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Having a little fun with AI triggers.


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A tiny battle I have been having fun on while learning a bit more about the AI triggers.

208m x 208m. An evening axis probe by the human player against the US Army AI. 

Axis set-up zone is right there on the road at map's west edge, 1 tile wide.

 

AITRIGGERSHOWCASE_zpsbab805f4.jpg

 

 

1. "Tripwire" AI Trigger (enemy).

2. AI Trigger (enemy armor)

3. These are US Army listening posts surrounded by AI Trigger (Friendly).

4. Another "Tripwire" AI trigger (enemy). But they are half-way to the farmhouse...

5. AI Trigger (Friendly). 

6. AI Trigger (Friendly). 

 

You can only have one set of triggers per scenario so the 3 boxes for #3 are for different AI plans where you can vary the location of the US Army soldiers on OP duty.

 

Anyway, here is how it went in I thought a somewhat comical manner when I watched it unfold on scenario author mode.

 

AI Group A5 is the trooper on OP duty. His AI orders are to hide until the tripwire is triggered. Then he can do a variety of things, like go ambush 75m or max assault or dash to the rear.

Well, he is the one who will/might trip the friendly trigger around his post. 

 

AI Group A1 is LT Lovejoy the platoon leader. He is on hide (asleep!) and gets an order triggered by the OP soldier. LT Lovejoy then gets his a$$ up and runs off to wake up some of the dogfaces. He trips 2 other friendly triggers at 5 and 6 to send off a bazooka team and to wake up the 3rd squad who were grabbing some shuteye. He then gets on the phone to the company CP to report in...

 

The private with the bazooka goes out to his ambush position along the road and if the enemy armor trigger is eventually tripped, he goes on Ambush armor 75m.

 

The 3rd squad dashes off south to behind a rock wall and if the Germans trip the 2nd tripwire, they will assault forward.

 

---so far I tend to only use the terrain triggers versus the order style triggers. It is easy to get the order style all messed up. Maybe in the future I will start to use them.

 

And if you haven't seen Proambulator's youtube scenario creation videos, please check them out! A basic introduction to all aspects of making a scenario. "The Scenario Project". 5 videos so far and he has more coming.

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Interesting use of friendly triggers to set off various other friendly movements.

Triggers for each unit are linear. So for your Group A5, when you say "OR" the sequence will only occur in numbered order, and the next order will not take place until the previous trigger is invoked. either by time or action.

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My brain seems to like the terrain style triggers. I can see it on the map and if the enemy or friendly group A* passes through the trigger then the follow-on orders associated with that trigger can be better counted on.

I have opened up many stock scenarios written for 3.0 engine and I have not seen an excessive amount of sophistication for triggers. I guess the "masters" themselves are getting used to how it all works.

Or they are so good that they can pull off the quality scenario even without triggers!

 

Anyway, it is fun to see what can be orchestrated by the triggers and AI orders system. H2H battles CAN be the ultimate tactical challenge and fun but some folks just want a short evening of gaming fun and honing the AI for single-player is a worthwhile endeavor.

 

Anyone got some good AI tools in the AI tool chest? Share them here!

 

I have a tiny slice of pride to say that I think I first created the AI demo charge through the obstacle tool. I have used it again in my latest campaign.

 

Now I am trying to have the AI not fire any mortars at first but only in a seeming response to an attack. Nobody wants to get pounded in their set-up zones on turn 1. But after 5 minutes you think it is realistic.

I am experimenting to see the way to get that to happen on a routine basis.

 

Also, I have been following the threads lately where Scipio has hex edited the maps to make them usable in other families. I downloaded HexD and my plan is to try to identify and copy out the AI portion of the btt file and be able to paste it into any other btt file QB map. My goal would be to enhance the QB's in an easy manner. We'll see...

Edited by kohlenklau
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I use the KISS principle myself. Like your example above I use a core set of AI triggers that can be used across various plans. By keeping plans simple and broad based you can hope to account for the myriad ways a player may choose to attack/defend. Trying to get too clever wit AI plans (as I've found out to my cost) just leads to all sorts of unintended consequences!

 

I occasional use friendly AI triggers to spring friendly movement but you have to be careful with this. If a friendly unit is wiped out early it can totally FUBAR the AI Plan. In this case having a slightly earlier default move order helps alleviate the worse outcome.

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If the player spots and kills the outposts before they trip the friendly trigger, then maybe they get rewarded by having the final defenders a bit less prepared!

But then again, wouldn't the LT hear all the weapons being fired? I would need a redundant 2nd friendly group to roll through and trip the 2 triggers for the bazooka and MMG. Oh well, it is just a game.

I think it was the Korean War, a story of GI's being killed in their sleeping bags? The RL friendly trigger tragically never got tripped...

 

On those big bad mama maps you do George, I can respect the need to stay away from this kind of buffoonery. I think I will go crack open the hood on one of your latest scenarios. I played "Wittman's Demise". That was yours right? Anything smaller scale you have done lately?

 

I still haven't got the AI to delay firing the mortars. I tried bringing them in as R1 at 5 minutes. No joy. I tried bringing the FO or Platoon leader in as R1 at 05:00 but the mortars didn't wait for him and just started off at turn 1.

The best I have got is to bring the mortar in at R1 05:00 but with some LOS (beam in at the exact perfect spot) to likely player approach. Put them on severe ammo so they only have a dozen rounds anyway. 

But I think I will run more tests because I now think I recall in one scenario I wrote "Garden of the Iron Cross" seeing that the Soviet company HQ had a greenline to target mortars farther along into the game but only when it had LOS and actually spotted the enemy. And that was with a mortar team sent in as R1. So maybe it will work...

 

Just trying to have some fun...

 

Happy New Year guys.

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AI Mortar success!

 

I had 2 different FO's on map from start and placed them in good spots with LOS.

Then made the actual mortars show at R1=5, R2=10, R3=15.

I deployed them to make sure that the FO had them in contact. And a platoon HQ as well. Responsible adult types with radios.

 

The mortars do spend a turn deploying upon arrival. 

But then pretty soon the board lights up with pretty green lines. If someone carelessly is spotted. 

This one FO had 2 different missions going. They appear to take the normal long times to get the mission set-up. 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 9 minutes. They do fire spotting rounds and adjust.

A round too far left, a bit later a round too far right, a bit later one more or less on target, then a bit later, 4 rounds. bam bam bam bam. 

It wasn't on the area of the AI plans Support Targets Axis. The platoon HQ also set-up a mission.

 

Unfortunately, it can't happen at night or when viz is very low due to fog or smoke.

 

So, this could be part of an AI defense plan for a scenario or also for AI on the attack. You don't need to get the initial preplanned barrage style from turn 1. It could come later on...

Actually, I now recall I did use an off-map mortar team that came in at R2. So, you could sprinkle low supply off-map mortar teams in with your R groups. They don't take up an AI slot either.

A prolonged defensive mortaring to make every round count. Come on ostfront winter module!

Edited by kohlenklau
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Opening some of the stock scenarios in the editor, like I thought, the masters already know to do this. In "Clearing Steve Buscemi's Highway", Christopher Nelson brings axis howitzers in at 5 minutes. He didn't designate support targets in the AI menu. 

 

Now with my new 50th birthday computer I can open and play these big map scenarios and campaigns. I did the first 2 missions of the Raging Bull campaign. Huge a$$ maps. Companies of tanks. Makes my scenarios look like a postage stamp with 2 ants fighting. But maybe I don't just need a new computer. My brain just can't handle all that management. I would always forget to give orders to some guy and pretty soon wammo...

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  • 6 years later...

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