Canuck_para Posted May 14, 2002 Share Posted May 14, 2002 Is anyone doing the AAR from an Allied POV? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Straha Posted May 14, 2002 Share Posted May 14, 2002 Although I love SuperTed's AAR, another one can't be bad. Also, seeing things form the allied side is a very good thing, for then we could see early on how good the AI really is. What I'm anxious about is this: if the human player has an easy time to hold France against the AI, then the 1939 scenario is uninteresting to play from the allied side, which would be a pity, of course. Straha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rleete Posted May 14, 2002 Share Posted May 14, 2002 Hear, hear. Superted, if ya got time to post, ya gots time to play another game. Get cracking! An AAR from the other perspective would really give an idea of the capabilities of the AI. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Heidman Posted May 14, 2002 Share Posted May 14, 2002 I would be willing to take time from my busy schedule to put together an Allied AAR. Just send me the game. Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Straha Posted May 14, 2002 Share Posted May 14, 2002 Originally posted by Jeff Heidman: I would be willing to take time from my busy schedule to put together an Allied AAR. Just send me the game. JeffLOL, nice one! Straha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperTed Posted May 15, 2002 Share Posted May 15, 2002 Guys, I just finished playing the Allies on the default settings. -I almost held France -Denmark lasted about six months -the African campaign never happened -the German navy was destroyed by the end of 1940 -Norway and Greece remained neutral -the Blitz never happened -the Axis invaded the Soviet Union late in 1941 -Minsk and Kiev never fell -the Soviets liberated Paris -Germany surrendered November 14, 1943 -Italy surrendered December 12, 1943 -Vichy France was the last Axis power standing! Now, having said that, there are two ways to make the AI better: experience and MPPs. I suspect they would do a much better job on the tougher settings. [ May 15, 2002, 01:29 AM: Message edited by: SuperTed ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Straha Posted May 15, 2002 Share Posted May 15, 2002 Originally posted by SuperTed: Guys, I just finished playing the Allies on the default settings. -I almost held France -Denmark lasted about six months -the African campaign never happened -the German navy was destroyed by the end of 1940 -Norway and Greece remained neutral -the Blitz never happened -the Axis invaded the Soviet Union late in 1941 -Minsk and Kiev never fell -the Soviets liberated Paris -Germany surrendered November 14, 1943 -Italy surrendered December 12, 1943 -Vichy France was the last Axis power standing! Now, having said that, there are two ways to make the AI better: experience and MPPs. I suspect they would do a much better job on the tougher settings.That does not sound very encouraging. I have the following suggestions for making life harder for the human Allies vs. AI Axis : 1.) Add "axis liberation politics" option (like in COS: gives Germany certain corps for free once they capture certain cities, e.g. Riga and Kiev.) 2.) Add the option to upgrade (selected?) enemy research levels somewhat (or even generalized: while having a default, let the player configure research at the start. We can then e.g. decide to upgrade the German subs or planes somewhat). This, together with switching off the partisans, and boasting the experience may help. I don´t like "cheating" on the MPPs that much, but it is still much much better than tampering with the success probabilities of battles. I downright hate *this* kind of AI boasting, and never use such settings in any games (I rather stop playing). Straha [ May 15, 2002, 01:48 AM: Message edited by: Straha ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canuck_para Posted May 15, 2002 Author Share Posted May 15, 2002 Originally posted by SuperTed: Guys, I just finished playing the Allies on the default settings. -I almost held France -Denmark lasted about six months -the African campaign never happened -the German navy was destroyed by the end of 1940 -Norway and Greece remained neutral -the Blitz never happened -the Axis invaded the Soviet Union late in 1941 -Minsk and Kiev never fell -the Soviets liberated Paris -Germany surrendered November 14, 1943 -Italy surrendered December 12, 1943 -Vichy France was the last Axis power standing! Now, having said that, there are two ways to make the AI better: experience and MPPs. I suspect they would do a much better job on the tougher settings.I wonder if this is par for the course or if you had some luck on your side. I know when I played COS I could sometimes take Germany with French and British forces, but usually the French fell and the war continued pretty much as in real life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canuck_para Posted May 15, 2002 Author Share Posted May 15, 2002 Oh yeah, I am willing to do an Allied AAR if I can play as Canada. