AI Blues

[techumseh]

Not wanting to add to a litany of demands/requests to TNO about additions to the ToTPP, I want to add a thread that deals with AI issues specifically. If down the road, these are things that the Patch can improve on, great. But in the meantime, there may be other solutions, or work-arounds that are available.

One thing the AI can't handle is aircraft carriers. Planes fly away and never come back. As I work on Seelowe, getting the British (AI) carriers to have a useful role is next to impossible. The best I can come up with is to give them the sub flag and load them up with Swordfish that have the missile flag. Other air units just fly off and crash in the sea somewhere.

Another issue is how the AI handles fighters with a range of 1. I can recall on earlier versions of Civ2 (FW I think), seeing enemy or neutral fighter units flying around my units and landing back where they came from. With ToT, 1 range fighters stay in base, defending and attacking only adjacent air units.

I've also noticed that the AI does not build fighter units that are not in the traditional unit slots. This is a problem if you want to use different slots for fighters from different civs. I've noticed that the AI builds all other units, except fighters from non-standard unit slots.

Finally, the mass suicide of naval units attacking strong port cities is a well-known problem. I often find the easiest way to get naval superiority is to build a powerful naval base and let the AI's navy destroy itself attacking it. A more judicious naval AI would avoid this. Giving surface naval units the sub flag is the standard remedy, but often that fails to meet the other demands of the design.

That's my list of AI fixes I desire most. Thoughts are welcome.

 

[Civinator]

techumseh, what´s about a lua scripting that gives the carrier a new plane with the missile flag each turn replacing an 'used' missile-plane as long as the carrier unit exists? May be somebody here can do such a scripting.

 

[CurtSibling]

Just thinking aloud here...
I find if there is a sufficiently powerful (stats-wise) defender, the AI hesitates to attack with boats. Although when it comes to industrial-era units,
with higher firepower, creating a ridiculous unit just to stop kamekazi attacks by ships is not the fix. We need better AI. Perhaps the building of
coastal defences could trigger the AI to reduce its desire to attack...Only TNO would be able to see what is possible in the code...

 

[JPetroski]

ToTPP currently offers solutions to 1. and 3. For 2., I'd suggest just creating those units via events if you've identified the AI won't build them.

1. Can (I believe) be fixed with lua, much like civinator suggested. Use your missile idea, but have the unit be recreated on the carrier the next turn if it dies as the attacker. If it dies as the defender, it does not respawn (I'm 90% sure lua can do all of this...)

3. Can be fixed without lua. ToTPP has added back in invisible units. Give the player invisible 0 Movement air units called "coastline" or "shoals" outside their city. Don't let the AI navy attack air. The idiot AI will likely stack right next to them, but they won't suicide on them and as a bonus, you now have been blockaded.

This solution does not require rewriting your events in lua, but if you are interested in doing that, you should have a few scenarios to learn from and copy in the next few months.