MODMOD: ERA and Better AI

[AlexandrJJ]

I'm seeing that now! Very nice, and that's why YOU make the big bucks.

 

[Vehem]

And it certainly does! Thank you!

edit: Oh, hey, a quick idea/thought: I've noticed the AI constantly runs their scouts up to goblin forts and they get stuck in an endless cycle of being damaged, staying in place to heal, and being damaged again. They never, ever move away from said forts and just feed them experience endlessly. Any chance you can work that into the AI scout subroutines so that they don't stay in a dangerous spot? It'd be really helpful for me, especially, since I have to go through the game world each new game and delete the goblin forts+archers, when they're USUALLY a great idea! It's just the little big that makes the archers endlessly fed experience from ranged fire, and the scouts that take up a unit slot for the AI that they never care for.

Xienwolf did fix this one, but in the process caused a problem with Hawks that could result in a CtD. I had to revert the change for the time being - but I assume he'll add it back once he has time to solve the other problem...

 

[AlexandrJJ]

Xienwolf did fix this one, but in the process caused a problem with Hawks that could result in a CtD. I had to revert the change for the time being - but I assume he'll add it back once he has time to solve the other problem...

HAWKS!!! Good to know that you're aware and have fixed/are fixing the problem, though!

 

[Honor]

I like the AI improvements you made. Any chance you'll release the new AI separately, Sephi?

 

[AlexandrJJ]

I like the AI improvements you made. Any chance you'll release the new AI separately, Sephi?

Gonna have to quote this. I LIKE certain ideas, especially feeding more UBs to each faction as the game progresses, but dividing the game into eras that require ALL the research from before it is kinda antithetical to the Fall From Heaven ideology. The idea is that each faction has a preferred TREE of research, and the player can play depending on what their preference is as well. Through a normal game, most factions shouldn't advance religiously beyond Philosophy or its next box in, magically past the first division of 4 magic researches, and their equivalents in the more standard researches up top. This is making the AI SIGNIFICANTLY more generalized, and perhaps more actually competetive through that, but it's taking away part of the spirit of FFH. Honestly, I find the trade-off to be quite decent right now, but as the mod progresses, as FF progresses, as FFH2 progresses, we should be able to choose to opt out of era-based researching whilst leaving the core of the AI improvements and the faction-defining UBs intact.

 

[Rutee]

This may be a stupid question, but why not work Eras like they do in BTS?

Also I apparently play wrong. I tend to generalize..

Edit: Ah, it's to help them tech better. Man, you can't delete messages on this board?

Perhaps instead of requiring ALL techs, you can require a majority of them? Or something else? Or simply only have the AI tech entirely within era and allow players to do whatever?

 

[Sephi]

I like the AI improvements you made. Any chance you'll release the new AI separately, Sephi?

I had planned to release the Arcane UNITAIs seperately, but found no good way to do that yet

Gonna have to quote this. I LIKE certain ideas, especially feeding more UBs to each faction as the game progresses, but dividing the game into eras that require ALL the research from before it is kinda antithetical to the Fall From Heaven ideology.

All research is probably a bit too much. I probably get rid of the whole chokepoint system and replace it with something better.

The idea is that each faction has a preferred TREE of research, and the player can play depending on what their preference is as well. Through a normal game, most factions shouldn't advance religiously beyond Philosophy or its next box in, magically past the first division of 4 magic researches, and their equivalents in the more standard researches up top. This is making the AI SIGNIFICANTLY more generalized, and perhaps more actually competetive through that, but it's taking away part of the spirit of FFH.

There is so much awesome stuff in FFH/FF that being forced to rush through the tech tree isn't what i like. I find battles between mixed armies of archers+axemen+catapults+adepts+horsemen more interesting than only vampires against Ogres for example.

This may be a stupid question, but why not work Eras like they do in BTS?

In FFH, those Eras are used for religions.

Perhaps instead of requiring ALL techs, you can require a majority of them? Or something else? Or simply only have the AI tech entirely within era and allow players to do whatever?

yeah, something

 

[Tamman]

Just thought I'd mention that Jotnar cant advance past the first Era since they are barred from archery. Not sure if any other civs have similar issues.

