Honestly How Competant Will the AI be this time ?

[Hard Sarge]

did good here, Vicki lucky was wide open, I should break the line again, if I can reach it, but that is part of the delay tactic

[Hard Sarge]

all this shifting is hurting, he can't dig in like he wants, but, that is why I keep pushing

Smolensk will fall, and lose some troops, but, could of been better

getting my Inf up close now, they can do some of the work

[Hard Sarge]

that River and the Marsh are a totally pain, so I happy here, my Inf is close, it can start driving

[Hard Sarge]

ahhhhh, had hopes for this area, he did good, freed the big pocket, got back across the river

I don't think he will save them the 2nd time

[Hard Sarge]

down to Odessa, his line is just too long, but he cleaned up and saved most of it

so, what do you think ?

the AI can defend itself

the line is pretty brittle as of right now and I am starting to run out of time

[Hard Sarge]

here is where it pushed one of my units out of the way, but wasn't enough to save the rest of the trapped troops

[Captain B]

HArd Sarge, As my good friend Homer Simpson once said, Praise Jeebes! This shows that the AI will be good enough to keep you guessing and force you to make some hard decisions. As I told Pyle Driver in the other post, can you say "Good Morning HAL". I can't tell you how refreshing it is to see an AI that will react to your attacks, reform lines, counterattack and keep you guessing.

I occassionally use the two player hot-seat to play a "solitaire" version of a war game. looks like that won't be an issue.

Any idea what happens if you went back and retested the same turn...does it act the same way and therefore get predictable? My guess is that the smart guys (programmers) won't allow that to happen and that this thing will blow the socks off of any other AI.

It is no easy trick to get the AI to do what you want it to do. Once wrote an AI script for Fredricksburg that produced 12,500 Union. Pretty dang close to the real numbers from December of 1862.

Keep it up and thanks for the show...thoroughly enjoyable.

[Hard Sarge]

I do know, if you set an attack, save the game, play out the attack, and then restart and do it again, the results will not be the same, some may be "easy" wins, others the enemy will hold, or get reinforcements

you could say, set a Inf Div to attack a Rifle Div, get a hold result, so reload, and then add a support unit to your Inf Div, the AI may send a reserve unit to the fight

so, yes, do the same thing, you may not get the same results, replay the turn, will not give you the same results

if the AI gets the chance to dig in, and to set up there reserves, it can be a real pain, to try and crack the line, i think most of the screen shots we are seeing, are where we got the AI moving, reacting to what we are doing, so looks much easier then it can really be

I hit the flank, just under Vicki Lucky, I have not seen so many holds in a long time, if that line can stand in place for the next turn, it is really going to be HARD to crack, but, I am putting pressure all along the line, so very HARD for the AI to just dig in and sit in place

REALLY, what we can show with Screen shots is how the game changes, you going to be doing hasty attacks and over runs, and slaughtering the airfields, by turn 3 or so, a lot of the hasty attacks are going to fail and you going to have to go to the set piece, which will slow you down, air to air, the LW still has the major edge, but the slaughter on the fields is gone, over and over again, you have to change what you are doing, your tactic's need to keep changing

and you may not think so, but you are under time and pressure, you are running out of time, the Blizzard is going to hurt, and combat in 42 is not the same as in 41

[KarlXII]

ORIGINAL: wodin

A big thankyou from me aswell....if it didn't come with an AI I would not buy and it looks like I'd have missed out on one hell of a game.

So thanks [&o]

I totally agree. What is this discussion from players about not putting resources to build a competent A.I. Everyone KNOWS it will not be perfect but everyone HOPES it will at least be better than in previous incarnations. As has already been stated the majority will play mainly play against the A.I.

[PyleDriver]

I play both PBEM and the AI. The reason I want a good AI is, with the AI I don't have to wait days for a return move to start my next turn. Its that simple...

[jimh009]

After reading through the two AAR's, I think the AI looks great right now. I can't wait to see it in it's Beta and then final version.

Also, for those complaining about the AI - do remember one thing. When it comes to tactics and strategy, humans aren't perfect either.

And it's those mistakes, by both the computer and human players, that can really make the game fun, challenging and wholly unpredictable.

[dazoline II]

ORIGINAL: jimh009
Also, for those complaining about the AI - do remember one thing. When it comes to tactics and strategy, humans aren't perfect either.

And it's those mistakes, by both the computer and human players, that can really make the game fun, challenging and wholly unpredictable.

After reading WITP and AE forums for years and recently this one, that has got to be the best answer for any pbem only comment I've read.

[Hard Sarge]

from my screen shots here, i wanted to look at something so, I let the turn run for a few turns with out me doing anything

the response from the AI was something, all of it's lines got massive, lots of reserves and layered 3 or more deep

part of what you see in our AARs and screen shots is, that we are putting a ton of Pressure on the AI

[Neal_MLC]

This may have been said before but AIs are always going to be a "work in progress" and consequently tend to be expensive in both time and money. I would hope that 2x3 (3x2)games will always be tweaking their game AIs but I understand the constraints and hope that everyone else does too.

Keep up the good work on producing world class games. I use Matrix games as an example on how o do things right in the business classes I teach.

[Captain B]

Pyle Driver (Jon?),

Thoroughly agree...do a lot of traveling on business....then do a lot of work at home...then, believe it or not, the wife wants time...so AI is often the best choice. It would not be fair to be engaged in a long email game where say I couldn't get back to the guy for three or four days.

So, all aspects of the game. AI. PBEM, hot-seat, are important and from the looks of things...it will all be very, very good...hopefully very very soon!


Rich B> (Captain B>

[british exil]

I am just worried the AI will be too good for me.

What kind of difficulty settings will there be?

[Zovs]

Easy, Normal, Challenging Hard and Impossible.

I have played on Challenging and Hard, I tried Impossible once but had to surrender to Mr. AI ...[:D], maybe in a month... [:)]

[PyleDriver]

Theres 5 levels, I'm playing my AAR on 3. Level 2 is normal, level 1 is called easy and gives you perks...I have pressed Joel that normal should be 3, as I don't see anyone playing on 5 now...

[british exil]

So there will be hope that I will survive a month on easy, be it as German or SU player.

Jon- will follow you in your AAR (great Work) would it be possible to do large maps ss more often so we can really see your flanking moves? (did not want to disturb the flow in your AAR)

[mmarquo]

ORIGINAL: PyleDriver

I play both PBEM and the AI. The reason I want a good AI is, with the AI I don't have to wait days for a return move to start my next turn. Its that simple...

PyleDriver,

This is why you must play 4 games against 4 different human pbem opponents - no down time


Marquo