Ai

[galahadba]

Well the Mod is wonderfull, i cannot find any adition made that i curently not like... but what worries me is the AI, the AI seen to not know how to use the Specific features of the civilizations, neither the generic features (like buildings for units, etc)

I had been said on another tread that in Shadow the fact that the AI does not build the buildings for units was corrected by modifing the priority of construction of these buildings. but by seeing how my neightbors the Grigory where acting i had seen that the AI does not have the concept of specialized cities, it seen that they build the better defensive unit that a particular city can do to defend itself, so i've seen they waging war with the Mad ones (don't remeber the names) and having their major cities in the middle of their empire (that was not being atacked) defended with marksmans, while their frontier cities (that probably don't have the apropriate building) that where being taken, re-taken, etc defended by warriors...

The optimal behavior was that, that particular city produced units to defend the others, while they cannot build strong units on it. So i am thinking that modifing the priority of the building is not enoth for this, becouse it will only make the AI be less competitive in science, they should have some good production cities with the buildings for military, while others cities getting the infrastruture ones, and not every city getting military buildings ,while they broke financial...

Other think is the especific qualities of civis, i excanged maps with the Good elves, and had seen that they do not know how to use their wood as an advantage, i have seem many plains/grassland with cottages, farms, while they should had pilagged and cast the magic for gain a florest and re-build in these terrains when they got the tecnology for it... in time the terrains would become ancient florests and they would be producting +1 food +1 hammer in these ones... well i am new to the game so i dont know other especific civs traits... but it seens to me that the ai does not know how to use it.


And worries me new features being added without the ai knowing how to use it becouse without an competitive ai despise all the good new features you stop playing for knowing that after you resolve the problem of the raging barbariam the only problem you will get in the future is the horsemans from the AC.

well i think it must be very dificult to modify the behavior of the ai, but it is a must to make the Mod aven better than it alread is


PS: sorry for my english, i am actyally Brasilian and my english is very poor

 

[GeeJo]

This is a known issue - AI tweaks aren't going to be implemented until pretty near to the end as I recall. There's not much point trying to get the AI used to any new features that may end up getting taken back out or altered in the next version.

 

[seZereth]

well, we are really waiting until we have all the features in, until we take care of the ai, its nothing more frustrating than spending a lot of time teaching the ai features or strategies, which get dropped or useless with the next patch or major version. So our aim is, to make the mod as complete as possible, feature and mechanic wise and then we can start teaching the ai.

 

[galahadba]

well, we are really waiting until we have all the features in, until we take care of the ai, its nothing more frustrating than spending a lot of time teaching the ai features or strategies, which get dropped or useless with the next patch or major version. So our aim is, to make the mod as complete as possible, feature and mechanic wise and then we can start teaching the ai.

Well it is very good to hear it

 

[BeefontheBone]

A lot of that is a vanilla problem - for instance, it doesn't tend to shuffle defenders due to the way it gives units assignments and rarely changes them. Improved in BtS to some extent, Smarter Orcs may also have addressed it.

You should've seen it in the earliest Fire versions - not an AI spell was cast (part of the reason for AoI's magic only being available to the player). This is something Kael's been working on quite a lot. AI programming is extremely challenging - as noted above, it'd be a waste to spend ages getting it to understand some feature which was changed in the next version. Hence the AI tweaks being left to the last phase.

 

[galahadba]

A lot of that is a vanilla problem - for instance, it doesn't tend to shuffle defenders due to the way it gives units assignments and rarely changes them. Improved in BtS to some extent, Smarter Orcs may also have addressed it.

Well i agree entirelly with leting the ai to be worked in the last phase, i had never done any modifications in the CIV, but i am a developer and have an ideia of how hard i should be to make a good AI, so minimize the work is a good thing to do

About the behavior of units... Well actually even if it is not the optimal behavior in vanilla it is not an issue too, as in vanilla every citie can build/upgrade every unit in the game. In a mod with expecialized buildings required for build/upgrade the units, it have to be re-thinked, as the AI need to build the units for defense in the city that actually can build it, and it have in the future to get this unit back there to upgrade (or just build another one and disband the old one).

I think that a provisory (i dont know if this word actually exists in english ) solution for the issue, would be to let the AI build every unit without the buildings, leting the requiriment only for the human, until you begin to work on the ai, this way the game would became much more chalenging, and i don't think it is much of a cheat too (we have many capabilities that the ai don't have to balance ). Of course that if it is not easy to do, just forget the ideia

 

[BeefontheBone]

I think that a provisory (i dont know if this word actually exists in english ) solution for the issue,

Provisional would be the word you want there.

Hopefully this will be fixed in Shadow - the buildings have been changed so the AI knows it needs to build them, apparently.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Provisory is a word, but it doesn't make a lot of sense in this context. Provisional is probably the one you wanted.

 

[xanaqui42]

I'll note that I'm working on a modmod for BtS-based FfH II AI. I'll note, however, that the features I'm working on first may not be on your list of problems with the AI. Presently, in a local version, I seem to have working:

Khazad attempt to obtain and maintain Overflowing vaults.

And I'm working on:

Sacrifice the Weak food consumption
Hyborem lack of Growth via food.

I cannot give an estimated time of release yet.