Edwin P.

AI Handicaps Suggestions 1. Suggestion: Add #LEVEL and #AI parameters to events. Why? I would like to trigger specific events only if the Level was Expert and the AI was Allied. Example 1: If AI Level is Expert and AI is Allied then TRIGGER = 10 that Turkey joins Allies if Moscow is controlled by Axis. I do not want this to happen if the human player is Allied. Simarily, to recreate diplomatic sucess without chit buying I may want to add an event to have Turkey join the Allies 5% of the time; 1 in 20 games, when the AI is the Allied Player, and 5% of the time have Turkey join the Axis when the AI is Axis. This would be a one time check when France surrenders (for Turkey joining Axis AI) or the USA enters the war (for Turkey joining Allied AI). I can do this now in the script editor but I must write specific events for the Allied and Axis player and remember to activate or deactivate these scripts, which in turn reminds me what to prepare for as a Human player. Example 2: Unit Script - Allied AI gets Pacific Fleet when Japan agrees to withdraw from China. Trigger = 10%, only for Allied AI and Level = Expert. ; #UNIT= Units to be created as well as a name (optional). ; Format: unit_id [strength] [experience] [name] #UNIT= 11[10][0][uSS Lexington] #UNIT= 9 [10][0][uSS Arizona] #UNIT= 9 [10][0][uSS Maryland] [ April 14, 2006, 10:58 AM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ]

1. Suggestion: Add #CONDITION Parameters to Annexation, Territory and Popup Events. Why? I would like to create an popup, annexation and territory events that are triggered if a country surrendered. Currently these events are linked to a date not a condition.

Allied Norwegian Strategy I would like to see the Allies take the northern port of Axis conquered Norway if it is unoccupied. This disrupts the MPP convoy route from Norway to Germany at minimal risk to the allied forces.

1. Diplomacy Strategy. As the Allied AI in the Med is relatively inactive - Try purchasing 5 Diplomacy Chits in Spain with Germany (25%) and 2 to 5 with Italy (10% to 25%). Spain just may join the Axis, if So then take Gibraltar and Sail the Spanish fleet into the Atlantic. Perhaps take Protugal on the first turn after you DOW Russia. You can also try this strategy with Turkey! 2. Yes, a help button and or pop-up box for research areas would be useful on the research screen. I too read the manual to see what the difference was between Production, Industrial and Infrastructure.

HC is hard at work improving the AI for the 1st patch, and so I thought that it would be nice to place AI notes/suggestions in a single thread for him to consider. Diplomacy - A Spanish strategy for the Axis I can script this in the current AI for the Axis: 10% (1 in 10 games) Move Berlin Corps to Square XX,YY. IF German Corps on Square XX,YY and France Surrendered and Benelux Surrendered and AI LEVEL=3 (so it executes this strategy at Intermediate and higher level AI settings) THEN (all of these occur in 1 turn!) a. Germany - Purchase 1 Diplomacy Chit Spain b. Germany - Purchase 1 Diplomacy Chit Spain c. Germany - Purchase 1 Diplomacy Chit Spain d. Germany - Purchase 1 Diplomacy Chit Spain e. Germany - Purchase 1 Diplomacy Chit Spain f. Italy - Purchase 1 Diplomacy Chit Spain g. Italy - Purchase 1 Diplomacy Chit Spain Thus Once France surrenders, Germany will purchase 5 diplomacy chits targeting Spain (25%) and Italy 2 (10%). It would be easier if the diplomacy AI script included a parameter for the number of AI chits to purchase at one time on a single turn, so one script could be written instead of 5 for Germany. DEFAULT AI STRATEGY FOR GERMANY: The DEFAULT AXIS Diplomatic Strategy kicks in STARTING in 1942 and ONLY against Spain, with a 25% Germany of purchasing one chit for a 5% chance of influencing Spain. I don't see this as being an effective strategy for use at Intermediate and Expert AI level. Am I correct? Of course, if Spain Joins Axis and Russian activation is below XX% then the Axis needs a planning script to take Gibraltar and Garrison it, and after Axis is at War with Russia the Axis AI; if it controls Spain, should conquer Portugal so that Russian forces suffer a morale penalty. [ April 14, 2006, 08:23 AM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ]

