V0.9: AI behavior


Hi everyone! 

This release is mostly about the AI. The goal was to make it play by the same rules you do, and to make what it's up to something you can actually read off the game.

Orbis is a simulation where everything is emergent, and the AI doesn't cheat. It manages the same cities, allocates the same workers, trades by the same barter rules, and fights with the same military strength you do. That's the part I care about most, but it also creates a problem: if a rival is playing by real rules, you need some way to tell what it's thinking, or it just looks random.

Civilizations now chase several goals at once. Every month they're keeping people fed, keeping production moving, and keeping enough soldiers around to not get wiped out. On top of that they're playing the longer game, growing territory, opening trade, looking for allies, or quietly getting ready for a war. The survival stuff runs constantly. The bigger strategic decisions tick over more slowly, on their own clock, regardless of how fast you've got the game running.

What it doesn't have is a separate set of controls. It assigns cities to categories to set their priorities, places Expansion and Explore orders, signs trade deals, declares war. Same buttons you press with no hidden sliders, no secret bonuses.

Diplomacy got the biggest rework. Each state holds a posture toward the others, shaped by their history together and by the kind of civilization it is, plus a read on relative strength that decides what it's actually willing to risk. From there it picks moves that fit the moment, anything from a gift or a trade agreement to demanding tribute, denouncing a rival, or suing for peace.

The diplomacy panel shows how every state feels about every other one, not just about you, so you can usually see a war coming before it lands. Each civilization wears the profile it's leaning into right now, Expansionist or Merchant or Militarist or Agrarian or Generalist, and that can change when its situation does. And since the AI grows with the same orders you place, you can watch on the map where a neighbor is about to push.


Bug reports and feedback can go to the Discord

Thanks for playing.

Files

Orbis-v0.9-win64.zip 3.6 MB
37 days ago
Orbis-v0.9-linux64.tar.gz 4.4 MB
37 days ago

Get Orbis - Tiny Grand Strategy

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