SC2 Operational AI Wishlist.

[Edwin P.]

1. In a recent game vs the SC1 AI the Axis units continually, until May 1940, battered themselves against the Maginot line reducing the strength of defending units to 3 or 4 while Axis air units continually targeted units behind the line. I would like to see the AI concentrate its air strength on eliminating front line units rather than wasting attacks on units or empty resource hexes behind the front line.

2. In SC1 the Axis AI will never attack Denmark before conquering France. I would like to see the AI sometimes follow the standard human human strategy and launch a lightning conquest of Denmark early in the war, for both experience and plunder.

3. I would like the AI to know how many Allied naval units are in the Mediterrean; but not where they are, and use this information to in select a strategy for the use of Italian naval forces. (ie Defensive deployment, Hunt Strategy, Deliberate Offense)

4. The AI needs to deploy and use its HQ units in a more effective manner. In Sc1 all too often HQ units would be located in areas where they could not support friendly units.

5. The German AXIS AI needs a fighting withdrawal strategy to follow when the Russians go on the offensive. All too often they will allow valuabe units to be cut off and surrounded.

6. The AI never invests enough in Research.

7. The AI always follows the same build strategy. I would like to see an Axis offensive using Lots of Infantry, or Armor or Rockets or Air Fleets or a balanced combined arms approach.

8. AI knows how to conquer Vichy France by Invading Algeria.

9. AI will take Cairo if no Allied units are in Egypt.

10. AI will use knowledge of Enemy Naval strength on the intelligence screen to help determine its naval strategy. Example: If UK disbands naval forces AI will build Naval units.

11. Axis subs placed in SA will sometimes attempt to block route around Africa and not blindly head north to the English channel only to be sunk by air units in the UK.

12. AI will sometimes attempt to hide 1 Amphibious Corps in Western Med, prepared to seize Rome in a 1 turn invasion if that city is left empty. (PS: I managed once, to take Rome via an amphibious invasion when my opponent left it ungarded - I moved a corps transport next to land out of spotting range, landed and advanced to take Rome - Italy surrendered and my opponent was quite surprised. Never again did he leave Rome ungarded.).

[ March 22, 2005, 01:59 PM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ]

[John Hugo]

And the AI should build ships too.

[SeaMonkey]

The UK and USA AI never builds enough Airfleets, usually concentrating on Armies and Corps for DDay.

[jon_j_rambo]

Programming the A.I. to be smart is more difficult than programming the game. The game isn't like chess where you can program recursive algorithms.

[Exel]

While I wish a more intelligent, human-like AI (not a SkyNet, but more unlinear than the SC1 robot AI), I also think that maybe even a higher priority should be to make the AI more competent without such blatant cheating - though I think that by fulfilling the first wish well the second one would be fulfilled as well as a sort of a side effect.

It is frustrating how in SC1 the AI clearly play without FOW. You can't surprise the AI with any maneuver. I understand that the human FOW can't be enforced for the AI, at least with very positive results, but the lack of FOW should be more on the background in the AI thinking. It should use it's all-seeing vision to draw the big lines, not to move individual units around like it now does in SC1.

[acrashb]

The AI does play with FOW. I surprise it regularly. There are specific exceptions - like raising Italian readiness if the french bail on the med, but otherwise it's FOW on. If you don't believe me, try it with FOW off.

[Edwin P.]

I agree, I regularly surprise the AI with FOW on.

In my view I would like the AI to know what the human player could know and to base his actions on that.

Example:

From the intelligence screen the Human player will know how many naval ships the UK has or how many ships the Italians have.

The AI should use this information to guide their actions.

Additionally, I would like the AI to know how many enemy units are in a region, but not their location or number. It can use this information to guide its actions.

The regions I would use are:

Nordic Countries (Norway and Sweden)

North Africa (Algeria, Libya, Egypt)

Middle East (Syria, Iraq)

Iberia (Portugal, Spain)

North Atlantic

South Atlantic

Eastern Med.

Western Med.

France & Low Countries

North America

Example: Norway is Axis controlled. 1 Axis unit in Norway = 70% Allied Invasion, 10 Axis units in Norway = 0% Allied Invasion

Example: 1 UK Naval Ship in Eastern Med vs 6 Italian Ships = 90% Offensive Italian Naval Strategy in Eastern Med, 10 UK Naval Ships in Eastern Med vs 2 Italian Ships = 90% Italian Run Away Naval Strategy in Eastern Med.

[Edwin P.]

13. Naval AI will attack sighted enemy ships if it has overwhelming combat advantage and enemy ships are far from land.

In a game vs the AI with FOW OFF the British Navy never hunted down the 2 German Subs in the North Atlantic, even though it could see where they were and the UK was not threatened with Invasion.

A simple rule to use would be if AI had a 3:1 Naval Advanatage it should hunt down enemy ships in the Atlantic.

14. AI Naval Units will not stay on one place if Under Air Attack and Naval units are not attacking any units.

Why? In one game with FOW OFF I gave the Axis AI Six Subs in the South Atlantic. The Subs moved to Brest and Stopped. UK land based Air Units in South Western England attacked them for several turns. The Subs never moved, they just remained in placed until all were sunk.

In this case the Axis subs should have moved south, out of range of the Allied Air and waited until the Allies launched D-Day under the protection of an Axis long range spotting Bomber unit.

15. Allied Naval AI will USE Navy to Hunt for enemy naval units in the Atlantic.

I would suggest the the Allied Naval AI send out a fleet equal to 3x or 4x the number of Axis naval ships in the Atlantic to hunt them down.

Example:

If Axis has 1 Sub in the Atlantic the Allied AI will send out 3 ships in a semi random multually supporting search pattern to locate this ship. (ie Each ship will end its turn no more than x tiles from another ship in this group.)

[ March 28, 2005, 08:40 AM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ]

[Edwin P.]

16. Most of all, I would like each AI (Axis and Allies) to have at least 3 general strategies for fighting the war so the human player would face a more unpredictable opponent.

Example:

Axis - 1) Conquer Russia

Axis - 2) Control the Meditterrean

Axis - 3) Sea Lion

Allies - 1) Standard Normandy

Allies - 2) Control the Meditterrean - First Africa, then Sicily, then Italy

Allies - 3) Super Russia (ie USA sends all possible MPPs to Russia) and Strategic Bombing of Germany

Edited - (While waiting for a long file conversion to complete)

Sealion Notes

Of course the AI should evaluate its situation and only consider this when the circumstances are opportune. And, more importantly, it should not always do a Sealion when opportune circumstances present themselves otherwise the AI will become too predictable. And if circumstances change it should know when to call off the operation and send these forces to the Eastern front or elsewhere.

Example:

Most of Allied Fleet in Mediterrean & few units in UK = 30% Sealion

Most of Allied Fleet in North Altantic and few land units in UK = 5% Sealion

And of course the AI will have to prepare for an early Sealion by moving all Airfleets to the French Coast and screening its transports with its Navy.

Now, perhaps, with the new Amphibious Unit there exisits a chance that the Axis can take London and 1 or 2 other British cities in a single turn if cities are left ungarded. If it can do this it should be ready to rapidly reinforce this position from Antwerp.

I can see a case in which the UK player leaves 2 port cities ungarded. The German player sends in his fleet to clear the way and spot any naval ships that may intercept the Amphibious units. Then, if the path is cleared, the German AI sends forth two Amphibious units to seize these Brtish port cities in a daring surprise attack.

[ March 31, 2005, 11:58 AM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ]