Support points

[Stvitus2002]

I am involved in a long campaign as the Soviets. Does the AI
use ALL of it's support points per battle regardless of whether
i use all of my support points? I know that the AI's force size
is determined by the size of my core force. How do support
points figure into the calculation?




Joe D.

[KG Erwin]

Yes, the AI will use all of its support points. That's why once the AI targets a few of your units, it becomes artillery/mortar hell. As designer Michael Wood once stated, using arty is one of the few things the poor dumb AI is pretty good at.

[vahauser]

Warrant officer 0/0,
 
I'm pretty sure that the computer doesn't build its force the same way the human does.  I think that the computer first looks at the value of the human total core+support.  For instance, if the human is fighting a Delay Mission with a core that has a value of 4,000 points plus 1,000 support points, then the computer uses 5,000 as its base.  Then the computer looks to see if AI Advantage is turned ON (which gives it more points to spend).  Then the computer looks at the 'Battle Type' (easy, medium, or hard (x2)).  Then it takes all that information and multiplies the points available by the mission type (in this example computer Advance Mission) to determine the final number of points available to the computer.  The computer always spends all of its available points if possible.
 
I've never seen the game code, but this is what I think is going on based on what I've seen in the games I've played.

[Rimrunner]

But tell me - why, oh why, does the AI never fire a smokescreen to cover an advance?

[FlashfyreSP]

ORIGINAL: Rimrunner

But tell me - why, oh why, does the AI never fire a smokescreen to cover an advance?

Because it wasn't coded to do so...that's the most likely explanation. Keep in mind, the AI's combat abilities are scripted; it is told how to act in certain circumstances, with variables included, but it follows a basic set of instructions. And it probably wasn't scripted to use smokescreens for all advances.

That said, there are times when the AI will drop a smokescreen: usually a pre-game one, and usually for Assault missions. But it never follows-up on this by using more smoke once the initial screen disperses.