Learning from players

[Tamur]

hi all,

Back in the pre-STW-release days, it SEEMS like I remember part of the marketing for the game being that the computerised generals learned strategies from you, got better through the game, and would end up being very tough to beat.

If I'm wrong about that, feel free to throw this question out. But is this part of the game still? Does the AI learn tactics from the player on the battlefield-level or the campaign-level?

Thanks, this is way out there but just thought I'd ask.

[econ21]

I vaguely recall something about the MTW campaign AI increasing the amount of troops it throws at a province if you rebuff it the first time. I recall experiencing something consistent with this in STW (desperately trying to cling on to Shinano against ever increasing invading armies etc).

[Ludens]

I have read that the AI of Shogun was able to learn the shinobi rush tactic from the player: the AI would never use it unprompted but if the player started doing it, the AI could do it also (because the AI would be able to see all units, including the player's spies and assassins). But I have never seen solid proof of this, and it sounds as something extremily difficult to program.

Also, if this were true you would expect the computer to keep logfiles of strategic events. Does the computer do that?

[Blodrast]

hmm, please correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember that I was browsing through MTW's files a while ago, and I stumbled upon the one encoding tactics and such.
It was also a text file, so, at least theoretically, it should be possible to mod it such that the AI employs new or at least different tactics on the battlefield.

Since I am not a frequent visitor on the modding boards, has this been ever addressed ? Is it a non-issue (i.e., perhaps, for instance, it is not moddable at all because it is too tightly coupled with hardcoded things) ?

I'm probably not gonna have enough time to figure out the file and mess with it to see if anything can be done, but IF it COULD be done, then that would be a fabulous answer to your problems, even though perhaps not the one you expected, eh ?

[Duke John]

Blodrast, your question has been answered in the Dungeon. The files you are thinking of are merely there to put the AI army in a formation: missiles up front, cav on the side, etc. If you change them to a more efficient formation, the AI will rearrange them for some reason. I can hardly call that intelligent.

[Blodrast]

yup, got it, Duke John. Thank you and sorry for the confusion.
For some reason I seemed to (wrongly) remember that I had gotten the impression that it was more than just deployment formations...i.e. perhaps some actual tactical formations during the battle. But if it is as you're saying (and I've no reason to doubt that), then it is indeed kinda disappointing.