 

[Sephi]

Nice Catch. Another reason to get rid of the chokepoint system. I never played Jotnar as they have been added to FF quite recently and the AI won't choose them, no idea if other things with them are also broken, I hope not. I load up a quickfix for Jotnar until I find the time to rework the techtree

Jotnar Quickfix:
unpack into assets\XML\Civilizations
will remove tech limitations from Jotnar

 

[Rutee]

I have something of a fishmining question; How do I add this without breaking my ability to play FF with friends who don't have it?

Also, something I forgot to mention before, but I fully support the addition of more UBs and UUs. I always really felt like more civs should feel as different as say, Doviello+ or Archos, or Jotnar, feel. Given the talk of "Not ascribing to patterns" or something like that, I was a little surprised that there weren't more civs like the Calabim, with a mess of UUs that changed functionality.

 

[Valkrionn]

Sent you a PM about this, but would you mind me using your magic AI's in the Wild Mana mod? Gotta distribute a DLL anyway to handle the game options I'd like to put in, just gotta get the thing to compile.

 

[Sephi]

I have something of a fishmining question; How do I add this without breaking my ability to play FF with friends who don't have it?

This is a FF mod which will copy your FF Folder into a different folder and then apply its changes. So your FF mod is unchanged and you can still play FF. The install program gives you an option to create a shortcut on your desktop so you can easily choose what to play.

 

[Sephi]

Sent you a PM about this, but would you mind me using your magic AI's in the Wild Mana mod? Gotta distribute a DLL anyway to handle the game options I'd like to put in, just gotta get the thing to compile.

Sure, I am looking forward to see them in your mod

 

[Grimz101]

Just for the XP changes thank you very much.. the game is much more enjoyable now when the AI doesnt get units with base 8xp + bonus from civics/buildings ect!

 

[AlexandrJJ]

Having actually PLAYED with this mod active a bit, I must say, EXCELLENT AI WORK, HOLY CRAP. They're competitive at Noble. Aggressive AI off and the aggressive AIs (Clan, Doviello, et cetera) will declare war when they have a leg-up through Lucian + a decent stack of bronze-equipped Beastmen or Rantine, and such and such. Absolutely stellar stuff, and I don't even particularly find the tech tree changes to be a bad thing thus far. I hope you get to put some more time in on shoring up the UBs and the like for all the different eras and factions! Excellent work this far!

 

[Zharkov]

There is so much awesome stuff in FFH/FF that being forced to rush through the tech tree isn't what i like. I find battles between mixed armies of archers+axemen+catapults+adepts+horsemen more interesting than only vampires against Ogres for example.

Yes, I think this is the real problem. Perhaps it would be better, if the high end techs would take longer to research? Or if the high end techs had a few more (instead of all) prerequisites?

 

[Sephi]

haven't had the time to upload an updated version, but in the new version allmost all techs will have 1 or 2 and requirements. Era techs will only be or requirement (the more or requirements you have, the cheaper is a technology).
Example:
Smelting
And requirement: bronze working
Or requirement: construction, military survival, era of survival

If you want to beeline smelting or iron working, you will most likely only research bronze working and construction. On the other hand if you spread your research more and grab the survival techs first, Smelting will be cheaper. Each of the survival techs gives a 25% boost to research.

 

[AlexandrJJ]

Yeah, that's a pretty nice change. I can't wait to see how it does in practice. Lemme know when that updated version is up, as I can't wait to give it a try!

 

[xienwolf]

Far better approach to it IMO, and all of the tools already exist for it to work easily I should have set it up so that there was some visual indication of the cost-link in the tech tree in retrospect. Would take a while to work that out as a flexible system though

 

[Sephi]

Uploaded a new version. Mostly only changes in the tech tree. Also some minor AI improvements (for example when doviello AI converts workers to beastmen, UNITAI will now change from UNITAI_BUILD to UNITAI_ATTACK)

Btw, does anyone have ideas for Hippus?