Terrible bug in battle AI - Small armies make AI become dumb

[Hunter]

Well,

When AI is attacked by human forces by small armies, it becomes crazy and start pursuing with all forces the mainly human army. With this, we can kill all AI armies, just run away in circles around map with the army that AI is pursuing and with Heavy Cavlary (Generals is the best) at rear, charge and kill the AI units one by one. They never turn to fight, they keep marching pursuing the same army since beggining and with almost zero losses, human can defeat Full Stacks of AI elite armies when attack with 2/3 peasant archers and 2 Generals (i know who made that against William Wallace full stack).

Other problem related to this, is like SS show, we can conquer Full Stack AI Garrison citties, just leave few armies like i did in that example, 3 archers and all AI leave citty pursuing it until the other side of map, and just enter with Heavy Cav and kill all in middle and you win by time.

All AI leave citty pursuing the Human main army and ignoring the General


AI continue pursuing human army until end of map leaving a single unit inside citty


Until General don't enter the citty, AI keep pursuing human main army


When General enter the citty all AI army turn back leaving human main army alone


Heavy Cavalry charges and easy kill the single AI unit inside citty


Main AI army don't have time to went back to citty and Human conquer it with no losses and defeating (destroing) a 1200 AI elite army.


This battle was made in original Kingdoms instal during an Hotseat, but in Stainless Stell SP the bug still working!! It seems the problem only happen with ratio equal or less than 1:2! If more, AI don't leave citty center.

I know in SP we can avoid use this, but if we are so proud of our mod, this must be corrected..... and the main problem is with HOTSEAT GAMES!!! You can't see how your opponents play and with this problem they can use this exploit to get great super heroic victories!! 2 Generals and 2 Peasants kill for sure a Full Stack of Heavy Infantry in battle. Very very bad!!!! Please help fix this!!!!!

[nickman777]

try darth battle AI
the AI doesn't leave city for pursuit

[Lusted]

When AI is attacked by human forces by small armies, it becomes crazy and start pursuing with all forces the mainly human army. With this, we can kill all AI armies, just run away in circles around map with the army that AI is pursuing and with Heavy Cavlary (Generals is the best) at rear, charge and kill the AI units one by one. They never turn to fight, they keep marching pursuing the same army since beggining and with almost zero losses, human can defeat Full Stacks of AI elite armies when attack with 2/3 peasant archers and 2 Generals (i know who made that against William Wallace full stack).

The Ai is analysing your armies trength, is working out it's superior, and is launching an attack. There is no variable in the battle AI which takes into account generals bodyguards. so that exploit cannot be fixed.

Likewise the AI in sieges will only sally if it's superior in a ratio of 2.5:1, i suppose making it so the AI only sallied it even more superior could reduce the above exploit, but there is no way for an AI modder to prevent that without making the AI never sally out, which would reduce the dynamics of battles.

[nickman777]

there are entries safe guarding the street and central plaza. when it reaches the threshold, the AI gathers its forces and rendezvous. this type of exploit is uncommon and difficult as you need a spy to open the gates and expect AI without cavalry

it has never occurred to me the AI pursuits in an indefinite length of distance.

[Hunter]

And what about the field battles? When AI keeps in circles pursuing human armies ignoring the general behind that are killing units 1 by 1!??

And maybe is better they never sally out and reduce the dinamics of battle than allow some ppl to use this exploit and with small armies destroy Full Stacks of AI army!! At least AI keeps the citty and make human fight and get losses.

[IceBeast]

I can tell you nothing about field battles, but I disagree, if a player wants to exploit it, let them. I'd rather have the AI sally out and have me fight like a man, then have him just sit in there while I siege with one general. Otherwise, you could exploit it so that you alway siege all enemy cities with one cavalry unit halting there production. Then you bring in reinforcements or you just retreat before they're forced to surrender, only to do it again the next turn.

[Iscariott]

There comes a point where you have to just...not try and exploit something the AI cant handle.

[Lusted]

there are entries safe guarding the street and central plaza. when it reaches the threshold, the AI gathers its forces and rendezvous. this type of exploit is uncommon and difficult as you need a spy to open the gates and expect AI without cavalry

it has never occurred to me the AI pursuits in an indefinite length of distance.

Well it's sallying to attack your main force, if you put your army to the far side of the map then this kind of exploit is possible. And it's not really the plaza and street defense settings that are causing this, it's more to do with the sally values, thogh i can see how tweaking the plaza thread values could help. The only problem is adapting the Ai to deal with this specific situation could hurt it in more common siege battles.

And what about the field battles? When AI keeps in circles pursuing human armies ignoring the general behind that are killing units 1 by 1!??

There are no valuables to tweak to prevent that.

[MOSH007]

A sugestion:
since the AI, understanding its superiority runs to atacked the sieging forces, can the AI at least attack all opponents strenghts, instead of focusing in just a groups of forces? forgetting other forces arround the city.

This way if the AI detect there are Cavalary and non Cavalary forces sieging, it would seperate its defencing forces when leaving the city to conter attack and repel the siege, focusing its spearmen to attack the cav. and CAV and infantiry to attack the non cav oponent forces. The missiles and the general would stay in the city.

This may weaken the counter attack but at least we would know that no attacking forces would be forgotten when defensive tropus would leave the city. The general would also be protected by the ,issiles that normnally should always stayd in the ciy, first in the walls and later near the general in the central square.

[*Atlas*]

I have had this happen too, where the AI focuses on a certain group, but it wasnt an issue because as soon as another unit (cavalry or otherwise) came into close range or engaged them, nearby units would turn and assist. The hit and run works to inflict heavy losses on the AI, but it is literally hit and run, because if you stay engaged for too long, the nearby adjacent units will be upon you and envelope your attacking unit. Also, it wouldnt make a difference if some infantry pursued your cavalry, you would still outmaneuver them easily and flank the non pursuing units. As for exploiting the plaza capture, thats easily fixed via a previous suggestion in the thread - dont do it. Ive been impressed with the AI so far. A general's bodyguard was defending a plaza, I moved missile units in to soften them up, thinking they would just stand their ground. But after the second volley they charged the missile units and I had to use melee units positioned behind prematurely, and lost alot of men because of this (Ireland not too good against cav ).

[PorT_Lobo]

The problem is like Hunter said. In Hotseat you can avoid exploit this bug, BUT you can't control your opponents playing, so he can use this bug to get impossible victories.

This must be fixed. It is better AI stay ground and take all the arrows than start running around the map with a player doing hit and run destroying it!!

[IceBeast]

The problem is like Hunter said. In Hotseat you can avoid exploit this bug, BUT you can't control your opponents playing, so he can use this bug to get impossible victories.

This must be fixed. It is better AI stay ground and take all the arrows than start running around the map with a player doing hit and run destroying it!!

I disagree 100%. If the bug is fixable but maintains the current game mechanics, thats fine. However, according to Lusted, that is not possible. Having armies not sally when I siege with a small army when it should , or having armies just sit there cause you can exploit them by running around is much worse. Remember, when the AI attacks you, its suppose to attack, but because of a bug, it's just going to sit there since you can run around? That's an even worse solution.
Make house rules for your Hotseat games and if someone exploits, don't play with them. I'd rather have a bit of two way trust and honesty then degrade current game performance.

[Lusted]

since the AI, understanding its superiority runs to atacked the sieging forces, can the AI at least attack all opponents strenghts, instead of focusing in just a groups of forces? forgetting other forces arround the city.

No, no variables in the AI code to make it do that.

The problem is like Hunter said. In Hotseat you can avoid exploit this bug, BUT you can't control your opponents playing, so he can use this bug to get impossible victories.

This must be fixed. It is better AI stay ground and take all the arrows than start running around the map with a player doing hit and run destroying it!!

As IceBeast says, making it so the AI never sallies opens up anothet set of possible exploits. you're just going to have to try to trust your fellow players not to exploit, and frankly i don't get the need to exploit a game, wheres the fun in that?

[Victus Sagrada]

Stupid question: How do you get those formations at the top of the screen? I need some formations because it's a major pain micro managing the whole army.