A.I.s with Personalities

[xelaalex]

This is an idea I have toyed with for a quite a while, what if in the future of Wipeout a type of Artificial Intelligence was created which could interact with the pilot far more than just by telling them when weapons are about to be fired and taking over from them when an Autopilot is used. An A.I. with a personality given to them by their creator, a personality they are stuck with and show constantly. These Artificial Intelligences are still in control over the ship in general when allowed (outside races and when the Autopilot weapon is used) but have robotic avatars which sit on the dash panel that show expressions through digital screen faces (Wall-E's Eve style) and body/hand movements. These artificial intelligences are not merely computer controlled robotic personalities, and have the freedom of free thinking, meaning they can disobey commands when they want to, this means a pilot must spend time with and bond with the A.I. of their craft, making them team mates, the key to successfully winning races. In the Zone Virtual Reality, these A.I.s are capable of exiting the craft, becoming co-pilots for the pilots.

I suppose this in many ways anime-izes Wipeout, but I love the concept too much to ignore it. I have so far designed two A.I.s, Team Feisar's Cynthia (an annoying, feisty personality) http://xelaalex.deviantart.com/art/New-design-for-Cynthia-150497523 and Qirex's Shyst, a shy personality http://xelaalex.deviantart.com/art/Qirex-A-I-Shyst-156587082

[ACE-FLO]

Hello mate :) I'm Ace - and I beleive you are looking for the AirLicker Technologies Enterprising Research Network A.L.T.E.R.N. We are a group of like minded individuals, who are a lil crazy when it comes to wipEout... We Like to imagine new teams, technologies, racetracks... and even design ships in 3D from scratch, creating clever logos for the teams we create, not forgetting the pilots eh? oh, we would one day like to see our efforts materialize in the form of an anime release - but whether that will happen or no, is irrelevant - this is a good way to make friends and get involved on the sidelines of the wipEout universe.

Welcome to the Zone, Ace!
Chairman - A.L.T.E.R.N
Team: Tez Dharkan Technologies

[xelaalex]

That's awesome! I am so glad to be part of your group! Wipeout deserves a larger fanbase, so we need to make more to like about it! I also really like the idea of the personality clashes, Alex Magnei and his A.I. Cynthia are entirely different; he is an easy going, friendly and helpful person and Cynthia is a pushy, stuck up and selfish A.I., it is only through their experiences together that the two of them were able to come to appreciate each other. Cynthia is now like an annoying sister to Alex, she gives him hell but when it comes down to it, she truly cares for him. She is also a shopaholic and forces Alex to buy her new accessories for the ship in return for good behaviour on the racetrack. She takes up 80% of Alex's prize money XD

[ACE-FLO]

Wow, that's bloody awesome man :D The relationship between Cynthia and Alex is remeniscent of the relationships between man and machine in Iain M Banks sci-fi novels... Have you read "the Player of Games" and "Use of Weapons" ? these two are really good (short) sci-fi novels which have remained pet favourites of mine. The Culture (imperial rule of the universe is a cool concept in these books. Hope you pick these up :)

[xelaalex]

You think so? *blushes* gosh...I never thought anyone else would think so! I haven't really read any man and machine novels, I guess the closest thing would be Medabots which I used to watch loads, but I was more inspired by numerous animes. Character relationships are important, they make a story seem complete even when it doesn't have many characters, in my oppinion quality goes over quantity. Also, Cynthia is based off my real life sister Amy XD just like Alex is based off myself! That was the main influence. Alex's parents David and Lynn Magnei are also based off my real life parents. You could say Alex's world is a fictional autobiography of my own life, only instead of persuing the goal of becoming a great artist, he persues the goal of becoming a great racing pilot.

[Dark_Phantom_89]

A very interesting concept there Alex, I'd be intrigued to hear more.

