From what I understand rate of fire is always one with defensive bombard. If I wanted to differentiate rate of fire between a longbowman and crossbowman, and give them offensive bombardment would the AI be able to use? I am assuming no, or else I would have seen it in other mods after all these years, but it was an idea so I thought I'd ask.
Archers and Offensive Bombard - Can AI Use?
- Thread starter SayHayKid
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If you give them the artillery strategy and this strategy is at least the dominating strategy for this unit, the AI will use them like any other artillery unit. In the past such a setting did not make much sense with the spoiled Firaxis AI artillery routine for land units, but with the Flintlock mod this is possible.
That is what got me thinking about. Currently they are defense oriented with low A. decent D, and defensive bombard. If I gave them offensive bombard, I was thinking half the bombard strength of the catapult, but twice the rate of fire and a low A/D value. With Flintlock I was thinking they'd come long as "support" for the main troops, but then how does the AI choose between archers vs catapults? What if given artillery flag and offense or defense flag? Does that work the same way as giving a unit both the offense and defensive flag, where the AI chooses which one at unit creation?
Predator145
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The AI can not use dual role units. It can only choose 1 flag. So flagging something as both offense and artillery is unfair to the AI since it can only choose 1 and let the other capability go to waste while the human fluidly makes use of both in the very same unit. With defense stat leaning units and artillery flag (no defense flag) the AI can multirole because for something to defend it just needs to be there.
But how would the AI choose? It seems the AI favors the overall bombard hit rate over everything. When I tested a mortar unit that had a lower bombard value than tube artillery but a ROF of 3 and only 1 range the AI built nothing but that for artillery because it's the most potent at landing a hit. The AI doesn't seem to factor in the base bombard value (which is important for defensive bombard) and range as much as hit rate. I'm not sure if the AI factors in attack and defense stats at all. I assume things like blitz and lethal bombard is factored in. I also suspect that stealth, stealth attack without targets and enslave without targets are factored in despite being inconsequential.
But how would the AI choose? It seems the AI favors the overall bombard hit rate over everything. When I tested a mortar unit that had a lower bombard value than tube artillery but a ROF of 3 and only 1 range the AI built nothing but that for artillery because it's the most potent at landing a hit. The AI doesn't seem to factor in the base bombard value (which is important for defensive bombard) and range as much as hit rate. I'm not sure if the AI factors in attack and defense stats at all. I assume things like blitz and lethal bombard is factored in. I also suspect that stealth, stealth attack without targets and enslave without targets are factored in despite being inconsequential.
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Keep in mind that the AI can and will use "Multirole" settings the same as a Human player for units IF they are pre-placed in a Scenario... the reason is because the AI did not choose them and have to select only one role.
The downside of this is the AI will be stuck with the number of units that are pre-placed and any more of those units when built will only have the single role setting the AI chooses.
The downside of this is the AI will be stuck with the number of units that are pre-placed and any more of those units when built will only have the single role setting the AI chooses.
In a series of long tests (a group effort covering 1,000 posts, or thereabout), and made loooooooong ago, we discovered that the AI will choose the best unit available, for A or D,
irrespective of how that unit is flagged. It does make one mistake regarding a choice between Units, concerning Hit Points; apologies, but I'm not up to digging through that thread to find it ATM.
Predator145
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I'd like to disagree a bit based on what I've seen. In the WW2 Pacific scenario, I've modded the Fighter-Bomber to 8/8/1 A D M and 8/3/8 B ROF OR with only the air bombard flag. The AI still built Heavy Bombers because of their vastly superior bombard strength and range. But, after they've gotten a sizeable fleet of heavy bombers they switched over to building Fighter-Bombers. This also shows that the AI is not rigidly locked into building 1 type of unit.In a series of long tests (a group effort covering 1,000 posts, or thereabout), and made loooooooong ago, we discovered that the AI will choose the best unit available, for A or D,
irrespective of how that unit is flagged. It does make one mistake regarding a choice between Units, concerning Hit Points; apologies, but I'm not up to digging through that thread to find it ATM.
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So the question arises what will happen with AI multrole units, that are autoproduced by a building, as the AI did not chose them either, especially when this autoproduced multirole unit normally is not available for the AI to be produced.
Very Good Question... have not tested that but I think it may not work the same due to the programing. If it does work, that would solve many problems concerning Multirorole Units for the AI.
The exhaustive tests, including Unit Flags, were entirely focused on land units - and these all began in 2003 ( 
; etc.) with tom2050 then going on to study Naval Units. We never got around to Air.
timerover51
Deity
Hmmm, I might have to look at my mods for WW2-Pacific and see what the AI does. I played with the Air Units quite a bit.
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