IMPORTANT: State of the Game and Future Plans as of August 2023

[pzgndr]

I have previously posted a couple of State of the Game updates, the first back in June 2016 https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... =IMPORTANT and then again last year in October 2022 https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 0&t=389601 following release of the v1.24.03 official update. Today marks the release of the latest v1.25.03 official update. I don't want to rehash everything I've already said previously, just build upon it. Please feel free to review the previous updates. I think maybe there was another or two in between but I cannot find them in a search.

Firstly, v1.25.03 continues with the improvements and enhancements players expect: 1) Several minor game bugs resolved; 2) Several database, tables, and setup corrections made; 3) Release/exchange of prisoners resolved; and 4) Other than that, mostly AI improvements and enhancements across the board. Since I started on this path 7 years ago, I've pretty much accomplished (finally) what I set out to do: game bugs, PBEM bugs/enhancements, rules deviations, AI bugs/enhancements, user interface bugs/enhancements, and other game enhancements. My concerns then are still concerns today, so we're not likely to see the following: updating the code to the current Embarcadero compiler, implementing map changes, or implementing online play, either TCP/IP or via a server like NetPlay.

That said, there are a few near-term issues I'd like to investigate further and resolve with a quick hotfix EXE patch sometime in the next month or two: 1) resolve area_determine_owner issue; 2) verify doubled income/manpower for minor free states with and without conquered minors (e.g., Sweden and Finland); 3) pathfinding optimization; 4) surrender conditions display glitch (I maybe fixed this yesterday?); and 5) any other reported issues with the v1.25.03 official update that players may spot over the coming weeks (a game save would be most helpful for troubleshooting).

So, what's down the road for v1.26 over the next year or so? I have four ideas in mind: 1) Implement some form of National Variants (USAF Academy version of Empires in Arms https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/2326 ... demy-rules); 2) Implement more AI Major Powers grand strategies as discussed in the player notes and strategy articles; 3) game editor improvements and enhancements; 4) maybe expanding game variables for more modding (if I can get changes to work); and 5) consider other suggestions by players for what they might like to see down the road. And of course any bug fixes for reported issues that may pop up.

I'd like to give special thanks to several players who have helped me along the way over the past couple of years: Brian Courtis, Jimmi Magnus, Johan Patrik roos, Cliff Salvemini, Tobin Taylor, and others who took time to report issues and provide game saves. Thank You!!

[pzgndr]

As I just wrapped up the quick hotfix EXE patch today for v1.25.03 as promised, I'd like to share some thoughts about what I said about #1 and #2 for v1.26 AI improvements. I want to start by sharing some helpful feedback that I received last week:

I have been using the hardest AI level.

The AI has kind of depended on a few things. I've only played as Britain or France and have always enjoyed and been locked more in the mindset of taking lots of things over rather than purely playing the political points. Been that way since friends of mine started me out on the board game years ago.

In this latest game and patch [v1.25.03] some things show great improvements from past versions such as:

Russian takes Sweden over better by using boats to take the capital rather than marching into Finland and never getting to Stockholm. As Britain I decide whether to focus on the north or south depending on where France sets up boats and what I feel will get me the most manpower quickly. So, I know currently that the Russian AI, and Russia in general, cannot bring the fight to me so I know I eventually will fight them. If early, I know I can declare war and conquer Sweden before they do as they wait until after winter and I have the means to take it and defend it from them before then. Russian declaring war on me is no threat. In the long term, I know how to successfully invade and conquer them once the French war is over. Possibly sooner if I have my full army filled out and free state armies such as Sweden and Denmark. I also know that I can take and keep Denmark without threat from anyone because the sea is a barrier. Two easy means of building fleet and forces up.

Prussia and Russia were both seeming to play well in this most recent game. They were active in moving forces around and I was able to get Prussia to aid me against the French using the diplomatic requests. Austria was pretty neutral in activity after initially taking a couple of minors they were ineffective and then inactive after a couple of losses to the French.

Turkey seemed to play and move well against Russia, who had declared war on them. However this was one of the few games where Turkey had been setup to invade Egypt as usual and expected but they failed to ever declare war on Egypt and never got it.

Spain usually goes for Portugal and gets it without much trouble. After that I have not seen them do much of anything else. Occasionally they do declare war on Morocco and/or Algeria, but often fail to follow through on attacking them or taking them. Knowing this, if I play in the Med sea early on then I focus on taking Naples before France is a neighbor there and usually that affords some security for it. And then I work to get African provinces before the Spanish. If I take Morocco/Algeria before Spain then there is never any aggression from Spain against me unless I instigate it and the rest of North Africa is easily mine for the taking. Britain's superior morale usually allows for easy gains, especially using Echelon to break the low morale minors. In this most recent game, getting Egypt because the Turks ignored it was a gold mine for Britain. The Egyptian corps and fleet are one of the best assets to Britain.

France plays well but predictably. They are hard to beat until well fleshed out and able to replace forces at a high rate. Impossible without Prussia and Austria at least keeping them busy.

Some strategies that make things easier for me:
1) Doing whatever it takes to knock an enemy down on the political chart. If they have many minors, once they hit instability they lose them all unless they have forces in them and most of them often do not.
2) Never worrying about the AI declaring war on me without cause. Usually I start the wars, but sometimes get dragged into them over declaring war on the same minor and not backing down, which I hope for anyway at that point. Only in this most recent version was I surprised when I was in Russia, just finished defeating them and all my armies were tied up there when Prussia declared war on me.
3) I only go for unconditional surrenders versus the computer. I choose 3 territories which hurts them/helps me the most. I choose enforced access because that has prevented me from surprise game rule issues with not being able to evacuate correctly or easily. And I have learned to take leaders away as they are the hardest thing to overcome in battles.
4) I have found that fleets usually won't run a blockade and that I can use a minimal amount of ships to blockade the French freeing me up to use enough of the rest to ferry my troops around.
5) The AI is pretty good at screwing me up in many battles. I will admit there are times I will reload combat or land/naval moves, especially if I have been complacent or lazy in my actions. On the naval side of things, definitely noticing interception more often than in the past. Usually easy to get around by making sure I move a larger force in
moving things around for blockades and then moving on with the ones not needed to stay for the blockade.

