Agent processor

Analytical Perspectives in Game Design
Agent processor
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An agent is a piece of software that will perform complex tasks in the background either on a specific set of triggers or in response to a user action. There are simple and complex agents.

There are different types of agents. The simplest agents are actually modelled within the game core inside state machines and are not considered here. The next level of agent allow the authors to develop complex interactions with a simple scripting language. The third type of agent actually is a computer implementation of AI characters who see the world through the same, culturally modified views as the players and provide for the more complex NPCs within the game world.

Simple agents can be used for very limited NPC interaction within the game. For example, a shop-keeper who can only by and sell could be programmed at this level.

Complex agents attempt to model the full richness of a character. For example, a shop keeper here may give discounts to help the guild he is a member of because it would suit the long term aims of the shop-keeper.

The agent processor consists of the following components.

Script processor

Linkages from:

Game database to determine the current state of the world
Time Processor: schedular to receive scheduled events.
Time Processor: world clock, to receive the current time.

Linkages to:

Game database to make changes to the world
Personality Processor to determine the appropriate response.
Time Processor: schedular to create or modify schedule events.

The agent processor has the following interface capabilities:

direct access
RMI access
Info-bus access

21/11/99