New experimental BetterAI version : more human-like and warlike behaviour

[Morgawr]

Hey, I just tried out your mod and I love it so far! I usually play Monarch games w/ aggressive AI setting but I tried this one w/o aggressive AI. As soon as I built my second city Ragnar declared war on me with his units at the border and razed it, and then moved more units to take my capital. He did not succeed in the end but I fell down a great deal in score and still had only one city while other civs had 3-4. So I'm gonna start a new game now more aware of the Better AI's capabilities. I can definitely say that it's playing a lot more human-like & warlike!

 

[DragonHawk]

Just want to echo everyone's opinion and thank klokwerk for the great adjustments to BetterAI. I for once appreciate how the AI are now more opportunistic than ever

 

[darko82]

Since the BTS is about to be realised, it would be good to start implement the mod correctly.

 

[Wodan]

The mod isn't necessary with the new AI in BtS. Or, more properly, the mod should really be "reset" to ground zero and then new improvements started.

Wodan

 

[PieceOfMind]

The mod isn't necessary with the new AI in BtS. Or, more properly, the mod should really be "reset" to ground zero and then new improvements started.

Wodan

It's gonna take some skill to think up a better AI this time. This time we have to outdo Blake! The AI in BtS is impressive to say the least. Ignoring the occasional bug of course.

However, I wouldn't put it past klokwerk and Yakk. If they do go ahead with improvements it would be fantastic. But I wonder how many and how big the patches will be for BtS. If Blake makes AI improvements in patches it may be wise to avoid having two people making improvements in parallel.

Not meaning to sound like a total fanboy, but Blake's work has done wonders for the game.

 

[Wodan]

Not meaning to sound like a total fanboy, but Blake's work has done wonders for the game.

I totally and 100% agree. I uninstalled BetterAI2 and BetterHandicaps when I put in the patch the other day, and frankly was amazed at the improvements.

Wodan

 

[klokwerk]

Thanks for the feedback about my changes and Yakk's changes.

Yes, the mod will be started from 'ground zero', as you said. I hope we'll be able to improve things, but Blake did a awesome work in BtS and there aren't so many things to improve right now.

I still see a few glitches in BtS though :
- planes are still often destroyed on the ground when you capture a city (I destroyed 8 HRE zeppelins by taking 2 cities), they should flee before the city is captured
- the odds calculation before massive AI stack attacks doesn't seem always right. The AI sometimes suicides dozens of units before acknowledging he won't take your city, I don't know why I didn't read this part of the code.

There are probably more but that's what I see now, I only played half a game.

Overall, congrats to Blake, the BtS AI is really impressive. (And I'm pretty sure he'll make it even better in a future patch. )

 

[Roland Johansen]

Klokwerk and Yakk, Blake and Iustus, I hope you all will think a bit more about AI improvements (if you want to). Any improvements possible are always welcome. And I guess, that there will always be small weaknesses of the AI left to improve upon. Good luck!

 

[Wodan]

Klokwerk, here are a couple of things I've noticed so far:
-- building "Research", and also with emphasize research button (and no other buttons), the city governor assigns an Engineer? Something's up there.
-- this is a personal preference: the last versions of BetterAI had algorithms that when you forced a specialist type, and it needed to add another specialist, it would only choose to add more specialists of that same type (as possible).

Wodan

 

[Yakk]

-- building "Research", and also with emphasize research button (and no other buttons), the city governor assigns an Engineer? Something's up there.

That could easily result in more research than a scientist. Did you check by changing specialists manually, and seeing if the amount of research went up when you changed to a scientist?

 

[Wodan]

That could easily result in more research than a scientist. Did you check by changing specialists manually, and seeing if the amount of research went up when you changed to a scientist?

Yes.

Wodan