Changes to Battle AI?

**N0vaxz** · August 18, 2016, 06:21 AM

I was watching a video of the mod a while ago and noticed that there were quite capable reserves held back by the AI. This seemed to be great but i was disappointed when instead of flanking on an open flank with AI cavalry the AI instead rear charged his own men and were essentially wasted.
Any info would be great. Couldnt seem to find any on the form/stickys.

**Petellius** · August 18, 2016, 07:56 AM

Well thats because we can't actually edit the BAI, its simply a hack by adding values that the BAI seems to enjoy playing ball with. Its unpredictable and impossible to control but the BAI does seem to behave smarter than in vanilla, if only a little. Its not something (unfortunately) that I would be able to fully fix.

Its similar to how the BAI was improved in Rome 2 by people adding to the sight range of units.

EDIT: Also unfortunately most of the progress I made there has been lost during further development of the battle mechanics, though some properties still remain.

**T-Duke** · August 26, 2016, 05:19 PM

Originally Posted by Petellius

W

EDIT: Also unfortunately most of the progress I made there has been lost during further development of the battle mechanics, though some properties still remain.

This is quite sad to know, could you please be more specific about what brand new battle dynamics we are going to experience in AE then?

**Petellius** · August 26, 2016, 07:17 PM

The battle dynamics are mostly about reduced casualties, more realistic combat in terms the importance of fatigue and morale and different factors (from missiles suppressing units and making them less combat, to cavalry charging down units that simply wont stand against them).

I still do look into the BAI but its so hard to predict any real change that ultimately I had to give up and focus on the balance instead.

**N0vaxz** · August 27, 2016, 07:57 AM

This is extremely sad - I would give anything for better battle AI

**Causeless** · August 27, 2016, 08:03 AM

Originally Posted by N0vaxz

This is extremely sad - I would give anything for better battle AI

Theoretically making changes to battle AI should theoretically be possible in campaign battles (but not custom battles) via battle scripting. Theoretically it would give full control over individual units (so the script can directly command a unit and tell it what to do), but it's very limited due to the lack of information about the battle and especially the battle map that scripts can access. As far as I'm aware nobody has tried modding BAI through this technique yet.

Anyways, even when disregarding limitations, whether part-time modders like myself could out-do professional AI coders is very questionable even with the domain-specific knowledge surrounding modified battle mechanics.

**Petellius** · August 27, 2016, 11:58 AM

Originally Posted by Causeless

Theoretically making changes to battle AI should theoretically be possible in campaign battles (but not custom battles) via battle scripting. Theoretically it would give full control over individual units (so the script can directly command a unit and tell it what to do), but it's very limited due to the lack of information about the battle and especially the battle map that scripts can access. As far as I'm aware nobody has tried modding BAI through this technique yet.

Anyways, even when disregarding limitations, whether part-time modders like myself could out-do professional AI coders is very questionable even with the domain-specific knowledge surrounding modified battle mechanics.

True, but that isn't something I sadly have the time to do. I'd like to try at some point but I doubt I would make much of an impact as despite how much I may hate the Vanilla BAI, I do realise its a damn hard thing to get right.