Second take on the BAI

Now that the 'honeymoon' period is over and people have had a good look at the game, I'm interested to get peoples views on the BAI.

Although at first I thought that it had improved, the more I play the harder I'm finding it to play the AI because of how bad it can be.

I am seeing the same milling, constant formation change, 'chicken' dance behaviour and melee problems that we saw in Empire, time and time again.

The Ai also cannot seem to form a firing line of any distinction. It tends to fire a couple of volleys then rushes around aimlessly, usually bumping into one of my lines then triggering melee. Its as if its clueless and can't decide what to do, rushing from one thing to the next, rather than having a plan and sticking to it.

I'm half way through a coalition campaign and I'm really frustrated with it.

Is anyone else seeing this and getting frustrated with the BAi again?

I am really trying to see through the problems and enjoy the battles because i know it cannot be perfect. But I find it so painfully bad that it is almost impossible, I just can't enjoy the battles when the Ai behaves so erratically and unrealistically.

I agree

The things you descripe is the samething I have seen with
my own 2 eyes.

What piss me of is not that much the mele thing, it
does not happen as much as the chicken dance

Now that thing have ruined many of my great
battle.

And ones my Honey moon is over, iam
asking for a divorce..

unless a patch,can beat some sence
into her head...lol

In my campaigns so far which I'm truly enjoying the battles play much better than the broken ETW patch 1.5... I have seen the partial melee problem and chicken thingy (not as bad as ETW) in custom battles. However if you guys use the FAA/FBR mod by Radious this problem will be gone... at least for me it did it's just an adjustment to remove the cause of melee prone AI...
But truly guys the ETW BAI is FULBAR and NTW although not perfect it's an improvement... let's hope they don't break it with a patch...

Originally Posted by jegui

In my campaigns so far which I'm truly enjoying the battles play much better than the broken ETW patch 1.5... I have seen the partial melee problem and chicken thingy (not as bad as ETW) in custom battles. However if you guys use the FAA/FBR mod by Radious this problem will be gone... at least for me it did it's just an adjustment to remove the cause of melee prone AI...
But truly guys the ETW BAI is FULBAR and NTW although not perfect it's an improvement... let's hope they don't break it with a patch...

Thanks jegui - what I donl;t understand is how radious's FBR mod effects melee? There is no mention of it in the changelog, just that he has got rid of FAA and replaced it with FBR.

Cheers

Originally Posted by jimmy44

Thanks jegui - what I donl;t understand is how radious's FBR mod effects melee? There is no mention of it in the changelog, just that he has got rid of FAA and replaced it with FBR.

Cheers

Well, because he indeed removes FAA - the AIs lines get messy with that enabled, since the units move over each others and for some reason the targeting seems to be bad with it.

I think the NTW AI is an improvement over ETW. My main complaint is the suicide General. Why does this behavior always return with each new TW release? I don't see a whole lot of melee except when fighting Armed Citizen or Militia type units and that is fine since they can't win a firefight against Line units. Against AI Line Regular units I see formed lines and firefights. I am using JaM's Realism mod and a few other minor mods.

Originally Posted by jimmy44

Thanks jegui - what I donl;t understand is how radious's FBR mod effects melee? There is no mention of it in the changelog, just that he has got rid of FAA and replaced it with FBR.

Cheers

Point 5 in bold from Radious description...


5. Added another version which just removes Fire and Advance (no FBR, its made for people who do not like from some reason FBR but think that FaA is stupid mainly in AI hands which hardly can form line properly for it before it gets killed)

It is sure improved, compared with etw 1.5

but still it needs some polish

And remember that you're comparing the AI of an un-patched NTW vs the ETW AI that was apparently fixed, so with patches, the NTW AI might become much better than it is today. We'll just have to wait and see what's on CA's 'to fix list'

Sure, it's better than ETW's AI, but that's not really saying much.

Waiting for more bandaid? Did they ever fix ETW? Don't think they will fix this. Patches will solve som minor things but the issues will still be there

I said this about 3 days after NTW came out and I experienced the suicide generals and the Picketts charge in all its glory. I said mark my words, once the honeymoon period is over, there will be public uproar. And not just because of the bad BAI, but the lack of replayability, lack of nations tio play as, and small scope.

The AI in NTW can actually be worse than ETW. For whatever reason, the Maratha in ETW actually perform better than the other nations. A battle against the Maratha in ETW > a NTW battle with the suicide general and the chicken dance pickett charge into the human artillery.

Try this mod .It works much better for me (my units are much bigger than vanilla and I modded fire by rank back btw)
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=339667

Don't forget to add the mod to user script in first line.

Ya I just had a battle where the AI could have easily won, it starts and they immediately run to the high ground and forms a line, check. So I maneuver around and try to get as high up as possible before engaging. Right as I'm about to engage they proceed to pack up and walk ALL the way down the hill right in front of my lines barely firing a shot getting slaughtered the whole time and completely bypassing my somewhat isolated light inf and arty squad which they could have easily taken out..

I don't have expectation that are very high, because as I have said many times that in ten years I have never played a TW game with good BAI.

I do find Napoleon great fun, more with mods.