Let's hope the machine doesn't end up turning against the pilot :lol (I watched X Files earlier so forgive me for that irrelevant point)

[xelaalex]

XD well technically it is possible for the ship to turn against the pilot, but they're designed to form bonds which don't break. Cynthia for example hates it when anyone eats while inside the Swiftride Swallow, it causes her to flip out and take that person on an unforgettable ride with the goal of getting that person to lose his meal XD the driver has to use his ship in order to get used to the A.I. however for the most case the driver can choose his A.I.'s personality. Alex is the only exception, as Cynthia is the very first A.I. of her kind, and Alex chose to be the test pilot without knowing what it would be like.

[Lance]

I dunno; Douglas Adams has kinda persuaded me that GPP [Genuine People Personalities] might be a bad idea. :D

[Dan Locke]

Same here. What's the point of giving the ship a "personality" if it only gets in the way and makes the thing harder to actually use?

[ACE-FLO]

Bad idea maybe, but maybe also necessary for an Alien such as Alex to survive. Think, it must be quite an estranged experience for an Alien to join the FX500 of the future, being amongst human beings... Maybe Cynthia, the A.I from the Swiftride Swallow is the closest thing to a real friend Alex has, most definitely his most familiar one... and maybe Cynthia is the type of A.I who understands this alien, Alex. Maybe they serve as necessary to eachothers survuval. Survival... warrants anything. ;)

:donut anyone? :D

[Chill]

I'm not for it... so we're just talking about a H.A.L. Wipeout Craft or A.I. racing character personalities?

Not for either one though... even if they had the ability to make an H.A.L. A-G Craft, I doubt they would do it as it would take out the fact that this game relies on raw skill and raw skill only... and all the work put into A.I. even for the computer crafts would be too much when people can just go online and play REAL people... just my two cents... ;)

What happens when Bobby Brown falls in love with his teammate A.I. because he has no life??

[Lance]

In Bobby Brown's case, possibly more co-dependence than love.

[ACE-FLO]

Co-dependance, Yes. That's how I imagine the relationship to be between Alex and Cynthia - they co-depend on eachother.

I see what Chill is saying though, Aliens in WIpEout is far fetched. But um, I like the idea anyway... :)

[q_dmc12]

I'm thinking something more like Curly with emoticons


Shield Energy Low ;)

[xelaalex]

Heh well I'm not saying this would be a good idea on the whole, really its that Wipeout as it is doesn't have enough of a fandom and a few elements outside racing would do it good. Alex Magnei is part of a race of aliens which chose to come to earth, so its perfectly reasonable that humans hadn't invented space travel yet, I'm not trying to turn Wipeout into F-Zero here!

The GPP IS a bad idea, but noone knows that yet XD in universe obviously.

[Dan Locke]

That's what I don't understand. If it's such a bad idea (and, believe me, it's incredibly bad), how would it increase the size of the fanbase? If anything, it would shrink it - if they released a Wipeout game with that "feature", I wouldn't even consider playing it.

[ACE-FLO]

really? That's a bit unnecessary - ok Aliens in WipEout is a no-no, granted. But hey, even our own beloved wipEouts have had characters that were off putting too. It didn't stop peeps from racing though. I mean, wipEout, as long as it is made as a futuristic racer, and with the dynamic game physics it has a reputation for - should still be a game worthy of buying, even if it has Aliens and Zombies piloting AG crafts... so what? you don't see them in the cockpit - all you get is a generic helmet which is barely visible through the cockpit anyway... Wouldn't bother me much tbh. I'd still buy a new wipEout if it had Alien pilots :lol, I love me wipEout too much :lol

[Dan Locke]

Eh. Zombies and aliens? Seriously? That kind of hokiness runs completely counter to Wipeout's "realistic" vision of the future. Wipeout is very, very serious, almost to a fault (funny how it tries to pretend that the races are governed by some kind of high-profile sanctioning body, when no legitimate motorsports league would encourage contestants to blow each other up with military-grade weapons) - if it had that kind of cheesy garbage... well, it wouldn't really be Wipeout at all, would it?

[q_dmc12]

It would be F-Zero with weapons... wait..

[ACE-FLO]

Hold that thought... :lol

[F.E.I.S.A.R]

It would be F-Zero with weapons... wait..