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Clark Posted May 15, 2002 Share Posted May 15, 2002 Okay, IIRC there are 5 levels of difficulty, plus the ability to give either side a MPP and or XP bonus. So, what does the level of difficulty change? Does it make the AI smarter? What is the difference between Normal difficulty and Hard difficulty for instance? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hubert Cater Posted May 15, 2002 Share Posted May 15, 2002 I have the following suggestions for making life harder for the human Allies vs. AI Axis Keep in mind that it's still Beta and that there are a few items outstanding on the full 'AI' as my recent focus has been on putting together everything needed for the demo. That being said, by and large the AI is mostly done and you will get a very entertaining game, but of course there are still a few tweaks here and there that have only been worked out on paper as I unfortunatly have to get a few other things done first. I don´t like "cheating" on the MPPs that much, but it is still much much better than tampering with the success probabilities of battles. I downright hate *this* kind of AI boasting, and never use such settings in any games (I rather stop playing). Happy to say that the AI does not tamper with success probabilities at any point during the game or at any of the difficulty settings. As I've said before the game was balanced for Pbem and Hotseat FIRST, making AI implementation very difficult in the traditional sense without typical AI cheating. So as Ted described, you will get an entertaining game at even the default settings, but adjusting these will definitly make things a little more interesting. Clarifying the additional MPP's that Ted described, it's nothing like extra MPP's per every turn or something like that, how it works is that every time anyone defeats a country you will get a victory/plundering bonus, so at the higher difficulty settings you the (human player) will get a little less for conquering a country, and the AI player will get a little more when it conquers a country. In general victory/plundering bonuses are as follows: - Conquering a minor: random value [250, 350] - Conquering a major: random value [750, 1000] So for each increasing difficulty level selected, you will collect -50 for each minor conquered and -100 for each major, while the AI would collect +50 and +100 respectively. It works the other way around if you select a decreased difficulty setting. There are a few other adjustments on difficulty levels wrt % of naval units that become 'Free French', number of units that are transfered when 'War in Siberia' is not selected etc., but for the most part it seemed like this minor adjustment in victory/plundering MPP's helps to make the game a little more challenging for the human player while giving the AI (mostly Axis in this case since it is usually the one conquering countries) a little bit extra here and there to give it a fighting chance, but it still has to do it's job in taking out countries of course In general the AI will play mostly the same for all difficulty setting since there are no adjustments for combat formulas or MPP cheating in the traditional sense, but it will undertake additional planning if things go well, (like the AI may invade Vichy France or Spain etc) and this usually happens when the AI is set with more experienced units or other adjustments have been made to either the difficulty settings or things like no 'Partisans' etc. The goal was to make a challenging AI that really does not cheat, but allow the human player to adjust their setting where they are under full control and know exactly what to expect, so in this case primarily through increased/decreased difficulty settings or improved enemy units through experience bonuses as well as controlling some of the other game options. Hubert [ May 15, 2002, 10:38 AM: Message edited by: Hubert Cater ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Straha Posted May 15, 2002 Share Posted May 15, 2002 Thanks, Hubert, for that in-depth reply. Your concept for difficulty adjustments is convincing, and I like it independently of the playing-strength of the AI. Any additional tweaks which make it still more "cunning" (for the release version) are welcomed, though, of course. Straha [ May 15, 2002, 01:00 PM: Message edited by: Straha ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BloodyBucket Posted May 16, 2002 Share Posted May 16, 2002 Since one of the major problems facing the Allies during the war was one of co-operation, wouldn't it make sense to make the Allied side somehow weaker in this area when playing against an Axis AI? Something along the lines of an AI controled Russia? How about slowing US entry or making Russian production levels go up in phases after war is declared? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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