Scenario building: How to trick the AI?

[eichenbaum]

Scenario building: How to trick the AI?

After designing a bunch of Assault Operations I really got a bit frustrated about the behavior of the AI after each 1st battle:

1. The AI is withdrawing from fortified positions like trenches, foxholes, barbed wire etc. to spots that do not have any strategic value like LOS, cover or safety. Leaving trenches to only stay a 100 meters to the left or right in a open field with no cover at all seems to me very unlikely. Especially when the human player didn’t fire a single shot on that position because it remained hidden all the time.

2. In the 2nd battle the AI loses his cohesion and mixes all the forces into a soup of infantry and light support weapons. Partisan with Russians and recon troops on the rear. The left and right flanks are uncovered, leaving major gaps in the defense. The pad-locked positions in the 1st battle don’t seem to have any influence left in the following battles.

3. While an assault is being made by the human player on a heavy fortified position with a lot of cover for the AI, it still order its troops to jump out of their positions and run towards the human player in an open field without cover. (1st battle)

I am not complaining about the quality of CMBB but I’m just asking if some of you scenario designers know some tricks to force the AI a bit in operations ? Changing the map is not an option because it represents the true surroundings and using Static ops. instead of Assault isn’t an option to. Flags do have a big influence on the AI’s behavior but I need the ‘Battle Window’ for a campaign system I’m working on. Any ideas ?

Nils

[Emar]

Had the same thing happen to me in my CMBO Blut Und Ehre operation. The Canadian troops would up and abandon foxholes and defensible positions. Here are a couple of the changes I made to the revision of that op which seemed to help.

The best 2 ways I found to modify this problem were changing the size of no mans land up and down and playtesting to see the AI's behavior(not really sure what distance works best but it seemed to me that shortening seemed to keep the AI in better positions)and it also ramped up the scenario difficulty as it forced the human player to set up back from the start line or risk setting up in the AI LOS.

The other factor is that the AI will try to make use of cover rather than set up in the open at the start of a new battle. If you can, find the approximate area where the first battle ends. Leave mostly good tactical cover terrain in that area (trees, buildings, treelines, etc.)and keep poorly located tactical cover terrain types in that area of the map to a minimum, the AI will make some better setup choices.

Not much but I hope they help some.

Eric

[eichenbaum]

Thanks for those tips Eric! I'll go experimenting with the 'nomans land settings'. These alrerady had been set to zero, maybe increasing will change the AI's behavior a bit.

For those covered area's I don't know. There were maps with forests and towns on the AI's side but it just ignorded those and put it self in the open around it.

Nils

[Joachim]

Originally posted by eichenbaum:

Thanks for those tips Eric! I'll go experimenting with the 'nomans land settings'. These alrerady had been set to zero, maybe increasing will change the AI's behavior a bit.

For those covered area's I don't know. There were maps with forests and towns on the AI's side but it just ignorded those and put it self in the open around it.

Nils

There is a thread somewhere on a similar topic. Try

Need expert help on CMBB Operations setups or

Everything about operations

If you play an operation with fixed setup, the AI will place units that were positioned ahead of its 2nd battle setup zone (outflanked, overrun) only backwards, not sidewards. Reinfocements will also be fixed in the place they appear (usually one big unorganized heap, often in the open). Maybe using several reinfocements for the same battle might spread that heap, but still keep some in the open.

(Guess the AI first sets the units back just to have them in the setup zone, then finds they are fixed...)

I usually attack on a small front (or two) in an operation (esp with short battles on huge maps). My goal is to attrit the enemy early. Thus I try to reach positions where I have good cover at the beginning of the next battle while the enemy has bad cover (and will be slaughtered in the open) or must fall back, yielding even more ground.

Take this into account when using the advice above: "If you can, find the approximate area where the first battle ends. Leave mostly good tactical cover terrain in that area (trees, buildings, treelines, etc.)and keep poorly located tactical cover terrain types in that area of the map to a minimum, the AI will make some better setup choices."

Gruß

Joachim

[eichenbaum]

Thanks for your advice Joachim.

The AI seems to have some major problems with the type of terrain it's on. But is not an option to alter the terrain because the AI needs it while I'm making maps 1:1.

Increasing or decreasing the battle window also turns into a disaster because there's still a bug in CMBB that put all units back in one 1 line afterwards.

I guess there's not much left for me then run a lot of playtesting & adjusting on these operations.

Nils