A design goal is to help the player experience participation in the "hive mind". Since I don't know what this is actually like we don't have much of a touchstone. So the goal is to produce an experience that makes players think, "this must be what it is like to be part of a hive mind".
What I'm going for is the sense of participating in joint endeavor that allows players to contribute their intelligence and reasoning power to a pool which is in turn able to make superior decisions than the individual would have on their own. Is this even possible? Is there a precedent out there?
Or perhaps it would be sufficient to provide an interesting feedback loop in which player's perceive their environment augmented by the perceptions of their peers while in turn augmenting their peers view. This is done through real time and latent communication and marking. For instance an ant walks down a path, they use their senses to detect the immediate conditions on the path, this is augmented by scents and pheromones laid down by other ants documenting their own experiences on the same path.
In a supernatural bent, allow players to passively and actively report certain types of events and perceptions to other member of the hive, providing for example everyone with current information. This is a standard trope in RTS, cooperative and MOBA games for example on a minimap, all players are able to see what ever their team mates are able to see.
So that's no that new. One thing that might go a long way to simulate the hive mind is through anarchic delegation mechanism. As the group/hives information pool grows, the group is offered expanded strategic and tactical options ie. standing orders. Each player can make executive orders. But making an executive order requires actively participating in its execution, in fact making an order and carrying it out are almost indistinguishable, each player action is either in compliance or opposition to a standing order. If in compliance then it reinforces that order. If in opposition it functions as a proposed contrary order or alternative. Then future player moves can be in concert or opposition to that action.
A design goal is to help the player experience participation in the "hive mind". Since I don't know what this is actually like we don't have much of a touchstone. So the goal is to produce an experience that makes players think, "this must be what it is like to be part of a hive mind".
What I'm going for is the sense of participating in joint endeavor that allows players to contribute their intelligence and reasoning power to a pool which is in turn able to make superior decisions than the individual would have on their own. Is this even possible? Is there a precedent out there?
Or perhaps it would be sufficient to provide an interesting feedback loop in which player's perceive their environment augmented by the perceptions of their peers while in turn augmenting their peers view. This is done through real time and latent communication and marking. For instance an ant walks down a path, they use their senses to detect the immediate conditions on the path, this is augmented by scents and pheromones laid down by other ants documenting their own experiences on the same path.
In a supernatural bent, allow players to passively and actively report certain types of events and perceptions to other member of the hive, providing for example everyone with current information. This is a standard trope in RTS, cooperative and MOBA games for example on a minimap, all players are able to see what ever their team mates are able to see.
So that's no that new. One thing that might go a long way to simulate the hive mind is through anarchic delegation mechanism. As the group/hives information pool grows, the group is offered expanded strategic and tactical options ie. standing orders. Each player can make executive orders. But making an executive order requires actively participating in its execution, in fact making an order and carrying it out are almost indistinguishable, each player action is either in compliance or opposition to a standing order. If in compliance then it reinforces that order. If in opposition it functions as a proposed contrary order or alternative. Then future player moves can be in concert or opposition to that action.