As with most multiplayer games, Tractor to the Infinite is suffering from the problem that when there isn’t anyone else online, there isn’t much to do. Soccer mode, however awesome it may be, is pointless if it’s just you. Most of the traffic to soccer mode so far has most likely been people coming as groups. (I’m going to try and get my java class on at some point :D)

But the title of this article is “The problem and the Solution”, not just “The problem”. So how am I going to fix this?

Multiplayer games should be fun in singleplayer also. And if we can’t have people, why not AI?

This opens up several possibilities. 10 on 10 AI Battle as soon as a room is created, and people switch out with AI as they join the game. This would also make team switching easier, just trade places with an AI instead of waiting for another player to be available.

Our current license allows for 20 people online at the same time (in 3 months we’ve only hit that limit once XD). There is no limit on AI players. We could have massive 200 player games.

The only limit is the CPU Power of whichever client is running the AI logic. And That shouldn’t take off more than a single frame per second for maybe 30 AI. Even then, I can distribute the load across multiple clients, each person only simulating two.

Need to grab some popcorn? Have an AI take your place until you get back.

The possibilities are endless here. The Targeting system could even be tweaked a bit to run on the playground map. Things will get really interesting with missiles and flying. (Missiles will be here soon, don’t expect flying for a while.)

So the final question: When will this be out? Tomorrow, I hope. A simple AI isn’t much to throw together. Distributing processing and some of the GUI elements may take a little longer, But I’ll ship you guys a release of the prototype as soon as its ready.

Guess who doesn’t have school tomorrow?

This guy.

In other news, the TSA Regional competition is this week (If it isn’t delayed for snow.) Our new Time Travel game will be competing. I might upload a copy of that sometime.

Open the pod bay doors please Hal,

~Navi