Suggestion For Ai Behaviour

[mrgenie]

suggestion for a new AI tactiq:
when the AI is loosing, he shouldn't use regular AI war routines!

(i.e. if number of units is less then 60% of opponents unitsnumber)

Instead, a complete new to program routine should be enabled then:
--------------------------------------------------------
1) The AI should just put all his units as defences in his cities!
2) If he has to go out of his cities to cope with units pillaging around, don't go further away then 3tiles
3) if enemy units number is more then double defenders number, move units from other cities which are not under thread into this one
4) keep roads up and running if pillaged and rebuild them ASAP
5) if we can keep up the defences, try to stack all new build units into 2 or 3 large groups of units, and move them all at once to 1 enemy city to overrun.
6) if this is not possible, focus your large army around your cities, max tile distance 6,
7) if enemy comes again with large numbers to one of your cities, move your army to here very fast

that's how i always beat the AI, even with less number of units..i wonder why the AI never comes up with this...it's just an "if i loose anyway in open field battle, let my units use all the defence benefits and heal benefits i get from stay around my cities and focus my force"

the idea why i play like this is:" the enemy will keep alot of his units as own defence, so he will always send maybe 40 or 50% of his strenght, keep the rest for protection, if i just focus my forces, he brings down some units that need to be healed, when they are all seperated, he kicks away my units one after the other, when i keep them together, i can pull back injured units and move in front new healed units" that's the basic idea...AI should use this tactic...because this is always the point where he looses and i as human win...(in combat!)

of course if you're 20techs behind, you'll loose eventually anyway

 

[Arlborn]

Hello again Mrgenie

The idea is good and logic. If its in risk of completely be conquested, the AI should se a completely different tatic, nothing more logic right?

Your ideas are good and could be put in the code with some mofifications IF the team find it a good idea hehe.

 

[Elhoim]

Good ideas, I use that tactic too. I also use an "strategic retreat" tactic when I know I´m gonna loose a city (ex. 2 def against huge stack), which consists in retrating to another city with more defenders (or is more defendable) and leaving the other to the enemy.

 

[kettyo]

Good ideas, I use that tactic too. I also use an "strategic retreat" tactic when I know I´m gonna loose a city (ex. 2 def against huge stack), which consists in retrating to another city with more defenders (or is more defendable) and leaving the other to the enemy.

Also a good strategy if you mostly have city raider units to let an enemy go into a city and attack them there with all your bonuses (city will be defenseless).

Though too tricky tactic to program an AI for that

Especially when the enemy razes your city

 

[kettyo]

Declarewar (and on friends) should last moderate long but razing (holy) city modifier should last very long.

But not forever.

Russia is not wiping out Mongolia today because they razed lots of Russian cities during the Golden Horde period.

 

[phungus420]

1) The AI should just put all his units as defences in his cities!
2) If he has to go out of his cities to cope with units pillaging around, don't go further away then 3tiles
3) if enemy units number is more then double defenders number, move units from other cities which are not under thread into this one
4) keep roads up and running if pillaged and rebuild them ASAP
5) if we can keep up the defences, try to stack all new build units into 2 or 3 large groups of units, and move them all at once to 1 enemy city to overrun.
6) if this is not possible, focus your large army around your cities, max tile distance 6,
7) if enemy comes again with large numbers to one of your cities, move your army to here very fast

Basic defensive strategy in a nutshell. Something tells me it's not so simple as an AI check and do process though!

 

[Chris Withers]

I didn't see a generic place to post suggestions so I'll drop a few here:

1. Used it for first time last night. Warlords, Monarch level, Louis XIV leader. I was suprised that no matter how many map regens or restarts I did, not once was my settler starting in a recommended city position. Contrast this to non-better AI play where almost always the settler is in a recommended city position. I don't say this is bad, just that I noticed it as odd/different. The other thing I noticed is I got 2 huts giving my warrior technology, whereas getting a tech has been rare for me in the past.

2. Whatever the "Better AI Handicap" thing is needs to be explained. I see it is an additional download I can do, but have no clue as to what it is for & why I would want it. If this is to go more mainstream, this type of stuff needs to be explained. But I wonder why I should have to do 2 downloads & installs. Seems like everything s/b in one file and if that's not enough then is it really needed for us dumb masses.

I do have high hopes for the Better AI. Emperor play is difficult & tedious for me with all the warmongering necessary. I much prefere Monarch, but winning has gotten a bit too easy, although Warlords seemed to make it a bit more of a challenge again. So I hope that Better AI will make Monarch play more competitive

 

[Iustus]

I didn't see a generic place to post suggestions so I'll drop a few here:

1. Used it for first time last night. Warlords, Monarch level, Louis XIV leader. I was suprised that no matter how many map regens or restarts I did, not once was my settler starting in a recommended city position. Contrast this to non-better AI play where almost always the settler is in a recommended city position. I don't say this is bad, just that I noticed it as odd/different. The other thing I noticed is I got 2 huts giving my warrior technology, whereas getting a tech has been rare for me in the past.

This has to do with how the blue circles are calculated vs how the starting civ positions are calculated. Without BetterAI, the blue circles are always drawn with out of date information. That means that they will always show the starting postition with a blue circle. On the other hand, BetterAI now shows the correct up to date information for the blue circles, this means that while your starting spot meets the best spot under starting criteria, it may not be the best spot based on the current information you know.

The starting spot criteria includes things like bonus resources you cannot see yet (copper, iron, horses, etc), distance to other civs, and of course unexplored territory.

The blue circles only take into account information you know, so unexploered territory is not counted.

In the past, you had to wait until turn one before the blue circles 'forgot' about the unseen information. And it would always be one turn out of date. Now they are re-calculated every time your units move. (Or more correctly, every time you select a settler unit).

2. Whatever the "Better AI Handicap" thing is needs to be explained. I see it is an additional download I can do, but have no clue as to what it is for & why I would want it. If this is to go more mainstream, this type of stuff needs to be explained. But I wonder why I should have to do 2 downloads & installs. Seems like everything s/b in one file and if that's not enough then is it really needed for us dumb masses.

This is an optional file. What it does is reduce some of the bonuses that AI players get compared to human players. This will make all game settings easier. Without these new handicaps, some players were finding noble or prince level still too easy with BetterAI, but Monarch too hard (because of all the extra bonuses the AI gets). With the new handicap file, the distance between Prince and Monarch is less (among other things), so Monarch and Emperor games should be more playable.

I will see about getting some new Q&A in the FAQ.

I do have high hopes for the Better AI. Emperor play is difficult & tedious for me with all the warmongering necessary. I much prefere Monarch, but winning has gotten a bit too easy, although Warlords seemed to make it a bit more of a challenge again. So I hope that Better AI will make Monarch play more competitive

Try it out, see what you think.

-Iustus

 

[mrgenie]

Basic defensive strategy in a nutshell. Something tells me it's not so simple as an AI check and do process though!

easiest way to make a start: make a if ( bLoosingFullScale )
make a function for it to do some little math to determine if you're loosing at all fronts,

and then in all AI classes if (bLoosingFullScale )
{alternative AI rules}
else{default rules}


then make a alternative AI rule class first, just 1 for all, which is simple, all units back to cities, and stay there...this is a nice start to at least buff up defences and hope to survive long enough untill you could negotiate a peace treaty or so...

of course this thing will get extremely complex...but..AI really could use such a thing..im playing alot of AutoAI now, and witness how the AI works..firaxian is really stupid, but betterAI still has some open spots where it fails on doing the best strategies..and one of them is the DEFENCES FIRST strategies when loosing at all fronts.