AI Soviet Tank Rush

[JustinL]

I was still able to achieve a decisive victory relatively easily vs the AI in Soviet Tank rush in 1.02.

Is this common?

Strategy simply involved a lot of minefields, north, south, and east of the town.

Result attached.

[Erik Rutins]

A couple of points...

The AI in 1.02 did receive a few tweaks, but the major AI update is scheduled for 1.03. Also, in pretty much any game, once you get some experience the AI can be beaten, usually decisively. We plan to make the AI more challenging and make sure it uses all assets smartly and is not too predictable. However, this will not mean that it will be able to beat experienced players, but rather server as a much better training tool for new players and provide enough challenge to experienced players to make playing the AI more rewarding.

Still, I hope the v1.02 AI is a bit better than v.1.01 and v1.00 and it will continue to improve.

Regards,

- Erik

[JustinL]

Erik,

Thanks for the information. My view has been that AI serves as training for head to head play primarily.

The only other puzzle is whether such widespread minefield dispersion was possible. I'm not in a position to know the answer to that.

Thanks for the reply and thanks again for the update.

[CapnDarwin]

Being one of the playtesters I've used this scenario and CommC's scenario to keep tabs on the AI. With 102 I'm seeing my kill ration drop from 8-9 to 1 range down to 3 to 1. Most of that stems from the AI making better use of arty to hammer my units once spotted. The AI is also hitting in force better and usually from more then on axis of attack. In 100 The units appeared piecemeal and got hammered without firing a shot in most cases. As Erik stated, the AI is really in for some revamping in 103. Robert has a number of good ideas he is looking to work in.

Stay tuned.

S!

Cap'n D

[Raukman]

Noticed an improvement in AI in this scenario... WP actually tries to go around my troops somtimes instead of fighting through them... [:)] It has been better and I think its gonna be better in 1.03

Hang in all! Developers an players!

Just my 2 ören....

[8D]

[CommC]

Gamerguy,
Replay the scenario as WP, I assume you played as NATO. If you score a decisive victory as the WP, then we can conclude the AI needs work, or you should play against human opponents.

However, if you lose as the WP, then we can conclude that the scenario may be unbalanced in favor of NATO.

My opinion is that most of the scenarios in FPG are unbalanced in favor of NATO when playing the AI WP. I think we need to design some new scenarios which are balanced when played against the current AI.

[themattcurtis]

The AI is getting more aggressive in the use of its arty. I think one recent question that's popped up is whether or not the scenarios provide enough tubes to the WP forces (at least I remember seeing Rob post that in the playtesting forum).

[Adam Parker]

Played it too and the NATO AI this time held its HQ's reaonably back until basically nothing remained, ran a solid blocking attempt with its armor more effectively than past.

I quite liked it's effort this time and agree bodes well for the future.

I'm much more inclined now to read the rules and get into the nuances of this game. But this will now come at a later stage as W@W has jumped the queue.

I appreciate Rob's efforts but still firmly believe that release would have been better delayed for further testing.

Adam.

[CommC]

I played this one as WP... and beat the NATO AI easily, (but game ended prematurely as NATO fell under 20% so I didn't get the victory points for territorial objectives).

The good news was the AI held its ground and didn't launch any suicidal attacks. On the down side, the AI didn't choose its ground well to defend, did not pick areas with good fields of fire, etc.

On the whole, I am encouraged.

[JustinL]

CommC,

I tried the Thin Blue Line Scenario as WP vs NATO AI (in 1.02) and experienced the NATO charge into WP defenses. Very strange. The computer did not leave any defenses in the objective town and I was able to walk in, essentially.

Different scenarios may have different AI programming.

Possibly the NATO AI attack in a defensive scenario is an issue for 1.03.