Update: Figured out how to link AI Scripts - its a shortcut, but it works. It appears that I can use #ACTIVATE_POSITION to link the activation of several scripts. How so? If AI moves Unit to XX,YY then that can serve as an activation trigger for Planning, Research, Purchase and Diplomacy Scripts. Move unit to a different tile and it can activate a different set of scripts. The key is to have the linked scripts all refer to a common occupied tile. This should work assuming that the AI does not move another unit to that tile or another tile used to activate these scripts on its own. Example: 10% Planning Script moves Allied Corps to Tile XX,YY (ie Tile SW of Scarpa Flow). If Corps is in this tile this this activates Script to research Bombers x3, activates Script to purchase Bombers x3 and activates script to research Long Range x2. I will try it tonight and see if it works, but it should from what the comments in the templates say. [ April 13, 2006, 12:40 PM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ]

Played through first game, and although Axis won the game was far more interesting and fluid than SC1. As for the AI, I have seen areas where it can be improved and look forward to trying out the editor, scripting and playtesting my scripts this weekend. Perhaps Battlefront will set up a Stategic Command Scripting topic? [ April 13, 2006, 07:11 AM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ]

Finally downloaded at 5AM, Fully downloaded in under 10min - 170KBs [ April 13, 2006, 07:10 AM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ]

Broadband Connection 1.5MB DSL (Tested Download Speed last week) Receiving SC2 at: 19.0 Kbs, 59%

Yes, it is slow.

Yes, I too would like to see a SC2 type game on the American Civil War based - with a Strategic Level Game and Operational Level Battles.

Yes, according to my understanding of the scripts you can do that.

I would like to see HQ units with a bit of chrome - support for a picture of the commanding general in the empty box on the lower right hand side of the screen and/or a randomly selected quote (of x characters or less) from that general obtained from a text file accessible by the editor. Dwight Eisenhower </font> “Pessimism never won any battle.”</font>“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”</font>George S. Patton </font>"I would rather have a good plan today than a perfect plan two weeks from now.”</font>“The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.”</font>“Nobody ever defended anything successfully, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.”</font>“I am a soldier, I fight where I am told, and I win where I fight.”</font> [ April 12, 2006, 09:27 AM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ]

1. Is there a greater variety of diplomacy scripts in the full version of the game? Or are the ones in the demo campaign folder judged to be the most effective? 2. Has a diplomacy script command line that allows for the purchase of more than diplomacy chit at a time been considered? Example: Diplomacy=3 (to purchase 3 diplomacy chit) Diplomacy=2 (to purchase 2 diplomacy chits) In playing the demo it seemed as if purchasing only one chit to influence a country was rarely effective. Am I incorrect in this assumption? [ April 12, 2006, 12:38 AM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ]

The question is how to best avoid the UK DOW USA exploit, where Allied player moves US corps out of Washington, then DOW and Invades. Taking Washington in one turn and gaining 3400+ MPPS Option 1 (FAVORED BY HC & BLASHY (Blashy except for Italy))- Do not allow Major Powers to attack Neutral Major Country Allies. Germany can't DOW Italy and UK can't DOW USA or Russia. Option 2 (Favored by Exel)- Do not allow Garrison of Major Country Neutral Nation Capital to move Option 3 (Favored by Edwin) - Have Spain, Turkey, Bulgaria, Iraq, Hungary and Vichy France join the Axis and activate American Partisans Option 4 - Don't Allow UK to DOW USA, do allow Germany to DOW Italy and UK to DOW Russia. Option 5 - Activate American Partisans; pre and post surrender, and have USA capital move from City to City, thus requiring UK to send 4 corps to USA. Option 6 - Enlarge Map by 2 tiles and have USA capital move West to Chicago or Pittsburgh if Washington is captured. [ April 11, 2006, 03:40 PM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ]

There will be an allied invasion, but in the scripts it is coded into the seperate allied and UK scripts. I would like to have a chance for an Operation Torch and have the UK and USA launch combined operations without it being hard coded into the scripts of both countries. That means that if USA decides on option A, then UK will decide on option A also. PS: The scripting commands are quite powerful as is. Have a look at them. This suggestion would just make them more powerful.

