On the AI

[Sapare]

To my surprise the AI has actully improved(if a lot of a bit is difficul to say, AI just simply can handle some sitersations better then others and as such sometimes shines as brilliant and sometimes as rather confused).

I like the changes to the AI but I wanted to mention my finds on quirks of the AI as I find them.

The first being. It is very stupid when it comes to the relation to ships/ports and ground units endangering those ports.

If you have a unit directly adjecent it will remove its ship as to no have it get sunk, but if your unit is but a field away it just doesnt care.(my example is this. Finish units moved into range of Kronstad (north ofcourse) port, bombed the enemy destroyer(which should not have been there at any rate. AI removes the destroyed but also all units infront of me(to defend the city proper itself, reasonable). I move one field foward (uncontested) and find myself so lucky as to find the russian Battleship laying in port, taking it down to 5 hp from 10.(Which ofcourse is a lot.

The other find of weird AI being, it is super zealus when it comes to upgrading cities with anti-air, even upgrading compleetly surrounded viliages which are sure to fall the coming turn.

Both of these are if human is playing German, as that is what I am currently playing.

[Hubert Cater]

Thanks Sapare, I'll be making some adjustments.

[Big Al]

Glad to hear the A.I. is doing what's intended.

[Sapare]

Another note on the AI,(though to part this is probably caused by the horible state the Russian army is in atm) after having captured Lenningrad and slowly pushing the AI in the eastern forests it seems to have decided to move no less then 5 HQs directly adjecent to each other for no reason, it just hoggs so many HQ in that rather unimportant area.(you would assume he would use them in Stalingrad, where he had two)

But again, that is prob more of a specific oddity caused by the sitersation.

On a more legid problem. The AI is WAY to aggresive with its airplanes. Going so far as to bomb(or trying to) with each of its fighter units.

Which is not only ineffective, but also super annoying because i keep having to watch my AI enemy bomb my units(and them getting hit more often then me) with 20ish different plane units(including statigic bombers).

Not saying it should never do this as there are some indepth reasons for why to just bomb with all you have, but it seems to do this every turn, which I immagen is a huge drain on his economy.

[Hubert Cater]

Hi Sapare,

Can you send me a saved turn where the HQ units are bunching up? Sometimes this happens where there are not enough specific plans for the AI and it just assigns all HQs to the few plans it has which can usually be corrected with some new scripts for such a situation or it could be something else.

Either way a saved turn will help us narrow it down, send to support@furysoftware.com

Thanks,

Hubert

[Hubert Cater]

Can you send me a turn where the enemy air units are attacking more than desired, a turn where I can hit 'End Turn' and then watch the AI perform its moves with this happening is ideal.

Thanks,

Hubert

[HardRock]

Juheepers...I got to start all over on Normal difficulty <cough> beginners which btw is mislabeled ..I'm no beginner after 40 + years:)

It's just a 10% decrease in MMP for intermediate correct? apparently I need that 10%.

Playing Germans at intermediate I just feel stalled unit/mmp wise in May 1942. True I did take Leningrad. But stalled at Rostov and way short of Moscow (didn't even get Orel)

So with AI being limited to being AI, I am pretty impressed with the AI changes. At least no more charge of the light brigade by them. True they still feel compelled to attack at crummy odds in spots but I can handle that:) But I am impressed with the concentration of attack and reasonable withdrawals.

[HardRock]

Actually I also noticed Russian HQs bunching up in the same area(I took Leningrad and they were in the forest protecting the next city east). I just figured they had so many they could use them as units to defend:)

I also see lots of Russian air attacking anything. And they seem to have a lot compared to my paltry air playing at intermediate.

[Hubert Cater]

Glad to hear you are enjoying the AI HardRock and I'll run some tests today to see why the HQs are possibly bunching up... this usually only happens when the AI is down to a few OFFENSIVE/DEFENSIVE or GARRISON plans and as a result they don't spread out as much as they should. Adding in a few extra plans should do the trick.

[Big Al]

What year is it? If its 1941 the A.I. has tons of defensive plans with HQ support.

[Hubert Cater]

Just reviewing my tests and it does indeed just look like a case of the AI having more than enough HQs so that in some areas there are more than one.

It seems however that despite this the AI has spread out its HQs so that each plan has at least one HQ with those extra HQs simply being assigned to an existing plan.

My suspicion is that it might just look off as this is probably the first campaign where so many HQs are in play all at once.

[Sapare]

Sorry I never send any turns, I am terrible at doing so because I tend to be 20 turns after the event I am talking about and don't tend to keep any turns behind. And I think the HQ thing is a specific problem with russia losing leningrad and just not getting good supply in the forest to the right of it, as such trying to compensate for it with more HQ's. The airaplane thing is really any turn, even if you play russia and your enemy is german he often uses med bombers to bomb units which would die much easier with normal attacks(often cut off or such). I'll see that if I get into the game again I'll find a specific turn for it. BUt mostly it is that I think the AI likes to use ALL of its units, no matter how good or bad a target the bombers have, if they got a target they take it.(keep in mind, I don't have AA or even sometimes no fighters, but med bombers are seriously not effective against anything less then an HQ or tank unit.)

Also, general advice, I think the AI should be MORE agressive on HQ's. I like that it tries to finish off units, but sometimes it pulls in a tank adjecent to a detatchment that is at 5 strengh and an HQ at 10 strengh, and it goes for killing the detachment rather then hurting my HQ badly and destroying my whole supply line.

I was playing on beginner(0/0) because i don't like unfair advantages to the AI(or me) and I think the AI needs to be a bit more organized with their supply(And most importantly keeping their HQ's out of my range, I killed at least two HQ's in 1941 and at least two tank corps) and not getting their units cut off, because while they start pretty powerful they kinda lose most of their steam by september 1914 and I stoped there.

[Hubert Cater]

Hi Sapare,

Thanks for the feedback and I'll see what I can do as often it is tricky to get the AI to cooperate without it then getting into a predictable pattern, i.e. like baiting the AI with specific units, HQs in your example, knowing it will always put a priority on that unit first.

I have to go way back to I believe SC1 where the AI would specifically go out of its way to target Rocket units and this led to some issues during game play.

It could all work out and be the best thing for the AI to always do, i.e. put a priority on HQs, but there are some instances of unintended consequences that I just have to keep in mind or be careful of.

For the air units, ideally the AI should only make attacks that are in its best interest combat result wise but you are likely right that I might be treating Medium Bombers too much like Tactical Bombers and so I'll take a look if a simple adjustment can be made on my end.

Hubert