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Introduction
Artificial Intelligence
Enter HyperReality
Brave New Worlds
Crafting Strategies
New Role-Playing Systems
2002 and Beyond
High-Tech Games
High-Tech Games: Pushing the Envelope in 2001 and Beyond
Crafting Strategies

Emperor: Battle for Dune
Developer: Westwood Studios
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Estimated release date: Mid-June
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What's so high-tech about it: A reinvented engine with an improved AI and full 3D graphics will make for more complex strategic gameplay.

With Emperor: Battle for Dune, Westwood Studios is taking its real-time strategy franchise to the next level by introducing new layers of gameplay and AI and presenting it under fully rendered 3D graphic environments. Fans of the company's previous Dune RTS titles should be pleased when they see that Emperor's graphics really bring out the world of Dune. The rock and sand of the desert planet, known as Arrakis, exhibit detailed stains and erosion and show the wear and tear from previous battles. The camera controls that the designers have implemented let you take full advantage of the 3D graphics modeling of the landscape. You can zoom in to see your units up close and zoom the camera out far enough to see an entire battle unfold. "We had to find a happy medium between allowing players total control over the camera and making it easy for them to use," says Chris Longpre, the producer of Emperor. "Oftentimes in 3D RTS games, full control over the camera can become a burden rather than add to gameplay."

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Westwood ramped up the AI so that you feel as if you're playing against a real person; the game simulates the uncertainty, surprise, strategies, and tactics that a human would make in an RTS game. "AI is a very complex area of any game, and this is definitely true in Emperor," says Longpre. "We started off with the concept of creating a game AI that would play like an online opponent--always surprising you with new tactics and finding your weak spot. So instead of a more traditional scripted AI approach, we opted for a free-form AI, which would understand unit tactics and terrain."

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The key behind the AI that governs Emperor starts in the game's maps. Certain areas of a map are identified by the person designing it as good base locations, choke points, strategically important positions, rally points, etc. The enemy AI then scans the map and, based on what it finds, starts picking tactics from its repertoire. Once a tactic is chosen, it builds its teams and executes its strategies. "We've also put in 'AI personalities,' which determine its tactical choices and aggression level," says Longpre. "In addition, we've put in threat-assessment logic, so the AI tends to attack you on your weak side when it really wants to win. Early on, we found that the AI could be quite brutally efficient with its tactical choices. So we created less-efficient tactics for it to use in the early part of the game, which simulates [the skills of] a new player."

Enhanced graphics are nice, but avid RTS gamers are much more interested in the gameplay. For this reason, Longpre emphasizes that his team added new layers of strategy to the traditional RTS game. The foremost feature is that it gives you the option of forming alliances throughout a campaign. You choose from five subhouses that are based on organizations and races from the world of the Dune novels. Through these partnerships, you can build unique structures and units, allowing for broader customization of your army.

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The idea of letting players form alliances came about as a means to compensate for the lack of another technology. Originally, Emperor started out as a two-team concept--it had only the Atreides and Harkonnen houses. Early on, Westwood experienced technical difficulties in trying to add a third team to the mix. "We wanted to add the Ordos as the third side but hadn't yet worked out how best to make the campaign game reflect three sides," says Longpre. "We liked the additional choices [a] third side would bring to the player, so we came up with smaller houses--subhouses--that could ally with [either of] the two main sides and add units to the player's tech tree."

Ironically, the designers eventually figured a way to put House Ordos into the game, anyway; and they left in place the ability for players to form alliances with the subhouses. "We loved this idea of customizing your army, so we kept it," says Longpre.
 

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