AI can't grasp what to do in this mod (?)

[Nimai_R]

Hmmm.. Well I saw the funniest thing that I think emphasizes this. An Irrigated Mana node xD Though a few other AI's did build nodes I thought that was the funniest. Though I was playing on warlord and Varn Gosam was beating me in points at one point (then again he had a continent to himself ><) And Thessa is only like 500 away, which is still pretty big. Though I noticed Varn had longbowmen in his cities, which I guess isn't so bad. Though he launced no offensive or counter measures against me, the biggest fight back was like 2 rangers and a swordsman. =/ My Baron made very short work of them.

 

[siggboy]

I really like this mod for its great ideas and because it's almost a total conversion in so many areas. However, the weak AI is really a big problem at the moment.

I've abandoned all of the few games I've tried so far quite early because it became clear that the AI would be no match. The biggest problem has always been to cope with the barbarians for long enough to build an army of Axes and a few Adepts, and from then on it was easy. The AI still had warriors and the like for defense, and the promoted axes leftover from the clashes with the barbarians made city raiding really easy.

In my last game Orthus was born just a few tiles north of my copper city. At first, he went for the copper before I could build Axes and Pyre Zombies, he took the city and I lost. On reload, he went for the other city so I had time to build a force. I abandoned the city, let him march in and then killed him with a few Zombies and Axes. The Axeman who finished him off instantly got to Combat V and took his weapon.

A few turns later I took my force of about 5 Axes and 2 Zombies and easily rolled over three cities of one of my opponents to the north. He only had Warriors for defense -- it was ridiculous. I had already build three or so Adepts and hooked up two mana nodes. I then abandoned the game because apparently there was no challenge.

This was on Monarch difficulty, and the biggest issue were the barbarians in the first 100 years. On higher difficulties I found the barbarians too nasty to deal with, so I'm not ready to play on ridiculous levels just so that the AI can compete somehow.

A lot of work has to go to the AI, and then this mod will rock on single player. I'm recognizing that it is not easy to make a good AI -- Blake, who's doing the improved AI for Vanilla and Warlords seems to be an exceptionally talented person, and still it seems a long way to go there to create a competitive AI. FFH is quite different from Warlords, so I guess the work needed here will be substantial as well.

Probably it would be a good idea to fork off Blake's AI at this point before adding more features to the mod.

In my eyes the weakest points of the AI are overexpanding while neglecting military technology. Maybe there are also design issues not directly related to AI performance. The designers of the original game had their reasons for allowing a cheap, early city defender (Archer) which you can only overcome by employing good tactics and using your opportunities well (read: hook up copper early and axe rush).

The über-promotions possible in FFH throw this concept way off balance: attackers can be promoted more easily by picking fights, while you rely on enemy aggression to promote defenders. You collect your level 3 troops that are left over from barb fights and then pick any opponent to conquer -- that is too easy for any seasoned Civ player.

Also, the early strong barbarians plus Orthus and the Skeleton Ship add a tremendous amount of luck to the early game. I think barb strength should match the average strength of the civs, like in Vanilla.

Still, I'm looking forward to any improvements to come and I'll be happy to play a lot of FFH when it's ripe ;-).

--Sigi

 

[Pantherwoods]

I really like this mod for its great ideas and because it's almost a total conversion in so many areas. However, the weak AI is really a big problem at the moment.

Probably it would be a good idea to fork off Blake's AI at this point before adding more features to the mod.

--Sigi

O yes, i agree. It's time to work on this principle weakness of FfH.

Camillo Panther Woods

 

[se7en]

I just started playing this mod and LOVE it.. but I do agree with a lot of what you guys are saying. As it stands right now if you specialize from the beginning to get a strong unit the AI has no way to defend itself and you can run over an entire empire (or two) before they have a chance to defend themselves. It seems there is a generic defensive unit that is missing that will at least cause some risk for an attacker. A few strength 6 units can completely overrun a massive 2 and 3 strength army.

In my last game I was the Shaeim. I completely focused right away so I could get the diseased zombies (strength 6) and completely wiped out the guys with Basium whose best unit was the Thane of Kilmorph (strength 3.) I think the Basium unit had been killed at the beginning while wandering around fighting barbs because I never saw him.

As a solution I think there could be a level 4 defender somewhere along the standard AI research path, or make specializing in the tree more of a risk/reward thing. As it is right now I feel I'm not really missing out on much in the early tree by focusing because I get an entire empire conquered as a reward, guaranteed.

 

[Maniac]

Does anyone know how to say in python (CvGameInterface.py):

"If any player/team has tech X, Y or Z, then pPlayer must research X, Y or Z as well."

Don't know to say "any player". Is it ePlayer?

def AI_chooseTech(argsList):
	'AI chooses what to research'
	#CvUtil.pyPrint( "CvGameInterface.AI_chooseTech" )
	ePlayer = argsList[0]
	bFree = argsList[1]
	pPlayer = gc.getPlayer(ePlayer)
	eTeam = gc.getTeam(pPlayer.getTeam())
	iTech = -1

Edit: Never mind. I think the Eyes and Ears Network event is a good example.

 

[Chandrasekhar]

I just started playing this mod and LOVE it.. but I do agree with a lot of what you guys are saying. As it stands right now if you specialize from the beginning to get a strong unit the AI has no way to defend itself and you can run over an entire empire (or two) before they have a chance to defend themselves. It seems there is a generic defensive unit that is missing that will at least cause some risk for an attacker. A few strength 6 units can completely overrun a massive 2 and 3 strength army.

In my last game I was the Shaeim. I completely focused right away so I could get the diseased zombies (strength 6) and completely wiped out the guys with Basium whose best unit was the Thane of Kilmorph (strength 3.) I think the Basium unit had been killed at the beginning while wandering around fighting barbs because I never saw him.

As a solution I think there could be a level 4 defender somewhere along the standard AI research path, or make specializing in the tree more of a risk/reward thing. As it is right now I feel I'm not really missing out on much in the early tree by focusing because I get an entire empire conquered as a reward, guaranteed.

Sureshot and I designed an alternate tech tree that seems to make this less of a problem. The most recent version should be here.

 

[Ringtailed]

I think another one of the AI's problems is that it doesn't use anti-unit promotions. I could be wrong, but from my experience playing on monarch/emperor I don't think I've ever seen the AI use them at all; they just use combat mostly and sometimes city defender. Shock I gives +40&#37; against melee and shock II gives another +80% for a total of +120%, and all it requires is combat 3. I'll often build a few warriors in the beginning of the game and fight barbarians and smaller cities with low/no defense bonus up to combat 3/shock 2 and then steamroll a few AIs. If they'd use shock promotions occasionally against my all-warrior army this tactic wouldn't work as easily.

Just a thought~

 

[onedreamer]

Hmmm.. Well I saw the funniest thing that I think emphasizes this. An Irrigated Mana node xD

AFAIK you can only build mana on a node...