AI competence

[Xietor]

While Dom III generally has a good AI, here are 3 suggestions i have:

1. Having birds as part of PD sucks, but at least make them attack archers. In a game against ulm, it attacks infantry which does zero. Beef up the code a bit and make units that are weak with low attacks and flying pick suitable targets(preferably priests and mages, but that may be overpowered).

2. Attack rearmost troops-there should be a way to have fast troops attack the true rearmost troops, not the rear of the attacking infantry.


3. Archers:There should be variable settings with archers.

Setting one- maximum kill-shoot enemies that you have best chance to hit, disregard friendly fire casualties

Setting 2- Medium kill-Shoot enemies that you have a good chance of hitting, but hold fire if it is likely you will hit friendly targets.

Setting 3-Safe mode- Shoot only enemy targets that there is a strong chance of hitting without incurring friendly fire casualties. If there is more than a 10 percent chance to hit friendly targets, hold fire or melee.

[Sombre]

I'd like to see archers able to hold fire once the enemy army is routed. This would save maybe 20% of friendly fire casualties.

[Gandalf Parker]

This isnt the answer you want but some tips to tide you over for now...

There is a difference between orders that are given to troops vs orders of their commanders. The basic troops are a bit.. simple minded. In order to get better results, use the commanders.

Attack rearward is decided a lot by what they can "see" as rearward when they begin the action. Setting them to the flanks helps. Telling them to hold and THEN attack rearward helps more. Having the bodyguard a commander who is told to hold more than two turns then THEN attack rearward can help even more. Or have the commander attack one round then attack rearward. Or a combination of hold, hold, attack one round, then attack rear.

Commander archers can do the above with orders to fire at rearward. One good commander with a special bow can do alot of damage. The Bow of War fires a volley of arrows all by itself.

For important battles it might be beneficial to use "fire then retreat" in the scripting. They will have to be brought back up to the battle but it can give you the "dont fire at routing troops" option.

[Nick_K]

I think the key problem with friendly fire is that archers will always seem to fire if they can... even when this is obviously moronic. I've seen this mostly at the end of the battle when there aren't any 'safe' targets left. I'm sure we've all seen hundreds of archers open fire at some lone militiaman surrounded by friendlies. It'd be nice if Dom4 had archers actually stop firing even with enemies in range if the risk of friendly fire is too great.

[Edi]

Xietor said:
While Dom III generally has a good AI, here are 3 suggestions i have:

1. Having birds as part of PD sucks, but at least make them attack archers. In a game against ulm, it attacks infantry which does zero. Beef up the code a bit and make units that are weak with low attacks and flying pick suitable targets(preferably priests and mages, but that may be overpowered).

DomPPP had fire/attack commanders and fire/attack mages commands and those were massively overpowered. If you're playing Pangaea and your PD has to take the brunt of it, don't expect it to do miracles.

Xietor said:
2. Attack rearmost troops-there should be a way to have fast troops attack the true rearmost troops, not the rear of the attacking infantry.

Gandalf covered this rather well. Also setting your cavalry or other fast units in the flanks and telling them to attack archers can do the job.

Xietor said:
3. Archers:There should be variable settings with archers.

Setting one- maximum kill-shoot enemies that you have best chance to hit, disregard friendly fire casualties

Setting 2- Medium kill-Shoot enemies that you have a good chance of hitting, but hold fire if it is likely you will hit friendly targets.

Setting 3-Safe mode- Shoot only enemy targets that there is a strong chance of hitting without incurring friendly fire casualties. If there is more than a 10 percent chance to hit friendly targets, hold fire or melee.

The current settings seem pretty adequate to me, though having hold and fire would be a welcome addition.

Edi

[NTJedi]

Sombre said:
I'd like to see archers able to hold fire once the enemy army is routed. This would save maybe 20% of friendly fire casualties.

I completely agree... if the enemy army is routed either the archers should stop shooting or the melee should stop chasing the enemy. It's so sad for good melee troops to die from friendly fire when there should obviously be a commander which yells cease firing arrows and chase the enemy off the battlefield.

[Gandalf Parker]

Im trying to remember but isnt there a way to have bodyguard archers fire? I thought I set that up and had the commander up in front-flanks with orders to wait,wait,wait,stay-behind which seemed to achieve the desired result. Lots of volleys and then moving to the back of the war. I cant remember if it was short bow, slingers, or javelin that it worked for.

[Xietor]

Edi,

I do not think having birds attack archers would be any way overpowered. Look at the birds stats. Also, why not have the Pangaea archers fire before the birds attack? The archers usually kill all of their own birds as it is. While I never expect pd to bear the brunt of my defense, I would at least like to see the AI use some intelligence in deciding how to attack. Let archers shoot 1st, then let the birds attack archers. In the description of the birds, it claims they are good at harassing archers, why cannot the AI follow the unit description? The game is a good one, but do not jump on every suggestion as no game is perfect.

Edi-if you like your troops dying to friendly fire, that is ok with me, but for those of us that do not, let us have the option to have our archers not take shots unless they have a clear shot at the enemy.

This game is one of the alltime best. Up there with MOO2.

[Edi]

Xietor, having the harpies attack archers could be very good and I've actually seen that happen even with PD. The problem I was referring to was your comment about attacking commanders and mages. THAT is overpowered.

As for PD, it can't be scripted, controlled or instructed. It will do what it will do and that's the end of it. I do not pretend that it is perfect, it could act more intelligently in many situations, but it is not much more than a minor annoyance to me at least. Yur milaegae may vary depending on a particular type of PD and which nations you most often play.

I don't like friendly fire casualties any more than you do, but they're a fact of life in Dom3. I generally set my archers to fire enemy archers or enemy cavalry with just a few stacks of archers firing at the closest enemies. That helps keep friendly fire casualties down to a manageable level. Another thing that helps is dividing archers into clumps of 15 to 30 depending on the total number of archer in your army, the clump size tends to increase as the army grows).

There is also the matter that once the current target stack of the archers routs, they will independently switch targets to a non-routed stack until all enemies have routed.

Your suggestion is not bad in and of itself, and if you take a look at what I said, I commented that the current system is adequate + hold and fire would be welcome. It's not perfect, but neither is it a pressing problem. Perhaps it will be added and perhaps not. We will see. Don't take fairly mild comments as a personal attack on yourself. They were not intended that way or as a putdown.

Edi

[Xietor]

Nope, I did not view them as a personal attack at all. Just thought you were defending what i see as a flaw. The more people that point these flaws out, the sooner they will get fixed!