About AI in Fatal years:
At least, a recent Red AAR (
has opened my eyes on a fact: I never detailed what are my aims for AI in FY, beyond the attempt to get it better.
Fatal Years isn’t only an AI mod. He tries too, rightly or wrongly, to be more accurate, more historical.
Only great designs, like Hannibal, may succeed in being both historical and AI strong. I’ve not this gift.
I’ve chosen to have as first priority to introduce what I felt like needed historical facts. The second is to have the AI playing with the same rules than an human player.
To take one example, FY has solved the overpowered Siberian Whites unbalance described by some in the official game. The Siberian AI suffers the same penalties for the essential.
So, as I can’t create an AI better than a human player
, the AI performance must be assessed mainly against historical performance. In this sense, White AIs must be defeated by a rEd player before the end of 1920. I can’t even imagine a White AI able to win against a Red player. On the contrary, a White player surviving until 1922 has at least done better than in history.
I will never curb the reality or introduce cheating for AI to balance a game. To balance, it’s better for the player to choose to give bonus to AI( possible in the option settings) beyond the recommended +2 bonus for Fog of War .
On my own, I will certainly introduce, when I will have more data about real outcomes of game, a VP bonus for a side after the historical game. By example, it could be a bonus to Whites after 1920 in VP each turn. This would balance the game without altering the historical settings.
