Will CA ever fix their battle AI?

[Cdewarior]

I have had this problem with CA's battlefield AI since Rome first came out. Here's my problem:

The AI does not know how to handle flanking cavalry. Without fail I can easily get heroic victories on VH/VH difficulty levels by merely marching a line of spearman/swordman into the opposing army and riding my heavy cavalry around and charging into the enemy from the sides/from behind.

Is this a historical reflection of the power of heavy cavalry? Or is this just poor AI programming, giving me an enemy that fundamentally does not know how to protect its flanks?

There is a caveat to this: This strategy is much less effective against Horse Archer based nations such as the Huns/Mongols/Turks. That said, any western eurpean/infantry based force can easily be dispatched using the above strategy.

Am I crazy? or does CA fundamentally not care about fixing this glaring hole in their battlefield AI?

[That Darn Satan!]

Odds are, if it hasn't been fixed for this long, it's not considered a glaring hole ...

I imagine CA hasn't spent the resources to clear this up, because they want players to feel comfortable using flanking cavalry. Medieval battlefield tactics are a pretty obscure science to most people ... keeping the advice "tie enemy units up and hit them on the flanks or rear with cavalry" as consistently effective as possible might be one way they keep things accessible. If the AI often scotched the average player's attempts to flank, he'd learn to rely on less elegant or identifiable tactics that make it harder to feel like a brilliant battlefield commander.

At the same time, it seems that on VH the AI should do whatever it needs to do in the name of player-smashin'. So I dunno really, it's only half a theory. At any rate, I think it's reasonable to assume CA hasn't changed this because they've chosen not to, not because they don't know about it or don't have the talent ... so, we can only speculate. Shrug!

[Rammstein]

CA never made good AIs sind Medieval 1. Fortunatly there are al ot of modders which change this, like Darth.

[Foreign Fruitcake]

Look it is important to remember that there were many atrocious commanders of this age. Think of it as being historically pseudo-accurate.

[Condottiere SOG]

I have had this problem with CA's battlefield AI since Rome first came out. Here's my problem:

The AI does not know how to handle flanking cavalry. Without fail I can easily get heroic victories on VH/VH difficulty levels by merely marching a line of spearman/swordman into the opposing army and riding my heavy cavalry around and charging into the enemy from the sides/from behind.

Is this a historical reflection of the power of heavy cavalry? Or is this just poor AI programming, giving me an enemy that fundamentally does not know how to protect its flanks?

There is a caveat to this: This strategy is much less effective against Horse Archer based nations such as the Huns/Mongols/Turks. That said, any western eurpean/infantry based force can easily be dispatched using the above strategy.

Am I crazy? or does CA fundamentally not care about fixing this glaring hole in their battlefield AI?

That is because in the battle_config_ai.xml, in the outflanking section- it was never finished. I have written it out to make the game more effective.....

http://files.filefront.com/config+ai+battlexml/;87

tracking history here

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...=123405&page=4