Team Tri-Hards

1) The game potentially has a very high skill ceiling depending on the strength of the AI for both enemies and allied units which would make it flexible in terms of difficulty and replayability

2) The genre mix might become overambitious I think, the fully functioning colony building and the unit deployment plus autobattling could be two seperate games in their own regard, unfocused vision so to speak

3) Maybe focus on one of the two genres instead because AI can be well-used in both genres as well and then work from there

I am a memebr of Tri-hards and would kindly ask you for some help (if you have some time) regarding:

• what aspects/features do you like in building games
• what kind of resources would you like to see
• how should the building process look like (building whole premade blocks or that you can put individual items in the rooms?)
• do you like games like TABS? Only gimmicky or real fun?
  
  Kind regards  

What is your favourite aspect of the proposed game? Why?

        I like the idea of building your own base and ultimately use it to survive! Nice concept!

What is your least favourite aspect? Why?

       I'm actually not sure about your 'outside' modules like the solar panels. I think you should focus on your bunker and protecting the inside from those nasty raiders.

Which single change or addition would you suggest to most improve the game?
       Remove the outside modules and concentrate on strategically defending your bunker from the inside using various cool units, towers, and traps.

Questions from the Team:

1. I appreciate a challenging but fair resource economy. Calculating that is indeed a technical achievement because it's not easy.

2. The choice of resources is up to you and your setting. Consider implementing cool and possibly unique mechanics for gathering them.

3. Personally, I would create pre-made modules and perhaps include options to upgrade them later in your case. This approach seems to be the most effective.

4. I'm not familiar with TABS.

- Pro: Unique combination of game genres, sounds like it would be fun.

- Con: AI integration feels more like a gimmick than an actual mechanic. It sounds like the game would be hardly any different without AI-controlled battles and NPC behaviour.

- Suggestion: If you stick with the AI stuff: Make it a core gameplay mechanic. Maybe add one important NPC controlled by AI which you have to interact with, perhaps to try and convince them to do things, and give them a key role within the game world.

What is your favorite aspect of the proposed game? Why?

   I like the concept of having to build certain unit types and having them fight automatically with an AI twist. Reminds me of the Cartoon Wars mobile games or older flash games but with a modern aspect to it.

What is your least favorite aspect? Why?

   I think mixing these two genres effectively is a big challenge. One, Fallout Shelter, is about base building and resource management and a game like TABS is a puzzle game. I think it is easy to mistake TABS for something else, but if one   plays it to get through the levels rather than just watch stuff fight, it is actually more of a puzzle game requiring lots of trial and error. This doesn't seem to fit well together with an AI simulated(?) village/base management game to me.

Which single change or addition would you suggest to most improve the game?

   I would focus on just one of the two inspirations or combine them in a different way at least (maybe build stuff directly onto the battlefield so you have to protect and prioritize certain buildings or at least change up the battlefield, thus making both aspects influence one another more?). I think AI could be worked into both in different ways if you really want.

What is your favorite aspect of the proposed game? Why?

I like the idea of merging a base-building game with TABS-style combat. I think that could allow players to focus on strategy and decision-making (compared to e. g. real-time strategy games where unit micromanagement is very important) while still making for cool large-scale combats!

What is your least favorite aspect? Why?

Both base building and strategy games tend to have a lot of content (different buildings, resources, units, ...). I think you might run into a lot of trouble trying to make that much 'stuff' and making it balanced and fun in the limited timeframe of this project.

Which single change or addition would you suggest to most improve the game?

I think taking away (or at least de-prioritizing) some of your more 'gimmicky' features like the AI integration or the outside buildings could help you to focus on creating a fun core experience with the base building and combat parts of the game.

What is your favorite aspect of the proposed game? Why?

• I like the idea of having to program robots to defend the basis/resources on the surface

What is your least favorite aspect? Why?

• I dont really see how your integration of chatgpt or Machine Learning would really improve the game. Players tend to not really notice these things until they are pointed out, and while it would no doubt be impressive, I think its quite a lot of work for something that could be replaced by randomization
• There doesnt really seem to much of an incentive to go to the surface

Which single change or addition would you suggest to most improve the game?

• I think chatgpt would lend itself more to direct NPC interaction- like NPCs within the bunker. You could start with only one character, and the bigger the base gets, the more NPCs move in with their own needs.
• I think you should focus on really only doing one thing, like basebuilding. As already pointed out, that alone usually has a lot of content, so getting that to feel good will already take some time.

What is your favorite aspect of the proposed game? Why?

I love games where you need to build a base, people also can replay it. AI can be helpful to create a different experience for it

What is your least favorite aspect? Why?

I felt like AI is more of a gimmick, than an actual feature to help with creating an interesting base building mechanics

Which single change or addition would you suggest to most improve the game?

Have a very specific plan where and how to use AI (if use it at all), so it would feel like an essential part of the game and it’s specific core mechanic

What is your favorite aspect of the proposed game? Why?

        Having NPCs with ChatGPT texts and interaction is always fun to see/read.

What is your least favorite aspect? Why?

       The battle and base-building inspirations seem like different "minigames", so would have to see what your final game will look like

Which single change or addition would you suggest to most improve the game?

       I think simplifying the interactions the AI has to learn would be best (limiting the playing field, inputs/actions, etc.) or pre-defining actions keeping it simple. Maybe scrap the tower defense aspect or make it a side product (the "towers" or "buildings" take damage from the NPCs attacking each other during the battle but are irrelevant to the AI)

What is your favorite aspect of the proposed game? Why?

   The combination of base building and questing outside of base. Fallout Shelter and Anno 1800 did id really well in their own way.I would love to see more immersive quests with the help of AI.

What is your least favorite aspect? Why?

   I feel like TABS and similar games are always a bit erratic and when combined with possibly sometime weird chat gpt dialogue, it could really break immersion and story flow, which I think these kind of games could need more of.

Which single change or addition would you suggest to most improve the game?

. New Versions of ChatGPT can now recognize content from images or generate their own image content. This could be used in all kinds of manners like quest items, but also battle formations or base layouts. I think that would be an addon that would tie the visual and story mediums together amazigly.

What is your favorite aspect of the proposed game? Why?

I love the inclusion of ChatGPT to create more interesting dialogues and feeling of the overall game. 

What is your least favorite aspect? Why?

I feel like the gameplay is somewhat hard to understand, the implementation in strategy part of decision making can take more time than to actually develop the game, the trade-off should be somewhat balanced so that the player is inclined to choose to bring out soldiers outside from time to time. 

Which single change or addition would you suggest to most improve the game?

I would focus more on the base building and tower defense's strategy part, because it seems that the moodboard visuals are all looking amazing.