Observations of "AI" behaviour

[SirReal]

(All of these occured playing German campaign on Veteran)

When faced with enemy tanks at close range (200m) straight ahead, the driver (skill 97) decides that the correct thing to do is to turn the tank 180 degrees around, thus insuring that the gunner can't aim and that the enemy tanks can fire at the weakest spots.

When the 37mm KwK HE ammo is ineffective against the gun shield of a 75mm howitzer, the correct thing to do (according to the skill 60 gunner) is to fire another 40 rounds HE, just in case the first 10 were somehow defective.

When you and your three mates are the only friendlies left on the battlefield, and the enemy tanks are rolling around squishing your pals, the correct thing to do is... nothing. (Surrender? Run away? Nooo... not THIS AI.)

If you're a qualified tank gunner sitting in the loaders seat of a tank, and the guy in the gunners seat don't know anything about a tank gun, the correct thing is to sit still and die. Unless of course, the battallion commander comes along and tells you to switch places. Because thats how stupid you are.

[chanss]

Yeah, it kinda suck when you double click on a squad and orders them to enter a Artillery piece and the AI chooses every single man without gunner skill to man the gun, likewise it wouldnt be to much to ask of the AI to put the best skilled person at the valid position in a tank. A thing to correct in the patch I believe.

But that "turn your ass" toward enemy with my tanks actually never happend to me (so far). Was the enemy tanks really spotted by your tank?

[SirReal]

Originally posted by chanss:

Was the enemy tanks really spotted by your tank?

Oh yes. Very much so. In fact, my tank had an attack order on them, and was driving towards them to get a firing solution. Once it got a LOF, though, the driver's AS (Actual Stupidity) kicked in.

[chanss]

Yes, well i suggest you have him shot, really nothing else to do as he clearly is a traitor.

[SirReal]

I just realized that it's all a misunderstanding on my part. I've been thinking that the game's AI was short for "Artificial Intelligence", but I realize now that it stands for "Actual Idiots".

[Maethius]

The tank movement has not happened to me either. My German tankers allways turn the tank in the direction the incomming threat is comming from.

And I find that I usually do not have to give orders at what to shoot they do that right by themselves.

[Cincinatvs]

Originally posted by SirReal:

I just realized that it's all a misunderstanding on my part. I've been thinking that the game's AI was short for "Artificial Intelligence", but I realize now that it stands for "Actual Idiots".

LOL

Don't aggree, AI means Artificial Idiots.

Did you check this damned Scout skill value ?

I made a mission to test an AT squad vs Tank, and no scout value means almost "dead meat" as it penalize the others skills.

[RuhrRiver]

One other possibility when armor faces away from a threat:

I had three tanks on a ridge trying to take out some armor in the village in front of them (north).

One of my tanks turns around about 160 deg., presenting its big fat iron booty to the enemy tanks in the village below. I was screaming at it (quietly, don't want to tear my wife away from ER) when I noticed it was firing at something. I pulled back and found that a couple of enemy tanks had snuck in at the farthest limits of the southern battlefield--'way in my rear.

Now, how that tank had spotted the enemy back there and then decided to turn in place and fire with back exposed to much closer enemy armor is another question. But the tank commander wasn't completely insane. Maybe.

[SlapHappy]

Apparently this "scout" value thingy has too wide a variable range. Perhaps the devs could scale it back so that soldiers with low values don't perform actions that even a low-grade mongoloid idiot wouldn't pull.

Just a thought. For now perhaps you could simply raise all the minimum values to at least 50 or something like that with the editor. BTW, if the "scout" value keeps the AI from performing stupid actions, then what the hell does "intelligence" dictate in the game?

[K9crump]

I totally agree with what you guys are saying. I recently had 2 tigers engaging an Archer, and when I got back to them(was tied up with other orders)they were still firing HE rounds from previous orders(engaging soft targets)? Before I could change them to firing AP, they had finally knocked out the Archer with side hits...Kinda weird, I would have thought they would have switched rounds, it was Wittman and the other guy had High ratings also...lol. Oh well, it still turned out good, but I guess they were damn lucky.

Mike