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Cheetah
01-19-2002, 00:59
would not it be a good idea to write down the weaknesses of the AI? i know that the AI wont be a macth for humans (especially if you play online http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif) but it makes stupid midtakes that could have been corrected.

here is a list to start with:

1) the AI never keeps its army intact. often sends unit needlesly to chase routed units. this makes the AI army disorganised and chaotic. you can beat the returning units one by one.

2) the AI never makes a unifed front out of its ranged units. Sets up one archer (or musk) behind the other and so on. result: you can easily outgun the AI.

3) AI never uses CA in a proper way. it will use it as an expensive archer, never for flanking or runnig down archers/musk.

4) AI never waits for the rest of its army (see first point), if it has cav and inf it will charge with the cav way ahead of the inf. again you can beat these groups one by one.

5) never takes advantage of height (see the thread by LionGazoz)

some conclusion, AI
(a)should keep its army together,
(b)should use unified front of ranged units,
(c)should stick to height advantage

Is that so difficult to program?

Nelson
01-19-2002, 01:49
It must be very difficult to program. The choices about what to do with each unit at any time are vast in number. Add to this the need to determine which actions make sense and you have a huge job on your hands. Colossal in fact. That's why so many game AI's seem poor. Shogun's is among the best I've seen but it does suffer at the hands of an experienced player as you point out, Cheetah. With enough time and money it could be brilliant. (but the game would have to cost a lot more of course!)

Cheetah
01-19-2002, 02:41
hmmm... I dont think that what I am asking for would complicate the game; to the contrary. but I can be wrong.

guess they using a game tree to find the best move. I move - oppononets move- I move - opponents move, etc. guess they want to find the branch with the max value attached to it. bet you it is a hard job. but, what I propose is a simple exlusion principle. if any unit gets out of the radius x of the nearest unit then eliminate that branch. this would decrease the branches that have to be evaluated hence make things simpler rather than more complicated.

as I said I dont know what kind of algorithms do they use. pls correct me if i am wrong.

however, I am just asking for some very simple principles: keep your guns together, keep your army together.