Brad Wardell's views about technology, politics, religion, world affairs, and all sorts of politically incorrect topics.
Published on February 21, 2012 By Draginol In FE Sneak Peeks

I’m one of those people who have traditionally disliked tactical battles because I hate having to fight all of them out.

In FE, my goal is to make it so that the AI does a pretty good job of fighting the battle for you. You’ll still want to fight it out if it’s a close thing or if there are particular units you want to spare. But overall, it does a decent job.

Right now, I’m still toying with the concept of having units retreat from battle to let others take their place. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not in *this* game given the game mechanics. 

Here’s a battle where my side lost but in 0.77 would have been a walk over because the tactical AI sucked so badly.

http://screencast.com/t/Uj0Wp0DAU

Also, fun tactical battles:

image

 

[Warning: Explicit]

image

One of the big changes in FE beta 2 that wasn’t in GalCiv II was the concept of army groups. 

Who here is a WW2 history nut? If so, you know what army groups are.

Well, I put in army groups to fix a different flaw in the AI but I didn’t recognize the issue they created. The AI is now really good at having armies from different cities converge on a single city on the same turn (the AI treats army groups as a single unit).

I’ll await feedback but I’m thinking normal is too hard now.


Comments (Page 4)
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on Feb 22, 2012

So which difficulty level has the highest AI without bonuses?

Is it still gonna be 'Challenging'?

Does this mean the gap between normal and challenging is gonna be HUGE?

on Feb 22, 2012

I think it's time for a YAAAYYY!!

It's good to see how much time Brad has with the FE AI. It makes the   in me have to think of new things to demand..

on Feb 22, 2012

Frogboy
On the other hand, with more CPU time I can still vastly improve the AI from where it is now.  The AI is still awful at trading equipment with other champions or selling items.  The strategic spell casting isn't nearly as sophisticated as the tactical AI spell casting. The diplomacy stuff can be made a lot more sophisticated.
Seems to me a lot of that stuff only really needs to be calculated about every ten turns or so. Perhaps thread prioritization algorithms would be able to allow more in-depth AI while reducing the CPU impact?

All these AI calculations will be happening by the release version, right?

StevenAus
I don't get it.  Has the Stardock forums times in posts actually reverted to Stardock time as opposed to the time in your timezone?
Looks that way from here.

on Feb 22, 2012


As long as the game is harder and the AI CAN WIN I'm all for it. Make it horribly harder I won't mind. I'm sic n tired of these easy games at highest difficulties. I want a CHALLENGE GOTDAMWIT. I love games where the AI wins. Centurion:Defender of Rome is one of the best AI games I ever played. Above normal it was horrendously hard and I enjoyed every moment of getting stomped. Spartan v 1.013 by Slitherine is another that is horrendously hard above Hard difficulty and Impossilbe lives up to its name but is fun as hell trying to beat it. That's what I want to see in Elemental.....a hard challenging FANTASY game BETTER than Master of Magic.

on Feb 22, 2012

The problem with AI using the units I created would be for it to understand their purpose  : In.77, I used mostly glass  scouts: men with sticks that had all the + move perks (and the - cost ones too) and gear to be able to follow my heroes, and give them the compass bonus. These units served no other purpose, and were completely useless in combat. I'd rather  not have the AI reuse this kind of design for the mainstray of its armies

 

Maybe it should reuse them according to their perceived usefulness in battle. 

 

on Feb 22, 2012

Frogboy
They always did.

Just a reminder: The tacitcal AI in your build doesn't exist.

I'm really getting pissed off at some of our AI stuff.

Some of it is ridiculous that we may have to tone down.

A human being wouldn't be able to coordinate 4 different armies arriving at a target city in the same turn.

Game sucks.

Screw this!

 

I could not say it better _ screw this Im not playing this beta anymore...

Right after I finish this next 500 turns!!!!

 

on Feb 22, 2012

I do have to say Frogboy’s comments had me laughing so hard my wife (she sits across from me) thought I was going crazy… well more crazy then normal that is.

on Feb 22, 2012

As the mighty Cartman says "Screw you guys, I'm go'in home"

on Feb 22, 2012

Is there any possibility that doing a massed sneak-attack against a city is too easy currently? Maybe slow down the movement of enemy armies in your territory, this way you would have more time to react. The result could be some epic battles, when both sides mass their armies for a huge clash. I would like that

on Feb 22, 2012

Without a good AI there is no game. I love what I am reading.

 

Keep it up All hail the mighty

on Feb 22, 2012

The next big area to tackle will be diplomacy. It's basically untouched from beta 1.

on Feb 23, 2012

I'm hoping Sovereigns will influence diplomacy and not just Races.      I guess this also means providing appropriate ways for custom sovereigns to have their diplomatic predispositions tweaked.

on Feb 23, 2012

I never understood why anyone would not like tactical battles or let the computer do the funnest part of the game? To me the most important and funnest part of games like this is the tactical combat. And I do fight each one no matter the odds. Well every one have different taste I suppose.

on Feb 23, 2012

Frogboy
They always did.

Just a reminder: The tacitcal AI in your build doesn't exist.

I'm really getting pissed off at some of our AI stuff.

Some of it is ridiculous that we may have to tone down.

A human being wouldn't be able to coordinate 4 different armies arriving at a target city in the same turn.

Game sucks.

Screw this!


Umm if your going to 'tone it down' then at least leave the option to keep it this hard for those of us who like th game to be challanging. (Unless I missunderstood something)

on Feb 23, 2012

When I load the new beta this evening I want the AI to "KICK MY ASS"on Normal  and make me hide under my bed and cry for my mommy.

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