There's a lot of good feedback here. Firstly, let's acknowledge that the game is playable now and the AI computer opponents are relatively challenging, so we can better assess AI behaviors and make specific improvements. Secondly, let's also acknowledge that while we can make some AI improvements we cannot make the AI as brilliant as an experienced human player. Making AI France or AI Great Britain challenging for long-term solo play is going to be difficult, but I assume any PBEM game would have at least France and Great Britain as human opponents. On the less-difficult side is trying to make AI Prussia, AI Spain, and AI Turkey challenging enough to be worthy substitutes for small-group 4-5 player PBEM games that could be played faster than full 7-player games. AI Austria and AI Russia are in-between someplace.

As I discussed previously, I have some ideas to review the player notes, strategy articles and National Variants, and then implement some changes to the AI code. I think some player handicaps may also be needed based on the comments above; e.g., perhaps restricting human players from taking multiple territories or leaders away from computer opponents, etc. Basically, AI strategies and human handicaps that make things more challenging for the human player(s). There's a lot that we as a player community can do to help make v1.26 a really good game for folks to play and re-play and have some fun. That's the idea.

Here is my modest request for the player community. Play a few games with the v1.25.03 official update and hotfix and note AI strengths and weaknesses. I'm looking for consistent trends and recommendations for specific changes. Please feel free to post comments and ideas here, or maybe post an AAR with comments, or send me a PM or email with your thoughts. I'm actually looking forward to more creative development with the AI code now that most all of the old game bugs and other issues have been resolved. Most all, not all, and my priority will continue to be to resolve reported issues as they arise. So, that's where we are. As before, as I complete interim v1.26.xx Beta versions, I will post them so players can work with latest improvements along the way to the next Official Update sometime next year.

[pzgndr]

I am working on v1.26 and the idea of implementing some form of the National Variants from the USAFA version of Empires in Arms for the AI computer opponents. A copy of the rules that I am working with are available at https://www.boardgaming.info/EIA-archive/ the EIA Archive Online under Downloads and EIA Optional Rules, and also attached here. The National Objectives Charts at the end provide various Victory Points. I've translated these points (rounded up) to mod values; e.g., 5 or 10 points would be a +1 mod. I'll figure out a way to implement a function to return a mod value based on player, minor country, and opposing MP if applicable.

Basically, I see the positive mod value being applied to minor DOWs. So France and Austria would get a +1 for DOWs against Bavaria. That's easy. For the negative mod values, those would affect possible major DOWs and other alliance related checks. For example, if Great Britain controls Sweden as conquered or full Free State (not just controller upon DOW) then Russia would get a -1 versus Great Britain, and this would be applied as a +1 to the major DOW die roll against Great Britain and as a -1 for alliance die rolls and such. These would be subtle adjustments to everything else going on, but cumulative effects could add up to trigger the AI to declare war over multiple infringements on its historical sphere of influence. In the feedback I posted above, a Great Britain player taking advantage of Russia in Sweden/Denmark or of Spain in Morocco/Algeria might find himself at war for those infringements. That's the idea.

I think this should work OK for AI vs AI players as well as for human players? If the mods should only affect human opponents for the AI players then I can reconsider that after some playtesting. We'll see. Anyways, that's where I'm going with this for now. Later, I'll start looking at more specific strategy ideas for the AI.
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EIA OPTIONAL RULES.zip

(58.78 KiB) Downloaded 36 times

[pzgndr]

A quick update on v1.26.00 progress. I have implemented the proposed changes to the winter land movement option and the National Objectives modifiers for the AI as discussed. During playtesting I noticed a couple of pathfinding issues that annoyed me and then took a while to track down and resolve. One was a find_path bug for a missing land path type when checking if the adjacent area is adjacent to the target area. The other was an interesting glitch with the AI trying to redeploy units but ended up stopping in a combat area. See screenshot. Here AI France was preparing for war at Stuttgart against me as Austria but I took control of AI Prussia to declare war on France. This was to verify that France would cease preparations against Austria and then move/redeploy against Prussia. That worked, but France moved a corps to besiege Nuremburg and then the remaining corps redeploying towards Berlin moved into Nuremburg and halted. I made a modest improvement to find_path for AI to bypass combats enroute to a final destination. As seen, Napoleon and the main force has bypassed Nuremburg and moved to Weimar, better threatening Berlin with a rapid change of axis.

I plan to playtest some more over the next couple/few days to verify changes all look ok and then I'll post v1.26.00 Beta for folks to play with and see what they think.

UPDATE 11/16/2023. I am continuing to playtest. I keep finding issues related to the find_path changes. In addition to bypassing combats, I needed to also make changes for the AI to bypass non-access areas. The way find_path is used to find units in range to make DOWs, then assign units to attack, and then to move assigned units all needs to work correctly or else unnecessary lapses of war occur. That's primarily what I have been wrestling with. I've also been wrestling with getting the combat summaries in the game log straightened out to accurately report AI-AI combats and AI attacker trivial combats. Hopefully next week it will all get sorted out and I'll have a couple of "perfect" playtests.
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