AI behavior

[Nupremal]

Do any veteran designers have some ideas on how necessary and important the various script types are?

I looked at say the scripts for the 1939 scenarios like Storm of Steel and they are quite a lot. I may simply copy and adapt some of them. However, how necessary are they? What kind of behavior does the AI have without them? Any suggestions on which are most critical vs. which are less so?

Thanks - any help would be appreciated.

[J P Wagner]

When doing my RCW scripts, I found that the AI played much better when I scripted it...however, I think this was partially responsible for the lengthy AI turns (the scope of the game did not help either)....my suggestion is to play some AI v AI turns and if you are happy with the results, then leave the scripts alone....

[pzgndr]

It depends. I'll speak from experience with my Advanced Third Reich mod. If you want any overseas activity involving transports and amphibious operations, you absolutely must script. If you want the AI to declare war or garrison/defend specific areas based on conditions, then you must script. Any production, research and diplomacy actions must be scripted. The generic AI will not do these things on its own.

Most generic offensive and defensive operations are handled OK by the AI once forces are in the area. In some cases I scripted variable offensives, such as possible German emphasis in northern Russia towards Leningrad/Moscow in 1942 rather than south towards Stalingrad/Grozny, but I'm not convinced these work. I suspect the generic AI overrides these; it's hard to tell.

The AI-vs-AI play feature is VERY helpful for troubleshooting. Run a game overnight, spot check key points in the game the next day, identify AI weaknesses, make corrections/additions to the scripts, and repeat. Eventually you'll come to understand what works and what doesn't, and why, and then the exercise should transform from being frustrating to fascinating. There is definitely a learning curve. Good luck!

[Nupremal]

I suspected you needed to script overseas, but it does not buy or research on its own?

Also, if I run ai vs ai - how do I replay that? What do I set for ai vs ai is there a switch scripted somewhere?

[J P Wagner]

When you load a new game of your mod, you have 4 options using the F1 through F4 keys that you can activate while playing the game, one of them will initiate an AI v. AI game, the others create a save folder of each turn to show you AI planning, the other turns of animations etc.....go into the WAW expansion folder and you will see a .pdf file of the manual which has the information you need for what each F key does.......

[Nupremal]

Ok - thanks for the info!

[Hubert Cater]

I'll reiterate what has been written here and especially pzgndr's advice as he has written a few articles on the SC2 AI based on his own mod of 3rd Reich. Original SC had the AI handling much of what is now scripted and the only reason why purchases and research was shifted to scripts was that it not only gives you more control but it also allows you to customize AI actions very specifically. This is needed for custom campaigns more than for default campaigns as I could have hardcoded all of these actions as I did in SC1 but in the end by putting these into scripts, it also made the development of the default campaigns that much easier, i.e. now I only have to deal with scripts without having to change game code. Makes development time that much faster once the framework was put into place.

[Nupremal]

Makes sense - and helps out in that we can make changes.