Idea: A global variable script runs before any diplomacy, production, research or planning scripts run. This would allow the AI to implement a coherent strategy by activating different related scripts. Example: Global Variable Folder { #NAME= German Sub_warfare #Trigger=10 (10% to activate) #Level=2 #Global=10 The #Global is what the Global Variable is set to. Acceptable Values 1 to 9999. The global variable can be accessed by related allied nations. USA and UK scripts can both be activated from a common variable. This allows the USA and UK to pursue a cooordinated strategy to ensure that both nations; for example, invade France at the same time. #DATE=1939/07/01 #SUBMARINE_CONDITION=[X][2,5] Unit typem, Country and number of (Min, Max) units of specificed type that country X has. You may not want to activate the Sub_warfare option if all German subs have been sunk or the UK navy is too large. #TYPE_CONDITION=X[unit type- air, land or naval][min,max] This condition refers to the total number of spotted and not destroyed units of a particular type - Air, Land or Naval for a particular country. You may not want to launch a Battle for the Atlantic if the enemy navy is too large. } Then in the production script you would have a line that reads: #Global_Activation=10 This production script would only activate as long as the Global Variable was equal to 10. In the Research script you would have a line that reads: #Global_Activation=10 This research script would only activate if the Global Variable was equal to 10. Of course, it would need more variables - activation, cancelations, date, etc. but just an idea for linking scripts. ---------------------------- [ April 11, 2006, 02:31 PM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ]

I would add this feature via the editor, along with having other nations join the Axis as a counter. It should be noted that if the UK conquers the USA it does not gain the advantage of USA's increasing industrialization and American production is reduced so that over the long term the allied player acutually loses MPPs from this strategy in addition to losing any American units that are on the map or due to arrive. Unless the UK player can quickly beat the Germany with the plunder he is sunk, and quickly beating Germany will not be easy if Spain, Turkey et al join the Axis and the UK has force pool limits. [ April 11, 2006, 06:58 AM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ]

Q1. Can the order of research techs be changed to insure that funds are avaiable for researching techs of the highest priority? (I assume that each line is read sequentially) Example: I want to move #Industrial before #Infantry. #NAME= Germany Research (1939 - ) #POPUP= #FLAG= 1 #TYPE= 2 #COUNTRY_ID= 5 #TRIGGER= 100 #LEVEL= 0 #INDUSTRIAL= 25 [1] #INFANTRY= 50 [1] #HEAVY_TANKS= 25 [1] etc...... Q2. It appears that I can change research scripts based on which countries are activated. Thus I can have the German AI switch scripts once the USSR enters the war. Am I correct? #VARIABLE_CONDITION= Under what variable conditions will this event occur ; Format: country_id [political_alignment] [min_activation%] [surrendered_flag] Q3. Which scripts are processed first? Production, Diplomacy, Research or Planning? [ April 10, 2006, 09:13 PM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ]

I just tested the UK conquest of the USA and the UK appears to receive only plunder no production MPPs each turn. Why is that? Does this address this exploit? (UPDATE: REALIZED THAT THIS Reference to USA production refers to the CONVOY ROUTE, not turn by turn production) Idea: Perhaps a simple way to deal with this exploit is to have neutral Spain, Turkey, Iraq, Bulgaria, Hungary and Vichy France join the Axis alliance if UK DOW USA via simple event scripts. Then no sane Allied player would DOW the USA as it would 1) reduce Russian war readiness and 2) greatly increase German MPP production. Reasoning: Turkey joins because the Allies are greatly weakened without the support of the USA. ---------"Turkey joins the Axis to protect itself from British aggression." Iraq revolts against the British. --------"Iraq joins the Axis Alliance to guarantee its independence." Bulgaria joins to protect itself from Turkey. ---------"The King of Bulgaria announces that his country has joined the Axis to protect his nation against Turkish aspirations." Hungary joins to protect itself from Bulgaria. ---------"Hungary joins the Axis, to better protect Hungarians residing in Bulgaria and Romania." Vichy France joins to blame its defeat on the scheming British. ---------"Vichy France joins the Axis, for the British have betrayed the Americans as they did the French." Spain joins to protect itself from the British and reclaim Gibraltar. ---------"Franco proclaims that Spain has joined the Axis to reclaim Gibraltar from the untrustworthy British." Then again, not allowing neutral major nation allies to be attacked might be simpler. Perhaps it could be implemented with a check box so that it can be turned on or off by nation. [ April 11, 2006, 07:01 AM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ]

