Dominions 2. AI. Suggestions, that how to fix it.

[MStavros]

Okay I decided to make this topic, since the AI is very weak.

As I see, the biggest problems are, that the AI:

1.) isnt recruiting enough units.
2.) is trying to operate with small 'blitz' armies, I never ever seen a bigger AI army in the demo so far.
3.) isnt protecting its provinces very well
4.} isnt making smart strategical moves


Tell me what you think. I think these are the major problems with the Doms 2. AI.

[ October 28, 2003, 17:53: Message edited by: MStavros ]

[Kristoffer O]

Originally posted by MStavros:
Okay I decided to make this topic, since the AI is very weak.

As I see, the biggest problems are, that the AI:

1.) isnt recruiting enough units.
2.) is trying to operate with small 'blitz' armies, I never ever seen a bigger AI army in the demo so far.
3.) isnt protecting its provinces very well
4.} isnt making smart strategical moves


Tell me what you think. I think these are the major problems with the Doms 2. AI.

1) The AI is recruiting as many units it can afford. At higher levels this is more than a human opponent.

2) The AI will build up large armies, but this is more often seen in the end game as it mostly uses them to besiege enemies. Earlier it uses several armies to quickly conquer land. If you can anticipate the movements of smaller armies you can of course beat them one by one, but unless they are all caught they will probably devastate your economy.

3) Do you mean that the AI should place armies in border provinces in case of backstabbing attacks. This would be costly and as long as there is peace the armies are probably better used in other wars. Perhaps some kind of patrolling units in richer provinces should do the trick.

4) What is a smart strategical move?

[MStavros]

1.) I understand it, but it seems to me, that it don't have enough units..well this is maybe it is trying to make more and more small armies? I have no idea, but I had the feeling that it never had enough troops.....

2.) Kris, I think that the AI should make at least 1 bigger army in the early game. It is too easy to kill the AI's small armies 1 by 1.

3.) I meant that the provinces of the AI are usually empty.

4.) Well examples: trying to attack your undefended side, trying to focus his little armies on one point, make at least 1 big main army etc.

[Gandalf Parker]

What is the independent setting of your games?

[MStavros]

2 or 3

[licker]

There's nothing wrong with several smaller armies running around causing havoc generally...

The problem arises when these smaller armies are faced with a few different obsticales. The most obvious is when they hit a choke point, at that point they need to aggregate to take it, or find something else to do. Its also a problem when they suffer casualties becasue they are not large enough to overwhelm their weaker enemies, thats a matter of attrition. Even though they win, they get weakened, while the larger concentrated force loses less. Eventually this is a big problem.


Speculating here... but if the AI is going for a rapid conquest of neighbors (indies mostly in the first 20 turns) but loses more than it gains back in terms of income and production advantage from conquering more provinces quickly, then when it runs up against the human who did a slower expansion with more concnetrated forces, it will lose, as even if it has more income and production, it does not have the time to use them to recoup its initial losses. This of course is something that is difficult to account for from an AI perspective, but it could be an element in why some players are seeing AIs with smaller unit totals when they meet. On a bigger map with fewer AIs the rapid expansion should be more viable, on a cramped map, the concentration of units to minimize battle losses should be more viable.

I've got no idea how the AI handles different situations, or if it really does try different things for different situations. Some of these problems can probably be mitigated by the start up selections (as noted in other places) but maybe some more attention to how the AI responds to different starting conditions is appropriate.

There is also nothing really wrong with an AI having some single mindedness, like I'm gonna pull all my units into one army and charge your capital. Either it makes it or it doesn't (game over for someone), but at least it gives the apperance of making a bold move. From the demo I'd imagine its impossible to tell if the AI does resort to this tactic as there isn't enough time to make enough units to make it appealing (probably).

[MStavros]

licker you had good ideas there.

My main problem is, that I never ever seen a bigger AI army within these 40 turns. I seen more, small armies, and those are very ineffective, you can crush them one by one without a single problem.......

[ October 28, 2003, 18:27: Message edited by: MStavros ]

[ywl]

Originally posted by MStavros:
1.) I understand it, but it seems to me, that it don't have enough units..well this is maybe it is trying to make more and more small armies? I have no idea, but I had the feeling that it never had enough troops.....

2.) Kris, I think that the AI should make at least 1 bigger army in the early game. It is too easy to kill the AI's small armies 1 by 1.

3.) I meant that the provinces of the AI are usually empty.

4.) Well examples: trying to attack your undefended side, trying to focus his little armies on one point, make at least 1 big main army etc.

1) I've seen very large AI armies in my few test games - e.g., Pan, a lot of undeads.

3) It's a good move. You don't and shouldn't play thd game by scattering your force to "protect" individual provinces. Your army will be eaten piece by piece.

Usually, you would rather concentrate and hide your mainforce, releasing them only when the fight breaks out. If you need to protect key provinces, you build fortress and have some defensive force (even cheap units are enough) behind the wall to defense against a seige and wait for rescue.

4) It's hard enough to teach human good strategic moves - not to mention AIs.

Can you summarize them in a few clear rules for the program - better yet, an algorithm? For example, before major war, split your army to expand. And once under attack, concentrate them and go all the way to your enemy's capital. But I guess some of these have been implemented already.

[Kristoffer O]

Originally posted by MStavros:
1.) I understand it, but it seems to me, that it don't have enough units..well this is maybe it is trying to make more and more small armies? I have no idea, but I had the feeling that it never had enough troops.....

2.) Kris, I think that the AI should make at least 1 bigger army in the early game. It is too easy to kill the AI's small armies 1 by 1.

3.) I meant that the provinces of the AI are usually empty.

4.) Well examples: trying to attack your undefended side, trying to focus his little armies on one point, make at least 1 big main army etc.

One larger army might be an idea.

I believe that they are empty because the armies are occupied elsewhere. I and JK rarely keep defending armies at peaceful borders unless we expect an attack. The AI probably shares our motivations to some extent. The problem is that when armies arrives at his borders the AIs armies are probably busy conquering other lands. As in most games attacking strongly and unexpectedly is a winner (MP or SP). Then your opponent cannot strike back in time. If the AI attacks you first I believe it would be another matter (but on the other hand I do not now this was not the case).

The AI avoids provinces that are well defended and usually goes for weaker ones.

One thing it doesn't do (unfortunately) is trap humans. Nothing is more satisfying than luring your MP enemy into a province where you can attack him from several directions.

[Saber Cherry]

I know this is not really an "AI" solution, but it might be a good idea to scale the AI's starting army size with indy strength, so they won't get into long-term trouble if they make a bad strategic choice on turn 1. In other words, start them with 25% more units per level of indy strength - +25% units at 4, +50% at 5, and so on. Eventually I suppose they would need an extra starting commander to control all the extra starting troops.

-Cherry