The AI as Opponent and the Chain of Command

Command Ops: Battles From The Bulge takes the highly acclaimed Airborne Assault engine back to the West Front for the crucial engagements during the Ardennes Offensive. Test your command skills in the fiery crucible of Airborne Assault’s “pausable continuous time” uber-realistic game engine. It's up to you to develop the strategy, issue the orders, set the pace, and try to win the laurels of victory in the cold, shadowy Ardennes.
Command Ops: Highway to the Reich brings us to the setting of one of the most epic and controversial battles of World War II: Operation Market-Garden, covering every major engagement along Hell’s Highway, from the surprise capture of Joe’s Bridge by the Irish Guards a week before the offensive to the final battles on “The Island” south of Arnhem.

Moderators: Arjuna, Panther Paul

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Deathtreader
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The AI as Opponent and the Chain of Command

Post by Deathtreader »

Hi,

A silly question probably, but..........

As a human player I can issue orders to my highest level subordinate(s) and let those orders percolate down the chain or I can bypass one or more levels of command and issue orders directly to sub-formations and/or individuals units. What about the opponent AI?? Does it always follow the "chain"?? Or can it also bypass levels??
Just curious.

Rob.[:)]
So we're at war with the Russkies eh?? I suppose we really ought to invade or something. (Lonnnng pause while studying the map)
Hmmmm... big place ain't it??
- Sir Harry Flashman (1854)
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Arjuna
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RE: The AI as Opponent and the Chain of Command

Post by Arjuna »

Rob,

Good question. First a little explanation. One way of viewing the AI is to see it in several parts - strategic, operational and tactical. Tactical AI deals with the base mechanics and manages how units move, deploy and fire. Operational manages how missions are conducted - ie how plans are developed and reassessed and how a particular force reacts to developments. The strategic AI focuses on the achievement of victory - ie what victory objectives to go for, what forces to allocate to them, when to change priorities etc.

You as the player handle the strategic AI for your side. For the AI controlled side the onMapBoss does this using the strategic AI code. In determining what victory objectives to go for it will cull objectives for various reasons ( eg required achievement points, available time, sequencing, force ratios etc ). Then it will allocate its available forces. It's in this allocation process that the AI effectively mimicks the human player's ability to issue orders directly to sub formations and individual units.

Eg. Let's say we have a Division on map and the AI side has to allocate its forces to say ten objectives ( after culling others ). It will determine the suitability value of each objective along with other selection factors. It will determine its share of the resources based on its suitability value. Let's say that in our example three of the objectives warrant the allocation of a Bde or its equivalent, another three require a Bn strength group and the last one just a company. The Allocation code kicks in and may end up allocating the 3rd Coy of the 2nd Bn of the 3rd Bde to this objective.

Does that help explain it?
Dave "Arjuna" O'Connor
www.panthergames.com
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RE: The AI as Opponent and the Chain of Command

Post by Deathtreader »


Sure does........Thanks!

Rob.
So we're at war with the Russkies eh?? I suppose we really ought to invade or something. (Lonnnng pause while studying the map)
Hmmmm... big place ain't it??
- Sir Harry Flashman (1854)
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