Don't be too rash, HC. Perhaps not allowing the garrison in the Capital of a Major Neutral nation to be moved would do a lot to end the exploit. I don't see a problem with Italy being attacked by Germany as the Allied Counter is strong and it makes for an interesting game. As for Russia being DOW by UK, realistically it can't be done. The UK can't reach Moscow, and if it did the capital would move. As for the US being conquered by the UK, the only reason that it fell in one turn was because it moved its garrison out of Washington D.C. or the Allied player disbanded it. My suggestion is: a. Corps unit in major neutral nation captial can't move until nation is at war. And/Or b. Add Partisan Unit Event to USA Scripts. #NAME= American Partisans ; #POPUP= Americans rise up to fight! ; #FLAG= 1 ; #TYPE= 2 ; #COUNTRY_ID= 3 ; #TRIGGER= 50 (50% per turn of American Partisan Unit) ; #PARTISAN_FLAG= 2 (Partisans appear after surrender!) ; #ADD_UNIT= 1 ; #DISRUPTION_RANGE= 5 The UK conquers the USA but unless they garrison most of the country they will have gotten only plunder from it, no MPPs due to partisan activity, and given the unit limits that will be hard to do. [ April 10, 2006, 06:07 PM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ]

You don't have to disband the USA garrison to conquer USA. The Garrison moves to invade Canada once you DOW USA. But disbanding the USA Garrison does make it easier, a lot easier. Ugh - a rule presents itself - you can't disband the units of a major neutral such as Russia, UK or Italy. Better idea - If you attempt to disband a unit of a neutral major nation; USA, Russia, or Italy, or move a unit of a major neutral nation out of its capital their is a 80% the nation becomes totally AI controlled until it enters the war and and its war readiness declines by 20%. Example: UK Player attempts to move or disband Corps guarding Washington D.C when USA is neutral. Their is a 80% that this action causes USA to become immediately AI controlled (i.e. units does not disband) and reduces its war readiness by 20%. Or perhaps, if USA surrenders to UK then Russian war readiness declines to 20% pro Axis. I wonder how HC will handle this exploit? So far, I see it as only a problem with the USA, not with Russia or Italy. [ April 10, 2006, 04:49 PM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ]

Imagine this conspiracy theory: Hotheads in Whitehall decide to sink an American Oceanliner using a captured German U-Boat and blame it on the Axis. The American press finds out about the plot and the American people are in an uproar. Reminds me of the US Warship - U.S.S. Maine - that blew up and started the Spanish American war. "The explosion was a precipitating cause of the Spanish-American War that began in April 1898 and which used the rallying cry, "Remember the Maine, to hell with Spain." At the time, it was used as pretext for war by those who were already inclined to go to war with Spain." -Wikipedia

Interesting. I wonder if the UK could use this to sway Italy to its side? RE: IRAQ 1. 1st Invasion - Iraq Garrison of Baghdad leaves city to approach French unit advancing on Mine. Baghdad falls 2. 2nd Invasion - French and UK forces advance in Baghdad. Baghdad garrison stays put. Uk forces seize Basra and Iraqi Mines. Question - In real game at Level=4 will Axis keep Corps in Baghdad if Allies attack? or will it operate Air Unit to Basra to garrison it until a corps can be built to guard it. NOTE: I can't send the UK navy to the Persian Gulf! Its too bad that the Red Sea to Atlantic Loop does not give a player a choice - ie go to Atlantic or go to Persian Gulf. [ April 10, 2006, 04:26 PM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ]

In my view these "Crazy Ivan" strategies should be allowed, but the AI should be improved to handle them. HC has indicated that he will do so. If I tried these "Crazy Ivan" strategies against a human I would be toast. I would like to see the AI toast me too if I used them against the AI. Idea: AI does not react to Crazy Ivan strategies at AI Level = 1 when it is supposed to be a push-over. This would be a good example of how higher level AIs can improve with scripted routines. At AI Level =2 the AI response improves but is not at 100%. At AI Level =3 the AI responds to these "Crazy Ivan" strategies at 100%. Example: UK attacks USA Level = 1 - Normal USA response to invasion Level = 2 - USA produces units Level = 3 - USA Defends Washington (Garrison Script Activated) Level = 4 - USA conquers Canada, then Iceland and then Invades Ireland followed by United Kingdom Example: Germany Attacks Neutral Italy. Level = 1 - Normal Italian Response to Invasion Level = 2 - Italy Produces Units Level = 3 - Italy Defends Rome Level = 4 - Italy Calls in Reinforcements from Libya and UK Corps guard Italian Cities in Libya. UK Ships move to blockade Med against movement of German transports [ April 10, 2006, 01:48 PM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ]