New version issue - defenders attacking

[Beeg]

Post deleted by Beeg

[Pyros]

I did some more testing on the AI delay/defend mechanism and judging from the results (data of several generated battles) I concluded that in version 1.0 approximately the 60% of units had assigned as reaction turn the value 99, while in version 2.0 none unit had assigned as reaction turn the value 99.

More precisely:

In the version 1.0 the 60% of AI units had assigned as reaction the turn 99 and the rest had assigned a number of turns that was around the 50% of game length

In version 2.0 all the units got a reaction turn around (+/-10%) the 50% of game length (their gravity center was around 50% of game length), and NONE unit had assigned the reaction value of 99.

Now, if you generate a battle with 5-6 turns in version 2.0 and you examine the after-battle "view map" you get the wrong impression that everyone is on the move from beginning... while on the other hand if you generate the same battle on version 1.0 you get the feeling that almost everyone is holding ground.

cheers,
Pyros

[DRG]

It's on the to-do list.

Don

[Uncle_Joe]

I cant follow all the ins and outs and implications, so whats the final story? Is it a problem when playing Quick Battles or only Campaigns or both?

Thanx!

[WBWilder]

A lot of writing, questions and answers. What I've come up with out of all this is that the AI side, in a delay or defend scenario will observe reaction turns with the following exception.

If the reaction turn is 98, they won't move at all, no matter what.

If set to 99, the units will move on the reaction turn given them, or if an objective hex is taken by the human player.

Reaction turns and waypoints are important tools in scenario design and in version 1.2 worked pretty good for me. Entebbe, for example, all depends on timing and the units seem to do the right thing, both in waypoints and reaction turns. I hope the same is true with 2.0

Am I correct?

WB

[Double_Deuce]

I think the confusion started when people started noticing that units when purchased in the editor did NOT get assigned the reaction 99 automatically. Something we all because accustomed to. Since the addition of the reaction 98, as a designer you now HAVE to manually assign reaction time to ALL units during the creation process.

In auto-generated battles, the AI assigns reaction times automatically and they seem to be adjusted based on overall game turns. The problem may be in shorter games where even during delay/defend battles the AI seems to have units jump the gun and displace too early. In delay/defend battles the AI should probably be more hesitant to move units into counterattack mode.

IIRC this issue is being looked into to see exactly whats going on.

[DRG]

The issue is on the to do list when I can regain contact with Andy. The automatic "99" reaction has been lost for AI controlled defenders and that was the one where they would hold in place until a V hex was captured and then they *may* or *may not* react to that ( It's a random factor that is checked each turn for each formation after V hexes are captured). 98 was introduced so scenario designers could enter that reaction turn and lock down specific troops that would NOT , under any circumstances, react to V hex capture. 98 was meant to supplement 99 not eliminate it but the automatic 99 has disappeared.

In both generated games and scenarios ,when the AI's units are deployed, random defending units would , and are, sometimes assigned reaction turns that are based on a random number of game turns. These units are there to keep people on their toes to ensure things are kept interesting . What used to happen was you would get, for example, 85% - 90% of the AI's defending force set to 99 reaction and 10% - 15% set to a random number. Now 99 has gone missing and scenarios, for example now set NO reaction turn to 85% - 90% of your AI force which means they are going to start "patrolling aggressively" right off the bat. With generated battles it depends on the length of the game but typically the random reaction will be 50% of the game length give or take 25% either way and that will be given to roughly 80% of the AI force ( I've dug into this enough know what the problem is not get exact stats ).However, as there is no "99" any more there are WAY too many AI defender units that will just start advancing rather than defending. In scenarios you can control this by setting the reaction turns manually. In generated games where the AI is the defender you have no control.

When Andy gets back on line I can discuss how we are going to deal with this and I will keep you informed. For now I would avoid generated games where the AI is the defending unless you like the idea of attacking into a counterattack and for scenarios designed with Ver 2.0 I would check that every AI defending formation has a reaction turn ( unless you DO want them to start advancing right away) 99 will randomly react to V hex capture and 98 will lock them in their foxholes.