Your mission, if you choose to accept it!
First off, if you’ve signed up to the Joadia Gameathon competition, thank you! If you haven’t yet, there is still time so make sure you register your interest here: https://joadia.dsai.org.au/
In this article we look at how the game works in a bit more animated detail. The game rules are available as a PDF in the link above or you could go directly here: https://dsai.org.au/events/joadia/Disaster%20at%20Joadia%20Islands%20Rulebook.pdf
However, reading the rules about the game in a PDF and seeing the game running can be 2 very different things. So, below we look at some key aspects of the game which we hope can help you better understand how it works and respond to the 2 challenges of GAME DESIGN and AI ASSISTANCE.
Get your thinking caps on folks!
Note: the following screens and animations come from the user interface used internally at Defence, Science and Technology for this game. This is not available to use in this competition but if there are further questions please feel free to reach out to me.
The Game
The following describes (AND SHOWS) various elements of the game along with how movement occurs. This should be viewed in conjunction with the game rules
The Mission (should you choose to accept it)
This game is a fictional scenario where you play the BLUE team as you explore the Joadia Islands after they have experienced a natural disaster. You will need to use your various military units (C130 supply aircraft, P8 patrol planes, MRH Helicopter, Patrol Boats, Infantry and Medics). You will also need to find healthy and injured survivors in different parts of the island and provide them with supplies as well as rescue them by taking them back to safer areas.
The Game Board
In the game rules we can see the game board and pieces on the Game Components page
And here’s how it looks in the Python GUI version
The board is divided into different sections, e.g. T1, T10, T22.
There are also 2 sections labelled FOB. This stand for Forward Operating Base and it is here that civilians (injured and uninjured) need to be taken (so they can be rescued).
The Game pieces
As per the game rules, there are several pieces the player can move around. These include aircraft and boats as well as infantry and medics.
Per the rules the pieces look like this
In the game, they start off at one of the FOB spots
Control Panel and Tracking Moves
In physical board game, the tracking of movement and pieces would be done on scorecards but in the electronic version there is a control panel which shows the different turns, phases, elements selected as well as a message log.
The user will see this populate as they select and move pieces on the board.
Game Phases
Each game has 3 sets of turns for the human player (aka Blue team). These are Dawn, Day, Dusk.
Below are the things that can be done in each phase.
Dawn — during this phase, the player can select a unit and use it to pick up supplies or units or civilians. This depends on what capability the unit selected has.
Here’s an example of loading supplies on the C-130
And here’s an example of the same C130 unit loading another unit that it can transport to other parts of the board.
To move to the next phase, the user needs to click on the Next Phase button
Day — this is the part where the player can move a unit and you can see that each unit can only travel a certain distance as they have a certain number of moves. The terrain will also affect this as moving over flat terrain will be different to mountains/hills.
Here is an example of clicking on a unit and seeing the movement points (in green) that it can go to.
Here is an example of actually moving the units.
Once all the necessary movements are done, we go to the Dusk phase.
Dusk — during this phase, supplies, units, civilians are can also be picked up or dropped off in different areas just like in the dawn phase.
Here is an example of the C130, selecting the medic unit it has on board and choosing to drop it off on the board (note this can only be done on FOB tiles but boats can carry units to all parts of the map — this makes sense because planes cannot just land anywhere).
Phase Completion
Once all phases by the user are completed, they can complete their turn by clicking next phase and this time the enemy RED units take their turn. You can see this indicated by the control panel.
RED moves
The RED units will state the number of turns they get (1, 5, 8) in this phase and you need to click on the Next Move button to see how their units move around.
Here’s what it looks like:
In this example, red has moved a fishing boat across tiles T15 and T16 and dropped off militia on T16.
To counter this, BLUE can move infantry units to those tiles to combat the militia or move patrol boats to the tiles where the boats are.
ISR — Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance
As each unit moves to different tiles, new information about each tile comes up. This is known as ISR (Intelligence Surveillance & Reconnaissance)
All units will automatically do ISR when they end their turn on a tile, revealing how much supply is on that tile, how many healthy civilians there are and how many injured civilians there are.
The P8, a patrol aircraft unit, has a dedicated ISR function that can be deployed as it travels across tiles rather than when a turn is ended.
Motorised Company (MOTCOY) units can also perform ISR but this uses up movement points.
In the example below, the MOTCOY unit is on tile T22 and there is nothing revealed about that tile. But, when the user has selected to perform ISR, a movement point is consumed and information about the tile is shown.
It shows 0S, 4H, 1I — this means 0 supplies, 4 healthy civilians and 1 injured civilian.
With this information, on the next available turns, you can decide to move medics to treat the injured civilians, drop supplies that they can use and also pick up civilians to rescue them.
The Scoreboard and Scoring
Importantly, at the top of the screen is the scoreboard for Rescue and Deaths. As you continue to take turns, supplies will run out, civilians needing saving will either be rescued or succumb to injuries and this is logged in your scoreboard.
Strategy / Trade offs
Because you only have a set amount of movements and because there is an enemy playing against you, there needs to be strategic thinking deployed here. Success is more likely when you assess the situation and make decisions based on the information you’re presented.
It is unlikely you will be able to provide enough supplies to everyone or rescue all of them so hard thought decisions need to be made.
These trade-offs will require decision making akin to what happens in real-life scenarios where resources are limited and tough choices need to be made.
Your Challenges
Based on this information, your challenges are two-fold but you can choose to enter a response to either or both with prizes as follows
- 1st place: $1,000
- 2nd place: $500
- 3rd place: $250
This is per challenge, so someone or some team could go away with $2,000.
There is no coding expected here but if you have ideas or have done this sort of analysis before on gaming strategy with your own code, feel free to elaborate on this.
If selected, you will get to present to judges from DSAi, Defence and some external judges (including stalwarts of the data science and AI community like Steve Nouri and Angela Kim).
Challenge 1: Game Design
Are you able to help with the design of new game systems or rules that can help expand the games actions, rules, immersion or use cases?
Challenge 2: AI Assistance
Can you think of ways in which AI uses cases can help create a more effective RED team, or ways it can help the BLUE team or even in analysing decisions and modifying the game rules?
Whatever you decide to focus on (one challenge or both), we look forward to the great ideas you’ve got and just know that you are helping provide our Defence forces by doing so.
So, what are you waiting for? Register today and get those answers across to us. You have until April 11th, 2021.
