national armies?

Pocus · #1 February 25th, 2004, 05:45 PM

as of now the AI put tons of temples everywhere, and dont build any castles. Perhaps some tweak is in order Gandalf. Stop thinking that something is not done, because it cant be done.

Its a game made by a small team, and they cant fix things, if nobody report them. Its a well known problem, and I'm rehashing it, with pictures this time, because it's a problem still overlooked.

Wauthan · #2 February 25th, 2004, 06:01 PM

In Gandalf Parkers "Poke in the Eye" map, with its large number of castles, the AI builds quite a lot of national units. I does however seem to go for quantity over quality. It makes sense though since the AI doesn't know what will hit it and a larger number of low tier troops are usually a lot more flexible tp use than fewer, more expensive, troops.

I got nothing to complain about in the summoning aspect of things.

Gandalf Parker · #3 February 25th, 2004, 06:47 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Pocus:
as of now the AI put tons of temples everywhere, and dont build any castles. Perhaps some tweak is in order Gandalf. Stop thinking that something is not done, because it cant be done.
Its a game made by a small team, and they cant fix things, if nobody report them. Its a well known problem, and I'm rehashing it, with pictures this time, because it's a problem still overlooked.

I didnt say it couldnt be done. Nor do I think its overlooked. As you say its all rehashing and I didnt want new debaters jumping in thinking that its only an "Ulm should do this" type of problem as some of the previous discussions went. As has been said by the Devs before, specific quick little fixes will gladly be considered. And as far as I can see many haven been put in. The AI does seem to make better general use of its cavalry and javelins.

I think the best answer will be splitting the AI. And Id love to see them outside scriptable. Until then...

Using indeps to take indeps doesnt seem like a bad plan. After all they need to build home units for staying at home and guarding the capital.
hmmmmmmmm new thought. Maybe the AI needs to swap in indep armies to the capital in order to move capital armies outward? It would slow the growth of the empire but might achieve what people have in mind.

As to castle building we tried to come up with specifics. One I remember is 1 castle in any province where the AI owns the province and all the provinces touching it, and none of those provinces have a castle. It would seem to make maximum use of admin points though low on strategic-placement.

[ February 25, 2004, 16:49: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

Peter Ebbesen · #4 February 25th, 2004, 09:21 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:

As to castle building we tried to come up with specifics. One I remember is 1 castle in any province where the AI owns the province and all the provinces touching it, and none of those provinces have a castle. It would seem to make maximum use of admin points though low on strategic-placement.

A gold-maximizing strategy might work better. It is the one case where the AI is sure to get a long term benefit of the fortress, regardless of whether it recruits in it at all. Additionally, it would make it easier for the AI to build more castles

(Am I the only one who loves high-admin castles for their long-term income boost?)

PDF · #5 February 25th, 2004, 09:42 PM

Pocus is showing again some already stated problems of AI strategic choices :
1/ Prefers lots of crappy light troops over less numerous strong ones - maybe it tries to optimize number of troops bought and/or maximal usage of each province resources individually
2/ And don't spare money to build castles - this in turn results in few resources, so more crap light troops..

I don't think any nation specific AI is required : all sensible players would favor Pythium legionaires, Abysian Hvy Inf or Ulm and Marignon Pikeneers over Barbs or Militia... the AI does the contrary

Pocus · #6 February 25th, 2004, 09:50 PM

I wonder how is (and in which order) is spent the gold of the AI. Either there is a big unspotted bug (the one which prevent the AI of building *any* castle), or ... or ... well, or the developer in charge of the AI really hate to spend too much time into it

#7 February 25th, 2004, 09:54 PM

The ressurection of the "AI" thread.

What was the consensus Last time we talked? 1 Castle every 5 provinces and up to a maximum of ~50 LI before only making HI?

I don't think we even need the LI as the computer does a reasonable (if somewhat slow) job of dealing with Unrest.