated on fast, reactive and engaging
gameplay. But if we're to consider the need

for effective systems that balance both short
and long term decision making in games, there

is no greater problem space to explore than
Real-Time Strategy (RTS) games.

Both the RTS and FPS genres have continued
to innovate the state of the art in AAA video

gaming in an effort to satisfy their design.
But RTS games have much larger considerations

for the long-term impact of quick and reactive
decisions, as well as the need to manage resources

at varying levels of abstraction and complexity
over multi-hour gameplay sessions. When considering

the challenges and innovations faced in AI
for strategy games, as a player, developer,

or researcher there's one franchise you simply
cannot go without discussing, Creative Assembly's

Total War has grown from strength to strength
since the launch of the franchise in the year

2000. As each game becomes more ambitious,
the challenges faced by the AI systems continue

to increase in scope and complexity. This
has resulted in a development team that continues

to push the state of the art in game AI unlike
any other in video game history. But the journey

to reach more recent entries at the time of
this video, such as Total War: Attila and

Warhammer has had more than a few bumps in
the road along the way. So in this first in

a series, I will be looking at not just how
the core tenets of the AI of Total War, but

how each entry in the series aims to solidify,
tweak or completely rewrite parts of these

systems. In addition, I'll look at the response
to these changes from the fanbase, the modding

community that has thrived within Total War
and how The Creative Assembly adopted groundbreaking

academic research to help innovate from the
very first entry all the way to more recent

But first let's get into the Real-Time Strategy
genre and understand where Total War sits

within this space. Real-Time Strategy games
are focussed primarily on the control of territory

and assets: whereby two or more opposing forces
will appear in the same map in an effort to

assert dominance by securing resources or
locations within the existing defined area.

Often in order for this to be achieved, each
force will build collections of structures

and units that either improve the resource
collection within a given area, defend existing

structures and land or scout and secure areas
of the map by force. The latter often requiring

the destruction of opposing forces units in
the process. This process typically requires

players to explore a previously hidden environment
by piercing what is referred to as the 'Fog

of War' in order to establish enemy and resource
locations. In addition, over time each faction

is expected to build upon the structures and
units previously established by enhancing

their existing capabilities and resource acquisition.

While arguably not the first RTS game ever
made, Westwood's 1992 release Dune II: The

Building of a Dynasty acted as the archetype
for future games in this genre such as Westwood's

own Command and Conquer series, but also Age
of Empires, Total Annihilation, Dungeon Keeper,

Homeworld and Blizzard's Warcraft and Starcraft
franchises. The genre has continued to evolve

and branch off since the late 1990's, with
the likes of real-time tactics games like

Dawn of War and Star Wars: Empire at War emphasising
tactics over resource management. Meanwhile

games such as 1994's UFO: Enemy Unknown have
explored a balance between the real-time and

turn-based decision making, with it still
proving popular to this day with the franchise

being successfully rebooted as XCOM in 2012.
Arguably the largest deviation is the the

rise of the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena
or MOBA genre - popularised by the Warcraft

III mod Defense of the Ancients and typified
by games such as Dota 2 and League of Legends

- where players assume the role of hero units
on the ground to define and assist the larger

AI applications within real-time strategy
games have existed since the inception of

the genre, with players responsible for managing
the movement of faction units by telling them

where to go, but without direct control of
their actual movement. As such, players are

expected to interact with these systems in
order to yield desired outcomes. In addition,

AI is critical to the single-player aspects
of the game, given that players play off against

opposing commanders responsible for managing
their own units and construction strategies.

The role of the AI player is one that is tremendously
challenging and is considered to be one of

the larger challenges facing academic research.
This has led to the forming of numerous academic

benchmarks and projects, including the Starcraft
AI Competition hosted at the AAAI conference

on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive
Digital Entertainment. This is a video in

and of itself, but don't worry: I'll be talking
about that on AI and Games in the near future.

So what makes Total War so special and challenging
for an AI system? Creative Assembly's strategy

series is interesting in that it combines
multiple modes of strategic gameplay into

a single game: with players managing turn-based
resource management and political strategy

alongside real-time combat with large scale
armies. In addition, the combat juggles between

micro and macro levels: requiring not only
AI control of individual units, but more abstract

control of unit types and managing the combat
formations and troop deployments on the battlefield

The first entry in the franchise, Shogun:
Total War, balances the combat simulations

that strive for realism and authenticity,
alongside the political strategy that is aimed

to give context and stakes to each conflict.
The original Total War is set in 1530, during

the Sengoku Jidai period of feudal Japan:
a time largely popularised in contemporary

fiction by the works of Japanese film director
Akira Kurosawa, with films such as Kagemusha,

Seven Samurai and Ran proving influential
on the design and development of the game

- with clips of the latter being used as part
of the games cinematics. Both the player and

opposing AI assume the role of the Daimyo:
local-lords who control provinces of Japan

with a need to conduct both diplomatic strategy
alongside military movements. When rival factions

are drawn into conflict, players take control
of the Taisho or general and move hundreds

if not thousands of troops across the battlefield.
Sengoku Jidai made for an ideal period of

history for the game, given the politics and
even the economics of the period was built

around the logistics of fielding armies in
defence of the Daimyo and his ambitions.

Total War deviates from many traditional real-time
strategy games in that it removes mechanics

such as Fog of War from combat gameplay as
well as the need for resource management outside

of unit counts from combat decision making.
Given the nature of the game itself, the AI

player is comprised of two distinct AI systems:
the Diplomacy AI and the combat AI.

The Diplomacy AI manages the turn-based strategy
of the game and is responsible for moving

armies around the map, conducting diplomacy
(be it by sending envoys or assassins to forge

alliances or eliminate opposition) and building
the agriculture and infrastructure of owned

Meanwhile the combat AI dictates combat unit
formations, strategies and attack patterns.

Much like human players, this is only responsible
for managing the strategy of specific groups

of units, given the units themselves are already
controlled by AI techniques.

So to get to grips with the AI of Total War,
I'm going to explore the AI systems from lowest

to highest level: from individual troop control
systems all the way strategic systems that

Total War combat is driven by units: groups
of specific troop types that can be deployed

in formation ranging from melee types to archers
to cavalry. These combat units are not only