Underestimate the AI: Reap the consequences.

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Alexi:
"He already gets to pick what spells to cast in battle without having to script them, which is enough of an advantage as it is."

umm, if you don't script your casters, they use the same combat AI as the player AI..

No, the computer AI's spellcasting is slightly different: You have to pick what spells you want to cast, or they won't get cast: The AI doesn't, he can decide dynamically during the combat what to cast.

[Stormbinder]

Originally posted by Norfleet:

quote:

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Originally posted by Alexi:
"He already gets to pick what spells to cast in battle without having to script them, which is enough of an advantage as it is."

umm, if you don't script your casters, they use the same combat AI as the player AI..

No, the computer AI's spellcasting is slightly different: You have to pick what spells you want to cast, or they won't get cast: The AI doesn't, he can decide dynamically during the combat what to cast.

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ROFL! And you consider that to be an advantage??? Unless you are newbie or very stupid, your scripted spells should be much more efficint than whatever AI will come up with dynamically. Also if you set your mages to general "spells", the same "dynamic" AI will work for you, so you have exactly the same option as AI. Next time try to think, for a change, before you post something.

[Cainehill]

Originally posted by Alexi:
"He already gets to pick what spells to cast in battle without having to script them, which is enough of an advantage as it is."

umm, if you don't script your casters, they use the same combat AI as the player AI..

I don't think so. Look at what happens when you attack a stack of holy mages with an army that contains undead. Badda bing! Lots and lots of banishments going off.

A human-played army would have to first go through its pre-scripted spells, regardless of the fact that many of them would be near-useless (certainly by comparison with Banishment), before finally settling down to kick some undead butt.

This seems to me to indicate that the AI has "more dynamic" AI, and it certainly isn't always a hindrance.

[Lex]

if you blindly send your casters into combat without knowing what you're fighting, and plannig ahead for it by setting custom script, then its your fault that they didn't cast banishment or whatever would have been better. That's the purpose of scripts: to react in a strategic way to what you're facing. But don't complain that you don't have access to dynamic AI, cos you do: just get rid of your scripts.

Its a question of micromanaging your casters so they always do the right thing for the right opponents (if you didn't know that you where facing an army of undead, your combat scripts are the least of your problems), or putting your faith in the combat AI to chose the right spells and forgetting about strategic combat spells.

Maybe the third option is for Dom3 to have the option to SAVE scripts. That way you could load different scripts prior to entering a battle/war without having to redo them individually each time for each caster (which can be very tedious)

Edit: I think it's quite funny that the AI actually "corrects" your scripts dynamically during battle to stop your casters from doing really stupid things (like casting a spell that is already in effect, or that simply wouldn't have any effect, or that would have too big an effect and would simply waste gems). This same dynamic AI also decides for you when to use gems to bring down your fatigue and keep you conscious when your scripts where a bit too much for the caster's level. All-in-all, I think the AI is alot smarter then most players. But its a bit much when you expect it to override your "strategic" orders when it thinks your combat strategy stinks against a particular opponent. Next thing you'll be asking for the AI to write you strategy guides as well.

[ August 02, 2004, 05:50: Message edited by: Alexi ]

[Lex]

role play for two seconds: you are god, and your generals just prayed to you before marching into enemy province for battle. They ask you for guidance. You can either give them scripted orders that they should follow, or you leave them to decided themselves what to do. Trust your generals, or use your awesome power to give them divine orders. Now, what kind of God would you be if you told your generals to follow the same orders over and over again, reguardless of what they're facing? And if you don't know what they'll be facing, then you aren't doing a very good job at being omniscient! In which case they'll be better off reacting on their own then following your generic orders.

[Stormbinder]

Originally posted by Cainehill:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Alexi:
"He already gets to pick what spells to cast in battle without having to script them, which is enough of an advantage as it is."

umm, if you don't script your casters, they use the same combat AI as the player AI..

I don't think so. Look at what happens when you attack a stack of holy mages with an army that contains undead. Badda bing! Lots and lots of banishments going off.

A human-played army would have to first go through its pre-scripted spells, regardless of the fact that many of them would be near-useless (certainly by comparison with Banishment), before finally settling down to kick some undead butt.

This seems to me to indicate that the AI has "more dynamic" AI, and it certainly isn't always a hindrance.

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Yes, but your army would do the excatly the same if you scripted you mages to "cast spells". Or leave than at "none", which would be the same. So you have an option of archiveing the same result, if you choose to.

[ August 02, 2004, 06:21: Message edited by: Stormbinder ]

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Stormbinder:
Yes, but your army would do the excatly the same if you scripted you mages to "cast spells". Or leave than at "none", which would be the same. So you have an option of archiveing the same result, if you choose to.

Not quite: Also, there's one key difference: YOU, the person who actually runs the army, don't get to pick the spells, where the AI, which also happens to be the player, DOES.

[Lex]

Commander: "Hey Mage-Priest, your combat script orders you to be casting Thunder Strike right about now."

Mage-Priest: "But there's a hundred or so undead out there. I should be casting Banishment instead!"

Commander: "Listen you ungrateful AI, who dropped out of the game and made YOU God?! Just follow the orders!"

ahh.. you know you're a geek when you're making bad game jokes at 3am

[Yossar]

A bit off topic but another case of underestimating the AI. Playing Multiplayer with independent strength 7 and very difficult research, and BE Ermor goes AI on turn 2 or 3. By turn 14 Ermor hasn't left his castle. His army is slowly growing but I figured it might just be someone stuck summoning spectral velites. I figured the AI had given up and so I attack his capital. But to my surprise he has troops patrolling the province and I lose. He then counterattacks on the next two turns. I guess I should have expected that but how can you go thirteen turns without taking a single province, even on independent strength 7??? None of them had anything too powerful in them.

[Stormbinder]

Originally posted by Norfleet:

quote:

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Originally posted by Stormbinder:
Yes, but your army would do the excatly the same if you scripted you mages to "cast spells". Or leave than at "none", which would be the same. So you have an option of archiveing the same result, if you choose to.

Not quite: Also, there's one key difference: YOU, the person who actually runs the army, don't get to pick the spells, where the AI, which also happens to be the player, DOES.

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Norfleet, you are really dumb. There is only *one* tactical dinamic AI in Dom2 program. You are confusuing it with strategic AI (your opponent).

You, as a player, have an option to use this dynamic tactical AI routine at any time, by scripting you mages to "spells". Your computer opponent *always* use the same tactical AI routine that you have access to. So if you script mages to spell, the *same* dynamic AI alhoritms will control *both* sides, with possible very rare exception that is the topic of this thread. But in any case the spell selection will use the same dinamic AI routine for both you and your opponent. Got it?

[ August 02, 2004, 09:08: Message edited by: Stormbinder ]