FOTS and AI use of cannons still not fixed

**Surveyor K** · July 10, 2012, 10:35 AM

CA has managed to fix many bugs with their patches, but a critical AI bug remains in FOTS.
When the AI has cannons and it is on the offensive, it really doesn't know what to do with them.

If your troops are not in range, the AI just advances it's cannons untill they are shot to pieces. They also leave them totally unguarded, thus becoming easy prey for cavalry.

After many patches this bug still remains, and I wonder how hard can it be to fix something as important as this.

**Humble Warrior** · July 10, 2012, 12:42 PM

I haven`t had a chance to run a new campaign since my last to see sincethe Patch, but that has also bugged me. Sigh, I forgot to mention this bug before. It seems if we don`t keep whining for each bug they get left or forgotten. Hopefully, there`s still a Patch or two to remedy that.

**Surveyor K** · July 10, 2012, 03:58 PM

It's really a shame with this bug, because the AI in FOTS is actually pretty good otherwise, just the fact that something as important as this is still not fixed.
It probably even isn't such a big fix, or has CA's AI coder already moved to another job?
The current situation is far from perfect as the AI has little challenge to offer to a player, even when having a superior number of artillery when attacking.
I would really like an official acknowledgement on this issue.

**Santeri** · July 11, 2012, 02:02 PM

I would like to know what would happen if all artillery(land battles) had unlimited range

Thought it would make them more powerfull in hands of player but it would also help the AI to use them much more effective.

**Slaists** · July 11, 2012, 02:45 PM

Yeah, this is a sad story: the AI and its cannons in FOTS, especially since artillery is such a crucial piece to the battlefield equation in this setting. The arty misuse applies to both, defending and attacking AI. The defense is even more of a sad story since if the player has any artillery of their own, a defending AI is very likely to forget defense and rush (turn into an attacking AI). Among many, many battles against the FOTS AI I remember only ONE where a defending AI sat at the original position and kept decent formation. In this unique case, the AI actually properly used artillery; and I checked, it was not a drop-in human player...

Other than that, FOTS currently presents any threat (on any campaign difficulty) to the human player only up to the point the player has 4 arty pieces (parrot guns or better; weapon smith does not seem to matter, btw). From there, it's a global mop-up business.

**bwc153** · July 11, 2012, 03:33 PM

My suggestion is play with the time limit so if the AI bugs out you can still play the game, but never engage in battles you know will take longer than the 60 minutes. I've had a couple battles where I was defending as Prussia vs. 2 Austirna stacks in EiC where the AI got slaughtered but I kept running out of time before I finished off their army (literally the 1st time I did it my cavalry had flanked them and was 10 seconds away from their last units when the battle ended) and as such they kept coming back, I think I had to fight that army 3-4 times in total (with the same battlefield - though that particular battlefield gave me a very nice artillery position) to finally kill off the 2 stacks in it.

**Slaists** · July 11, 2012, 03:51 PM

Originally Posted by bwc153

My suggestion is play with the time limit so if the AI bugs out you can still play the game, but never engage in battles you know will take longer than the 60 minutes. I've had a couple battles where I was defending as Prussia vs. 2 Austirna stacks in EiC where the AI got slaughtered but I kept running out of time before I finished off their army (literally the 1st time I did it my cavalry had flanked them and was 10 seconds away from their last units when the battle ended) and as such they kept coming back, I think I had to fight that army 3-4 times in total (with the same battlefield - though that particular battlefield gave me a very nice artillery position) to finally kill off the 2 stacks in it.

Huh? Not sure how time limit is going to help the issue at hand. In FOTS, once the player has arty, battles are over in 5-10 min max. The AI rushes the player's lines, the AI gets torn to pieces by the player's arty and kneeling line infantry, the AI routs, battle over.

**CTD_or_Bust** · July 12, 2012, 12:08 AM

Originally Posted by Santeri

I would like to know what would happen if all artillery(land battles) had unlimited range

Thought it would make them more powerfull in hands of player but it would also help the AI to use them much more effective.

I feel like you could abuse that easily by riding heavy with more artillery. I'm usually very heavy on arty and even with being in range of the enemies their troops are still shredded by the time they get to me.

**Surveyor K** · July 12, 2012, 08:15 AM

To me this is a game breaking bug, like said before the AI is pretty much broken. CA really need to fix this.
Have they even mentioned they are aware of this issue? How did this get past beta testing? Shogun 2 and FOTS are excellent games and the AI is overall much improved, but something like this is a disgrace.