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Solo Players:Getting the best out of the AI


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Here are some tips on senario design which give better AI performance from the infantry and more unpredicatble better fought meeting engagements. Here are the three steps.

First: In map preview split all squads. This may seem strange but what happens is the split squads behave with more caution, a more sensitive TacAI - they react more sensibily without needless sacrifice. Also the global moral of both sides drops to 55-70% making the overall AI more cautious and less prone to giving you a turkey shoot. The infantryman in CM is abstrated into squads, by splitting the squads that abstraction is also half as less.

Second: Remove all victory flags. What!? I hear you say! The trouble with VLs is that you know where the enemy will head for, even with dynamic ones, and all you have to do is get there first into cover to let the AI force his men relentlessly into your incoming until their all casulties or broken.

Third: Place exit zones for each side opposite each other. ie Allies start in the west advance to exit zone in the east and the opposite for Axis. What it actually does is give the Strat AI a fine balence between attack and defence. It will utilse both strategies with flexibility according to the situation and use any part of the map. It even withdraws in a hot spot to a better position. Actual exiting by the AI hardly ever happens, and there is no need for you to exit if you are concentrating on defeating the enemy. The exit zones are there not there as an objective but as a modification to the behavior of the AI.

These 3 steps may seem a bit strange but try designing a senario useing them all. Even an experienced CM player can actully be given a real challenge and be beaten by the AI without it having superior weight of numbers! I use forces of approximatly equal point strength all the time and the AI really gives as good as it gets. I have had some excellent battles and lost a number of times, drawn most times, won sometime. Not only does it feel more realistic it is a better game for useing these 3 steps.

PS:Use an existing hand made map from another senario

[ 04-19-2001: Message edited by: James ]

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Sounds interesting. When I play the AI it always picks one point of attack(if i'm playing defender or ME), and puts everything it has into this narrow attack lane, and always, I mean always, i find the spot and proceed to hand the AI its proverbial "lunch".

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Excellent idea James smile.gif

I am definatly going to play around with this method. I have always been frustrated with the a.i. just heading for the VL flags. In an ME you can just park on em and wait.

I have tried some other things to get the a.i. to play a better game..... check out my topic in the general forum - "a good single player system" - I would be interested in what you think and any sugestions you might have to get better performance out of the a.i.

thanks, George III

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