PacWar AI tips

[Jeremy Pritchard]

In testing the AI I have discovered a few things that should improve its performance. Basically, the longer you play PacWar in one seating, the worse the AI behaves. Also, the more you reload a scenario (without exiting) the worse the AI gets as well. I think that this is some sort of a memory problem in the game.

To improve the AI, you should...

#1. Save your game every few months of gameplay, exit out of PacWar, restart PacWar and reload your game (sometimes it might help restarting your computer).

I notice that the AI tends to get a new wind every time you exit out after a long period of play. The AI seems to stumble, forget its objectives, and even half heartedly try and achieve their objectives if you keep the game running for 'month's and month's' of gameplay.

#2. Also, if you save a game, and reload it (i.e., load a saved game, or start a new scenario) WITHOUT exiting from the game first (and restarting PacWar), the AI behaves significantly worse, achieving around 60-70% of the objectives they regularly achieve.

I tested this on the historic first turn of the 1941 scenario, and the AI fights a lot better (wins more battles) when you start the game fresh. When you reload a game without exiting first, you end up with a 'lazy AI' who just fails.

#3. This is an old game, but high useages of memory (i.e., running other programs in the background) will also affect the AI. So, do what you do with state-of-the-art 2002 games with PacWar. Close down everything you can that is running in Windows in the background and the AI should fight a bit better.

#4. Give the AI MAX HELP, as the AI tends to waste a lot of troops, requiring that extra squad reinforcement (help gives you +50% squads/turn, max help gives you +100% squads/turn, plus some other benefits).

#5. Make some personal 'House Rules', such as no invasions of North Japan/Alaska, or follow other 'house rules' provided. This will make for a much more challenging game.

[Capt. Harlock]

Some interesting ideas, but I have to wonder. I usually save and exit at least twice per turn (other domestic matters keep coming up), and the Japanese AI still does things like invading Broome before it has secured Timor or Java.

Also, under Windows 9X, closing down background programs may help, because Windows is running "on top of" DOS. Under Win 2000 or XP, however, it shouldn't make any difference. Windows is "native", and DOS programs are run in a "box" of memory separate from the rest of Windows.

One last point: just how many squads per turn are provided as reinforcements? I'm scaping the bottom of the manpower barrel in my latest game as the Allies under Version 3.2--down to a mere 100 squads in the pool. And I'm only on Help Japanese, not Max Help.

[wflarry]

I noticed something like this after the first Matrix improvements to the game.

I kept re-running a new historical start and noticed that each time I ran the turn that the number of ships sunk at Pearl Harbor would drop with each rerunning. Eventually the pearl harbor attack would hardly damage any ships at all.

Completely exiting the exe and running the historical start would 'reset' the combat results to normal.

Have not tried this in a while, and the new version typically does not result in the devestating results at pearl harbor that some of the earlier versions so it is more difficult to see as much of a difference.

I also suspect some sort of 'memory leak' as being the problem.

Bill

[Nomad]