Leveraging "Unit interception" for land / sea defense

[Padmewan]

As folks on this and other forums have griped, the AI is terrible at defending against units with moves greater than 2. One approach to solving this is boosting the AI -- but I suspect there is a very good reason for the 2-move limit, which is that each additional move becomes exponentially more complex. Further, even human players have complained about the impossibility of defending against 6-move naval units.

A realistic solution that would NOT require (significant) AI reprogramming is to enable some variant of "Interception" for non-air units. This would effectively recreate the concept of "Zone of Control," and for modern units it makes a lot of sense. For example, a 6-move destroyer could have a 3-tile "Interception" radius, so that spacing destroyers 6 tiles away from each other gives you at least some screen against invaders.

This concept makes most sense when applied to units normally reserved for counterattacking. A bomber should also have the option, like a fighter, to engage in "Interception" missions, but directed against land domain units rather than air domain units. (Whether, then, there should be counter-interceptions leads us down a dangerous path... )

I am not familiar with how interception behaves (presumably it's controlled at the C++ layer), but any initial thoughts on whether this would (a) be at least a partial solution to the problem identified; and (b) be workable?

 

[Impaler[WrG]]

It sounds like a good idea and anything is possible (with enough blood, sweat and tears) now that we have the SDK

I am thinking something along the lines of an Interception zone object that comes into existence and units trying to move through it get thrown into combat with the unit/s creating the zone.

 

[Padmewan]

When you say "object" do you mean that in the game or the programming sense? Either way, I think we're describing the same concept. I would imagine the zone of control could be something like 1/2 the unit's mv't points and activated when the unit is set to "Sentry" (not "Hold").

I was thinking that a minimally invasive method of implementing this would be to utilize the iInterceptionProbability value. Although the code for interception may not be recyclable in this way as how it handles a bombing mission might be quite different than simply detecting a transgression of the interceptor's zone of control.

Still, the first question is -- would this model (a) solve any problems that people care about, and (b) create any new problems?

(Again, my main goal in this idea is to enable units that can move more than 2 tiles without breaking the AI or human I).

 

[Padmewan]

Would love more feedback on this... I really thought people were seeking a "solution" for defense v. 3+ move units and thought this would be a step in the right direction.

 

[GeoModder]

Atm, it seems that only naval units have a greater (effective assault) range then 2 tiles (promotions excluded). And since Firaxis didn't really improve the AI on the naval part...

 

[Padmewan]

Atm, it seems that only naval units have a greater (effective assault) range then 2 tiles (promotions excluded). And since Firaxis didn't really improve the AI on the naval part...

Right -- and one of the objections from modders for creating units with 3+ moves is that the AI can't adequately defend against such units. I was thinking a mod like this would help deal with that problem.

I also thought that this would also help the AI deal with navies -- can you be more specific about the problems with the AI navy? Is it that they don't attack / transport well enough, or that they don't defend well enough? A "zone of control" for naval units would help address the latter, but not the former.