AI Notes - North Africa

[Edwin P.]

One of the decisions the AI should be able to make is whether to make a commitment to conquering North Africa or not.

If it does it should be able to calculate when to change from an offensive operation to a defensive operation and when units should be withdrawn to reinforce operations in Europe.

At the simplest level this is:

A. Does AI make a commitment to Conquer North Africa? If Yes, then;

A1. Conquest Malta ? or

A2. Conquer Vichy? or

A3. Use Diplomacy on Vichy France? or

A4. Conquer Egypt?

B. After the First Objective is achieved what does the AI do?

B1. Conquer Egypt Successful

B1.1 > Then Conquer Iraq? or

B1.2 > Then Conquer Vichy? or

B1.3 > Switch to a Defensive Posture and Withdraw Excess forces to Europe?

C. If the Allies make a counter attack in this region, then the AI must decide what to do.

C1.1 Defend and Reinforce their position

C1.2 Withdraw

C1.3 Stage a fighting withdrawal

C1.4 Reinforce and go on the offensive

[ November 25, 2005, 10:52 AM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ]

[Edwin P.]

That said,

What does it take to conquer Egypt? How many resources should the AI send to Africa to accomplish the mission? and when?

In my view the AI has to decide by turn XX whether or not to attempt a conquest of Egypt. Once this date passes, it should not consider this option unless Egypt is left undefended.

[jon_j_rambo]

@Eddie --- Dude.

[Codename Condor]

never-feintin-eddie, i hope some of yer ideas would become real cos they are great, but my 2 cents worth is that the AI is gonna be very tuff to implement, how the supply works in SC makes the AI a joke.

Im sceptical about SC2-AI, BUT SC2 can be a baddass-TCP-IP competitive game.

[Edwin P.]

I agree, it sould be really good at TCP-IP, but sometimes you just can't find an opponent to play.

In Sc1 I would have liked to seen 3 simple(?) changes at Expert Level that would have given a more interesting game vs the AI:

1)AI Bonus Research Chits, as it never seemed to invest enough in research

2)Random Activations for the AI Side:

Axis: Spain/Portugal or Turkey/Iraq or Vichy France joins the Axis AI.

Allies: Iraq/Ireland and/or Finland joins Allies.

3)Random Reinforcements

Example: Allied AI - Allies Receive Commonwealth Reinforcements in Egypt, as the AI would never send any there.

Just these three changes would have made SC1 more interesting and less predictable vs the AI without extensive changes to the programming.

[ November 26, 2005, 08:21 PM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ]