Games with Automa opponents for solo play
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Morten Monrad Pedersen (user mortenmdk) has codified, named[1], and popularized the "automa" style of AI opponent, which allows games to be played solo while providing an experience similar to having human opponents.
The actual definition of an "automa" is still being worked out, but the current guidelines[2] used for this geeklist[3] are that an automa should:
A. Represent an opponent who can win or lose, much as a human opponent would. In particular the solo experience should not rely on "beat your previous high score", unless beating your high score is also part of the base competitive experience.
B. Not be a full AI simulation, but instead should interact with the game and the player enough to feel like an opponent, while streamlining out a lot of the details.
C. Not require the human to make choices on behalf of the automa that work against the human's interests.
Before adding an entry to this list, please be sure that it really follows automa style (listed above). Many/most solo variants do not, and are instead either "beat your high score", or full AI simulations of a human player. If the consensus here is that an entry is not actually an automa, I will delete it, and add it to a list of entries which were removed.
User gavmcgz has also been creating digital versions of automa. Check out the geeklist here: Digital Automas*. If you're looking for non-automa solitaire variants, check out is this great geeklist: Non-solitaire games that have solo rules in BGG.
The following games have been removed from this list:
Full simulation rather than being streamlined
* Empire of the Sun.
* Series: COIN (GMT) games, including
** Fire in the Lake.
** Liberty or Death: The American Insurrection.
* Labyrinth: The War on Terror, 2001 – ?.
* Power Grid: The Robots.
* Star Wars: Imperial Assault (Redjak's Automated Emperor)
* Suburbia (official and fan-made variants)
"Beat your high score"
* Agricola (Agricola Automa Decks - Single Player Automated Opponent)
* Brew Crafters (Brew Crafters Solo AI)
* Imperial Settlers. You can lose, but not as you would against a human opponent.
* Jump Drive (A variant for non-campaign solitaire play)
* Russian Railroads.
* Suburbia (official and fan-made variants)
Automa-like, but seem to requires the player to come up with intelligent ideas that will help the bot.
* Churchill.
* Star Wars: Imperial Assault (Redjak's Automated Imperial)
Other reasons
* Mage Knight Board Game. The official dummy player is "not much more than a clock", while Volkare (from the Lost Legion expansion) is more like a co-op objective than another human in the game, competing to win.
* Suburbia (fan-made variants which require the player to make decisions on behalf of the AI)
* Targi. The solo variant author felt it was more of a "beat your score" system, and I was concerned that it substantially changed the winning condition at higher difficulty levels.
Background:
As defined in his blog post The Automa Approach I: A method for making solitaire modes for multiplayer games:Quote:The philosophy behind my approach is that playing the solo version of game should feel like playing the multiplayer game. This doesn’t mean that every detail should be the same, but the soul of the game should be intact. Thus you should strive to avoid cutting out important parts of the game, and the solo player should face roughly the same choices and the same win-lose criteria as the multi-players.In a blog post reply, Morten summarized the automa approach this way:Quote:My main idea is to put up a shell of an opponent that simulates the core interaction points of an opponent, but removes everything else. Thus the Automa in Viticulture doesn't actually have a vineyard, it just replicates the core points of interactions you have with another player.This streamlining is a key part of the automa, which distinguishes it from a full AI.
[1] The actual term "automa" was suggested by J. M. Lopez-Cepero "CP" (andvaranaut).
[2] These guidelines have been changed substantially since the first draft, so earlier discussions about numbered points no longer correspond to these rules.
[3] Some of the games on this list have solo variants which have explicitly been called "automa" by their designers. Others might not use that term, but appear to conform to the automa definition.
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- Edited Tue Sep 1, 2020 7:13 am
- Posted Wed May 25, 2016 6:08 am
- [+] Dice rolls
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