Was there something that was "less" dangerous than this? What hapened to F-Max,the extremely dangerous futuristic racing league that happened before F-Zero?
Back onto topic:
I am imagining something like Ace Combat 3,where the plane has practically no one piloting it.An A.I was doing it(I think it was called Nemo).

[xelaalex]

Its only a suggestion guys, geez! I represent my fandom for Wipeout the same way as everything else, in other words I alter the world to make it even better for myself. As ACE-FLO said, considering what is shown in the Wipeout games and what isn't, what I decide to add to the series doesn't make the slightest bit of difference and cannot be proved or disproved, so I am perfectly free to let my imagination go free, am I not?

[SaturnReturn]

Well I for one agree, and never took it as anything other than sharing a bit of creativity. But at the same time, you have to expect a certain level of criticism on the internet, as things are open to interpretation. So I wouldn't take it personally.

While I'm here, on the topic of aliens in WipEout, I don't think that's so far-fetched considering how unrealistic WipEout is really, no matter how much it tries not to be. If it hadn't been established already, then I'd consider it perfectly feasible that a WipEout universe would have to involve alien technology.

Also, I don't personally like the AI idea either, and at the point where it would have any control or be present in the ship while racing, I think it could be like that annoying little paper clip fella. But if the actual representation of it in the game were, for example, an AI that sets the ship up prior to the race and therefore little more than a customisable in-menu avatar of sorts, then I can see that it might be appealing to some, kind of like (please don't kill me) the ever so successful sackboy.

[Chill]

Wait, if this is about starting a two person team, like 2 crafts on the team rather than one racing in a tournament together and each team adding up there points together, than I can see the AI of a teammate being used when not online... and when online you could even maybe play co-op, perhaps even make it so that two people could play co-op with a split screen with other people online... ;) Not a fan of aliens though... Cyborgs maybe...

[off topic] As for the ship build-up idea... I'm still wondering when different types of engines and customizable shaping of the craft to better accomodate the type of engine and what the craft would be used for (ramming or light and speedy, better thrust or top speed, a floater or grappler of the track)... customizable teams, slogans and avatars and such... Would be saweet! :P Sorry to drift off topic... [off topic]

[xelaalex]

Oh yes, well sometimes its hard to tell who to listen to and who not to, right? Anyway, I'm not really suggesting the ships work any differently during races, the A.I.s are systems that are free to control outside of the races, and only through given permission of the pilot. The A.I. controls the weapons sensors and autopilot, which is also true for the games.

As for ship customisation, FTW man, FTW!!! I miss my F-Zero GX, if SONY were to introduce the ship customisation in a new Wipeout game, it would pwn so badly! Something like a Qirhana or a Triasar XD

[Dan Locke]

Yeah... but... Wipeout Fusion...

[Chill]

No, I'm not talking about the Wipeout Fusion type upgrade... I'm talking about something more realistic, after all you can't just build up a "supership"... Especially if it's required to take off armor for it to be the fastest, or weapon power (would cause the craft to slow down far too much if fired with a lot of power on a lighter craft)... Light also makes the craft more mobile, but harder to control when rammed into by a heavier craft... So the games physics would be much more realistic than having the ability to make up some supership...

[xelaalex]

Fusion was one of the only 2 Wipeout games I haven't got yet, along with HD/Fury, I would really like to try it if you can customize craft!

[Chill]

Fusion wasn't THAT horrible... just the worst of the series... ;) It did have a great broad futuristic style to it, like the future literally felt "out of this world"!! The upgraded crafts aren't the reason to buy it though... Especially since once you beat the game, you can practically beat all races with the fully upgraded Piranha without a care in the world... You'd pass everyone up before the end of the first lap, then overlap them by the third!

It did have nice lengthly tracks... Maybe Wipeout would consider lengthening the energy bar for the ability to add in longer tracks...

Definately a game I had to buy and beat in order to remain one of those Wipeout Veterans that have mastered all Wipeouts... ;)