Lusted Experimental Campaign AI

[Lusted]

Okay, i've been working on a bit of an overhaul of the campaign AI and the first version is ready for testing. Bear in mind this version is probably an alpha, doesn't have everything i want in it yet(still need to look at the AI declaring war against recent allies/neutrals, settings for catholics v ex-communicated nations and several other things), and will probably have some quirks.

But it should hopefully have some elements that work well, and be heading towards a very good AI. Only testing though will show how good it is.

I'll probably be doing a big overhaul of it based on the feedback to improve it and then put up a beta version at some point.

Simply place the files in the Stainless Steel data folder.

And for those of you wondering why the battle AI folder is in the .zip as well it has some influence on the campaign AI as well.

[Caesar Clivus]

Cant wait to try it out tomorrow.

And for those of you wondering why the battle AI folder is in the .zip as well it has some influence on the campaign AI as well.

....interesting

[Lusted]

Well this thread explains it rather well:

config_ai_battle.xml
There is really only two lines in this entire file relevant to the Campaign AI:


<sally-out-ratio>2.0</sally-out-ratio>

Self explanatory this is the strength ratio of defender to attacker that is necessary for the AI to decide to sally forth rather then defend in a siege battle. This line quite literally means the defender’s strength must be twice that of the attackers. This is used both in the campaign and during battle to determine whether to defend or counter-attack.


<friendly-to-enemy-strength-ratio>0.8</friendly-to-enemy-strength-ratio>

Again the default explanation explains this line quite well. This is the selected armies strength to selected targets strength to determine whether or not to attack. Like the other line this is used both in battle and campaign mode. In campaign it determines whether to initiate battle or not. In battle it determines whether a defending army will take the offensive. The default setting shown here (0.8) means the AI considers it’s self stronger even if they are really slightly weaker in calculated strength.

http://rtw.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/f...t&f=9,6718,,10

[Stinkfloyd]

I'll try this out tonight. I usually play on H/VH or VH/VH. Is there a setting that you recommend I play at?

[Lusted]

H or VH should be fine. The number of random backstabs should hopefully be reduced in this AI.

[devereau]

Master Lusted, I'll try it in the next days. Thanks! for your effort!

[Kaiser_Invictus]

HHmmm, sounds very good! Might try it out . Good job . Hope you get a final version soon, but im sure this is good enough!

[The Prize Fighter]

Many thanks, I'll give it a shot.

[aNarion.]

So this is an improvement of the other one?

[hellfire15]

So this is an improvement of the other one?

if you look at time of posting you see it is

[Lusted]

So this is an improvement of the other one?

Should be, part of the whole point of me doing a rework of the AI and adding in things.

[akagi28]

did you make the rebels a bit more active and also your allies a bit more useful?

[aNarion.]

OKej! thats really great, good job Lusted!

Have just tried it, are 25 turns deep with hre, on late era, with H/VH..

Nothing has really happened yet, just boosting my economy, making alliance and so on..
But everything seem to work fine so far.

[runtheplacered]

I'm on turn 60 as Aragon starting in the early period. I've wiped out Spain completely off of the map on H/H, and it was an absolute breeze. They really didn't put up a fight at all. They would ungarrison most of their troops and move them to some irrelevant section of their province, leaving maybe a general and two squads to garrison their town/castle. Nobody else really even seemed to get angry that I wiped out Spain, as I went to Portugal with a diplomat and they said I was still respected. My only two allies are France and the Papal States.. and France completely left me alone. I was able to expand into the rebel cities surrounding Aragon with complete ease.

Milan attacked Palma one time (had trade agreement + shared maps) with a very small amount of troops (3 or 4 squads max.) and I defended them off with ease. 6 or 7 rounds later they came to me with a diplomat and requested a ceasefire, even though I didn't send a single troop their way.

So, I guess my overall feeling is that the random backstabbing may have decreased but it seems like with it the "brains" of the AI left as well. Or, what brains they had left.

Good start so far though. Keep up the good, hard work Lusted

ps - I'll leave that campaign untouched.. and if you want me to try anything in particular, I can do that.

[Lusted]

Rebels are left as normal for this version. And i will definitely we ineterested to hear feedback on allies as i have done some things relating to them. If people are wondering why i'm being vague, it's so when people give feedback i can see what's working or not without people just looking for specific thigns i've mentioned as i was as much general or specific feedback as possible.

[Lusted]

Good to know, my main worry is that something somewhere might have gone wrong given the large amount of changes i've made.

[Lusted]

Just carry on playing your campaign, toggle fow every now and then to see how the AI is doing, and just post back here what's going on.

I'm worried that i will never be able to sort out the AI garrisoning problems due to the limited options i have to work with, but i think i have too many defend decisions set to frontline(AI keeps armies on border to intercept other armies) instead of fortified(more garrisons, armies near settlements).

[Henry X]

I'm worried that i will never be able to sort out the AI garrisoning problems due to the limited options i have to work with, but i think i have too many defend decisions set to frontline(AI keeps armies on border to intercept other armies) instead of fortified(more garrisons, armies near settlements).

Doesn't that mean there would be more field battles

[runtheplacered]

Doesn't that mean there would be more field battles

Not really, as this allows you to just circumvent their armies and sack their cities and castles without a fight. It would be handy if the AI actually put the armies in strategic positions.. but it doesn't. In my campaign the last of the Spanish army started running towards the opposite direction of me and let me take their last city without a fight.

[Henry X]

In my campaign the last of the Spanish army started running towards the opposite direction of me and let me take their last city without a fight.

Sounds like the Nazis after D-Day and the Falaise Gap