Is there going to be any formation and battle AI changes

[Harry7]

I have just been playing Darths mod, and I have to say, the gameplay factor just makes to mod excellent. Although the hisorical accuracy and the other features in EB are going to be great, is there going to be any changes in the battle AI, as it would be a bit of a waste to have all these great units and then having the AI use its vanilla retarded attack plans and make silly mistakes.

[Khelvan]

IF someone has exposed the AI routines, believe me we would love to change it.

[zemaniak]

Maybe Darth could share some of his knowledge on this subject with u guys ?

[Trajan]

Either way, when EB comes out, I'm going to implement Darth's formations into my copy.

[zemaniak]

But it's not just formations, it's how the AI plays and reacts...

[Khelvan]

We have our own custom formations put together by The Mark. I strongly suggest not inserting new formations from any other mod, as ours were designed to be as close to the historical formations we have evidence for.

I really don't think it is possible to mod the AI, but I would be HAPPY to be proven wrong.

[zemaniak]

Maybe PM Darth for his thoughts on what he has done to the AI... He strikes as the type who would be inclined to share knowledge

[Atheist Peace]

I downloaded DarthMod for the first time yesterday. Although the map is the vanilla one and some of the units can be boring and vanilla-ish it is a great mod mainly because of the AI. The AI is just amazing, they actually use good strategies and flank you and their armies are not just straight lines all the time. I really hope EB does something like this or something to make the AI fight better because it really really really helps the game. And i agree that you should contact Darth Vader about the issue if you need any help.

[Simetrical]

You can't mod the actual AI routines, only how they express themselves, but it amounts to the same thing. Many have alleged that new group formations, such as EB is making and DARTH VADER has made, dramatically improve AI performance if implemented correctly. That's pretty much all DARTH VADER really did to improve the AI, as far as I'm aware.

-Simetrical

[Trajan]

Originally Posted by Khelvan

We have our own custom formations put together by The Mark. I strongly suggest not inserting new formations from any other mod, as ours were designed to be as close to the historical formations we have evidence for.

I really don't think it is possible to mod the AI, but I would be HAPPY to be proven wrong.

I don't know what Darth did to the formation settings but for some reason it greatly enhanced the AI on the battlefield. Darth also created a pretty good Roman maniple formation.

[Greek Fire 19]

Also little things like altering the "mass" of units, so a barbarian charge will actualy disrupt lines, almost in the same way a cavalry charge will.

It's very impressive from one very talented individual, but I have confidence the EB team will at least be able to equal these achievements in an historically accurate way.

[O'brien the Protector]

alot,fo his AI changes stem from his unit stat changes , certian thigns that teh AI takes into actount when deciding staratagies. I dont know if its just me or not but it seems to me that although Darth is happy to share the actual files,. he dosent seem to existed to tell people how those changes actually help ( as in he wont explain to anybody else how to improove AI the way he does)

[Numahr]

Well from what I could see this Darth Mod is a real breakthrough in AI improvement. IAlthough it is not very clear how, in fact it really changes much to the AI behavior...
I really think these tweaks should be somehow implemented in such an ambitious project like EB. Maybe you could offer close cooperation to him, or study his released files...

[eadingas]

We're doing quite a _lot_ of modification to the unit battle behaviour. I would advise holding your judgement over whose AI is better until we release our stuff. Remember we have people like The Mark or Lt1956 on our team, to name just those known to wider public. I'm sure they are doing their best.

[SomeJedi]

I don't get it, why can't EB just use DarthMOD's method. WHy don't they talk to him about it? Is their any communication between the two teams?

[Khelvan]

I have already talked to him. He has stated he has made no AI improvements, and has done nothing but change the formations. He had no "method" that he could share.

[ShangTang]

Have you played his mod Khelvan? He doesn't mod the actual AI but the little tweaks he does to the texts does make the AI do smarter things.

[PROFESSORPAUL]

God guys, leave poor Klelven alone.

You keep saying "Implenty Darth Mod's Fomations!", "Put in Darth's Ideas!", etc....

How do you know what's put into EB wont be just as good or better than Darth Mod's AI?

I've been seeing this with a lot of mods now. RTR, SPQR, and EB. People keep telling them to put in Darth's AI formations and ideas. Relax, and just wait and see what the team has to offer before suddenly going and saying to put in something else.

[zemaniak]

I'm dissapointed about Darth's response. He's obviously downplaying what he's done and being secretive about it. Don't want to put down what work EB has done so far inb that respect but I must admit I've been impressed with the AI in Darth's mod

[big_feef]

Originally Posted by zemaniak

I'm dissapointed about Darth's response. He's obviously downplaying what he's done and being secretive about it. Don't want to put down what work EB has done so far inb that respect but I must admit I've been impressed with the AI in Darth's mod

Saludos desde Cuba!

Anyway, I must strongly disagree with the above statement. Darth has been very helpful to those who honestly want to know what he's trying to achieve with his mod. What he doesn't like are those who tend to give him grief because they want him to change one aspect that they don't specifically like with his mod; eg: like those who give him a lot of crap about the weaker cavalry in his mod... when he has explained time and again that the overpowered cavalry from vanilla is no more and that you realy have to be prepared to use cavalry smartly because they are no longer a battle-winning force by themselves. On a side note: I've personally tested DM 5.1 and 5.2 cavalry effects against vanilla's, and they behave like they should historically imo: still powerful, but not devastatingly so. Also, the problem was with the way RTW handles unit behavior; eg: spearmen in phalanx and engaged to the front able to instantly turn around and react to a cavalry charge to the rear and decimate them; all this while still keeping in phalanx to engage those to the front.

And anyway, if you really, really want to know exactly what Darth has done (besides reading the readme which contains a lot of useful information on what his mod is trying to achieve), just extract his files into a separate location and compare his changes against that of vanilla's and change what you don't like or think you can do better. Easy, simple and effective if you know what you're doing. If you don't, then don't complain to get someone else to create a mod just the way you would like to have it.