Dominions 2. AI. Suggestions, that how to fix it.

Alneyan · #1 November 2nd, 2003, 02:07 AM

I will have a few questions about the AI, as you can see, I have not played much yet.

1) Do we know what are the differences between the different levels? Is it only improved intelligence, or is there a resource/gold/research/magic gem (and so on) bonus the player does not have? Dominions AI may not rely as much on bonuses than the vast majority of AI.

2) For the beta testers mainly: is the AI more efficient in the middle and late game than in the early game? Perhaps the AI does not handle well early conflicts, or has trouble with early expansion (compared to an experienced player who tries to expand as fast as possible), or some other problem. Most AIs tend to have a lot of problems in the early game, and some can even be wiped out without much hassle in the beginning of the game. (And then we would have to wait for the full game to see what is the situation after, say, 100 turns)

3) Is there any chance players could alter/make their own AI files? That would depend obviously on how the AI behaviours are handled. There are games in which the original AI has been improved by players. (Space Empires IV for example)

MStavros · #2 November 2nd, 2003, 02:21 AM

I try to help:

1. The AI won't be smarter @ higher diff. levels, but it will have more design point to spend. I think thats all. Correct me if there is anything more.

2. I am not a beta-tester, but you can find lot of suggestions, that how to upgrade the AI.

3. That would be a good idea, however I don't think that any of us can script a really good AI.
I guess Dominions AI is lot more complicated than the Space Empires IV. AI. [I am not sure..]
However..who knows.

DominionsFan · #3 November 1st, 2003, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by MStavros:
I met with an AI army in my Last game. It had more than 300 units, mostly weaklings of course.
The AI will make bigger armies, however they are weak compared to the human armies.

The AI should be tweaked various ways.

1. The AI is preferring light troops. -> not good. Light troops are very weak compared to the heavy troops. This is why it is so easy to crush the AI.
2. The AI should summon more creatures.
3. The AI should use more assassins.
4. The AI should guard his mages / commanders better.
5. The AI should use better battlefield tactics.

Yup, nice listing. If these things would be tweaked! The AI would roxor!

Mortifer · #4 November 1st, 2003, 05:09 PM

Yet another annoying thing:

I just had a game, and I met with Ulm at turn 12. They had some small, wandering armies.
One of those armies was like this.

-Pretender God [Earth Mother]
-Ulm Cpt
-2 heavy infantry.

I was like wtf!

I mean what the hell is the point in this AI "maneuver"? If we can call this a maneuver at all!
Of course I've killed his pretender.....

[ November 01, 2003, 15:09: Message edited by: Mortifer ]

Alneyan · #5 November 1st, 2003, 06:54 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by MStavros:
I try to help:

1. The AI won't be smarter @ higher diff. levels, but it will have more design point to spend. I think thats all. Correct me if there is anything more.

2. I am not a beta-tester, but you can find lot of suggestions, that how to upgrade the AI.

3. That would be a good idea, however I don't think that any of us can script a really good AI.
I guess Dominions AI is lot more complicated than the Space Empires IV. AI. [I am not sure..]
However..who knows.

Thanks for the answers! For the second point, it was not quite a suggestion, but rather a question to see if the AI was merely having troubles in the early game (which is common in other games), or if it was... "generalized". Being attacked by the God alone in the late game would be a bit harder to explain than at turn 12.

I cannot say for sure about the AIs, it depends on the fields I would believe. (You don't have to handle colonization, construction is much easier in Dominions, but you have to program commanders, spell casting and so on)

Aristoteles · #6 November 1st, 2003, 07:30 PM

I really would like to see some comments from the developers. What is their opinion about the ideas & suggestions?

[ November 01, 2003, 17:30: Message edited by: Aristoteles ]

LordArioch · #7 November 1st, 2003, 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by MStavros:

1. The AI is preferring light troops. -> not good. Light troops are very weak compared to the heavy troops. This is why it is so easy to crush the AI.
2. The AI should summon more creatures.
3. The AI should use more assassins.
4. The AI should guard his mages / commanders better.
5. The AI should use better battlefield tactics.

In my normal AI experience (mostly against Mictlan)

1. The AI does seem to overuse light units. IMO, the best way to fix this would be to better balance light troops. AI did a decent job of throwing in jaguar warriors/sun warriors. And Mictlan doesnt really have heavy troops.
2. I've seen the AI cast more blood summons than I have. Mictlan never seems to move without having a few fiends of darkness and assorted demons about. I don't find most summons more than a decent way to spend gems anyway, the low level ones usually don't turn the tide of battles (anymore)
3. The AI assasinated my pretender and a researching mage and made about 4+ other attempts. If anything he should use assasains less since they usually aren't well equipped enough. (pretender died due to bug)
4. This has always been true, but at least removal of attack commanders makes it harder to abuse. Be nice if any commander got 1-2 troops always set to guard. I started doing this to my mages when he started assasinating them.
5. His battlefield tatics aren't ingenious but I have yet to see anything stupid from the AI here. Usually just a general troops go forward archers shoot kind of thing. Not wonderful but general purpose and usually pretty effective.