Going from Normal AI to Impossible AI...

[NTJedi]

Loren said:

Yeah--I've taken multiple air-breathing items off the AI in a current game. There are no water races in the game!

I would be happy to organize a complete shortlist of AI improvements, if KO and JK have an interest for improving the AI.

[Gandalf Parker]

Well I know that I have asked for such a list so that the modders and mappers could improve things. But it would tend to be a very different list.

For KO/JK the AI is linear in one section of code. It tends to operate in general rules without alot of "if" code. So it would be something like purchase infantry before cavalry instead of specifying IF Ulm then purchase specific unit before other specific unit. Or consider xxxxxx spell better than xxxxxx spell but not IF pythium or lines like not to cast xxxx spell on xxxxxx specific unit.

But for modding and mapping purposes the specific failures of specific nations can be addressed. Such as the fact that Mictlan tends to kill itself off early in solo games by not providing for its own dominion can be fixed by setting specific pretenders and specific scales.

[Loren]

Gandalf Parker said:
Well I know that I have asked for such a list so that the modders and mappers could improve things. But it would tend to be a very different list.

For KO/JK the AI is linear in one section of code. It tends to operate in general rules without alot of "if" code. So it would be something like purchase infantry before cavalry instead of specifying IF Ulm then purchase specific unit before other specific unit. Or consider xxxxxx spell better than xxxxxx spell but not IF pythium or lines like not to cast xxxx spell on xxxxxx specific unit.

But for modding and mapping purposes the specific failures of specific nations can be addressed. Such as the fact that Mictlan tends to kill itself off early in solo games by not providing for its own dominion can be fixed by setting specific pretenders and specific scales.

Assuming the code tolerates it I would think allowing modders to raise/lower the priority given various things should help with AI tweaking.

[NTJedi]

Gandalf Parker said:
Well I know that I have asked for such a list so that the modders and mappers could improve things. But it would tend to be a very different list.

For KO/JK the AI is linear in one section of code. It tends to operate in general rules without alot of "if" code. So it would be something like purchase infantry before cavalry instead of specifying IF Ulm then purchase specific unit before other specific unit. Or consider xxxxxx spell better than xxxxxx spell but not IF pythium or lines like not to cast xxxx spell on xxxxxx specific unit.

But for modding and mapping purposes the specific failures of specific nations can be addressed. Such as the fact that Mictlan tends to kill itself off early in solo games by not providing for its own dominion can be fixed by setting specific pretenders and specific scales.

Sounds like it would be easy to stop the AI from sending pretenders into the arena death match since they have a unique tag.

[HoneyBadger]

One really easy (I think...) stopgap solution to the bad AI sp problem would be if we were able to assign greater or less points to all players at the beginning of the game, and then ofcourse switch them to computer controlled-this would also be an interesting handicap feature for MP games.

[hunt11]

though this would only help bless nations, a mod that made all the computers holy units blessed all the time could help make the AI tougher

[capnq]

HoneyBadger said: One really easy (I think...) stopgap solution to the bad AI sp problem would be if we were able to assign greater or less points to all players at the beginning of the game, and then ofcourse switch them to computer controlled-this would also be an interesting handicap feature for MP games.

What do you mean, "if"? The AI difficulty setting, which affects how many points it gets to design its pretender, can be set individually for each AI nation, and a human-built pretender switched to computer-controlled doesn't have to spend all of the assigned points.

The only complication in using this in multiplayer is enforcing the point limits.

[Renojustin]

NT, I think an AI Improvement Shortlist is a fantastic idea.