How AI Helps Achieve Tactical Clarity in Gears Tactics

Key insights

6 slides

Design Goal

Gears Tactics prioritizes 'Tactical Clarity' to ensure player understanding of enemy actions.

The system manages enemy AI to make player-facing actions understandable and prevents camera 'whiplash' during the enemy turn.

System Design

Individual enemy units use behavior trees, while a tactical planner synchronizes their actions.

Individual Locust units operate via independent behavior trees that prioritize local goals. A separate, overarching tactical planner manages synchronization and conflict resolution.

Imagine a team where each member knows their individual task, but a manager coordinates everyone to avoid collisions and achieve a shared…

AI Structure. Individual Locust units use behavior trees, while a tactical planner synchronizes and resolves conflicts between them.

Execution Efficiency

Partial-order planning allows multiple unit actions to execute in parallel, speeding up gameplay.

The game employs partial-order planning to interweave the actions of multiple units. This allows the system to execute moves in parallel rather than in a rigid, sequential order.

Faster Turns. Partial-order planning enables parallel execution of unit actions, preventing slow, sequential gameplay.

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Summary

Gears Tactics utilizes a sophisticated artificial intelligence architecture to maintain tactical clarity, a design pillar intended to ensure players can easily track enemy movements and understand threats during turn-based combat. By coordinating the actions of numerous units across procedurally generated maps, the system prevents visual clutter and camera instability, which are common pitfalls in the genre. The core thesis is that by separating individual unit decision-making from a centralized tactical planner, the game achieves a balance between challenging, intelligent enemy behavior and a readable, coherent player experience.

The system relies on individual behavior trees for each enemy archetype to determine basic actions, such as movement or attacking. These actions are then submitted to a tactical planner that employs partial-order planning to organize the execution sequence. This planner resolves potential conflicts between units, such as competing for the same cover, and utilizes a Combo Move Analyser to group actions. By executing these moves in parallel or in logical sequences, the game reduces the need for excessive camera panning, effectively condensing what could be a minute-long turn into a streamlined, sub-30-second sequence.

The methodology behind this design, as highlighted in 2020 Unreal Fest presentations, emphasizes that the appearance of coordinated leadership—such as a commander unit signaling others—is a strategic fabrication created by the planner to enhance immersion. Furthermore, the system is designed to be reactive; if player actions like overwatch or proximity mines interrupt a planned sequence, the AI immediately triggers a re-planning process for the affected units. This approach ensures that the game remains responsive and maintains its high-intensity flow, reinforcing the tactical depth expected of the Gears of War franchise.