Interesting idea from the main forum

[Sp4]

Sounds interesting but it also sounds like a lot of work.

[easytarget]

I guess, I was sort of thinking the "light" version would just be using what humans use as a build order for settlements, provinces and stacks as a place to start.

I mean CA is already putting this in already, it's not like this is new code. We're just suggesting they tweak what's there because right now it loads up a script list that's brain dead resulting in countless encounters with starving AI factions, stacks that never build past 1st tier and settlements not properly built out.

[al Roumi]

Probably unfair to pick at the OP (especially as they're not even here) but you couldn't really have a direct replica of your play as e.g. Rome with another AI faction. This is simply becasue the circumstances under which the player makes their decisions are surely varied in many different ways to the context of the AI faction in question.

That said, and this may be the real merit of the proposal, if the AI were to learn from how other people ahve played said faction and apply it to your game, that could eb interesting, but again - once the AI starts interacting with other AIs and the player, so many different options are available that the AI still needs to find its own way in each game.

So perhaps the most that can be applied is a sub-set of scripts for pre identified contexts/situations that the AI can "choose" to apply, but then again (again again!), this is surely how the AI has been coded anyway by CA. Choosing what to do when and why, flexibibly and responsively, is surely the problem AIs struggle with anyway, rather than the particular strategy to pursue, which can be scripted.

[MadKow]

In photography there is one thing called matrix mettering that basically analises the image by dividing it in zones and compares it to a database of scenes and then chooses the best exposure for that scene. This happens while your fingers does "click", so it's pretty fast. Nikon claims to use a db of 10 000 scenes.
I mention this because i guess this sort of thinking could be, maybe, used to program the AI to take a "snapshot" of it's present turn, and deciding on its next move by comparing it to similar situations in it's database. The key here is to have a large enough database that covers as many situations as possible, and thats where the input from players experiences comes in.

[BroskiDerpman]

Memory hooks?

[TargetSlayer]

The "sales pitch" with the Company of Heroes titles was that their AI adapted its play somewhat based upon the human player. Civ relies on a lot of upfront advantages given to the AI as you advance in difficulty levels. This is an interesting discussion but difficult for me to understand how it could be implemented.

Perhaps a more practical approach would be to consider more advantages (some would call them cheats) given to the AI both at the start and at strategic points during the campaign. With regards to this discussion, perhaps in our own solo games the larger factions at least could also be given redirection based upon our gameplay, so that if we are forming heavy seige-based armies (or whatever) they would counter appropriately. Something resembling Skyrim's leveling system to help the AI stay competitive. I realize this is difficult to balance as one should not be "tricked" out of outpacing the AI, but an introduction to this concept (if possible) would mean we would be almost competing against ourselves.

Regards

[BroskiDerpman]

Interesting, it would force yourself to be on your toes trying to out think yourself hopefully. It would also make the game seem less artificial in difficulty so that's a plus.