Quote:
Originally Posted by sunsmountain
Dear gentlemen,
I know how busy you are, yet as a fan this question kept haunting me since release:
AI
Now in previews & diaries CA spoke of different levels of AI, and how they obeyed Sun Tzu's Art of War. I guess my main question is that I would like an insight into the battlefield AI.
In this topic
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=52341
i'm having a pretty comprehensive discussion with Puzz3D about the current AI, but both of us don't really know the finer details of what we're discussing, making it difficult to formulate the problem.
Barring Imperial Glory and other copy-cats luring, I would love any possible sharing on this issue.
Sincerely,
sunsmountain
In reply, by Jerome ~:) (hatcat didn't bother :inquisitive: )
Quote:
Originally Posted by JeromeGrasdyke, 17 August 2005
I've had a look at the thread ;) There's a lot of guessing and double-guessing going on there, and i'm not going to go into specifics on how the details of the Rome AI work. For one thing, it would take way too long! It's not a trivial amount of code by any means.
But in general, you are correct and the methods used in Rome were very similar to what was in Medieval, with some adaptions for the new game features. It was largely rewritten along the way for various reasons to do with the new system. The campaign AI was entirely new code, however.
Take it easy,
Jerome
And in reply to:
Quote:
Originally Posted by sunsmountain
Cheers Jerome, but let me get this straight: AI is programmed "along the way"? Would it not deserve a month in its own right (doing nothing else - testing and testing until those spears/cav/swords/flanking works? Or does SEGA/Activision not allow this?
As for the complexity, it's certainly not trivial code i know, and without the full picture i probably cannot help you, but what i meant was: What is holding you back in creating the most powerful, incredible AI? (if, as a player, you dare set the difficulty to Very Hard)
Relaxed regards,
suns
The reply that is essentially a FAQ in its own right ~:)
Quote:
Originally Posted by JeromeGrasdyke, 01 September 2005
Hehe, "along the way" was just a turn of phrase. In fact both the battle AI and the campaign AI had dedicated programmers assigned to them for over a year, who were assisted at times by other members of the team.
Essentially, the AI is an approximation of how the AI designer plays the game, refined in stages as he finds strategies which work or not. Some things cannot be implemented on a computer - for example, you say you just "see" that one given situation is better than another one. In order to write the corresponding code for the AI you have to know exactly why, and then you have to express it consistently and accurately in terms of numbers. That by itself makes it hard enough.
But then also consider that the game evolves underneath it as the AI systems are developed. Say the designers add a new feature to the game - then the AI programmer has to go back over his old code, which may involve a lot of linked strategies about how say Agents are used in combination with armies, and weed out what does not work anymore, and redevelop strategies for the cases which lead to exploitable gaps in the AI playstyle.
That unfortunately means that you can only write really good AI towards the end of the game's development, when the designers are making only minor changes and you've had the chance to actually play the game solo for at least a month or so... but by then you're inevitably under time pressure because the release dates are looming.
So in an ideal world, the game design would be completely finished and tested before the process of writing AI starts... unfortunately a real-world development studio does not work like that, there's lots of creative people always coming up with really cool ideas that just have to go in before the Alpha deadline ;) And maybe that's a good thing, because often the stuff that is added at the end is important balance and polish which makes the game much better.
We're always looking for ways to improve this process, and for BI and future projects from the Rome codebase the AI can be substantially improved, since in sequels you have that more-or-less fixed gameplay dynamic already. Hopefully that answers your question...