Is the AI cheating...?

[Tarhunnas]

So, after the AI went insane, I decided I would switch sides to see how I would manage as the Soviets in the situation I myself had put them in (If you want something done properly, do it yourself - Napoleon). I then discovered that the AI had placed most of his headquartes far from the units they were commanding. In fact, the whole command structure was a mess that I will have to spend a couple of turns clearing up. This leads to a couple of questions:

a) Is the AI "cheating" in that it doesnt receive the same penalties as a human player from not having stuff within the proper command range? or...
b) Is the AI performing worse than a human player precisely because it makes a mess of its command structure?

[Pawsy]

AI is only for practice.

[Swenslim]

No penalty for command range is not big deal, let *AI* have some bonus.

But I hope it suffers cut railway  supply problems and lack of motor park penaltys.

[Swenslim]

It would be good thing if developers will post all AI cheating posibilities , for example like in  WITP AE AI could instantly teleport TF to any  friendly port on map.

[morganbj]

I'd swear that the AI teleports massive quantities of units from the Starship Enterprise to threatened areas of the front. I have played a game with FOW turned off and found it mazing that right after I blow a hole in the lines, fifty or sixty units immediately appear to block my penetration.

[Senno]

ORIGINAL: bjmorgan

I'd swear that the AI teleports massive quantities of units from the Starship Enterprise to threatened areas of the front. I have played a game with FOW turned off and found it mazing that right after I blow a hole in the lines, fifty or sixty units immediately appear to block my penetration.

Wait til you are in the Caucasus with no rail around for hundreds of miles. End your turn and suddenly tons of 0-0 and 1-1 units fall out of the sky landing all about you. I play bumper cars with the 0 = 0, but there's just enough 1 = 1 that if you don't withdraw, with their massive manpower refit superpower you would be sealed off entirely next turn if you didn't withdraw.

Ahh well, without those units, there'd be no defense at all, which would be really boring.

[gradenko2k]

The AI has an unlimited amount of admin points, and so as the Soviets can buy as many units as it wants/needs.

Having said that, I'm pretty sure the AI is still limited by manpower, so even if it can conjure a bajillion divisions in a turn, they're just going to be empty shells for the first turn and for how many turns you've hurt his manpower for.

[morganbj]

ORIGINAL: Senno

ORIGINAL: bjmorgan

I'd swear that the AI teleports massive quantities of units from the Starship Enterprise to threatened areas of the front. I have played a game with FOW turned off and found it mazing that right after I blow a hole in the lines, fifty or sixty units immediately appear to block my penetration.

Wait til you are in the Caucasus with no rail around for hundreds of miles. End your turn and suddenly tons of 0-0 and 1-1 units fall out of the sky landing all about you. I play bumper cars with the 0 = 0, but there's just enough 1 = 1 that if you don't withdraw, with their massive manpower refit superpower you would be sealed off entirely next turn if you didn't withdraw.

Ahh well, without those units, there'd be no defense at all, which would be really boring.

Alreasy seen that one.

When I get home tonight, I'm going to post the most rediculous teleporting example imaginable. Gary should be ashamed.

[Redmarkus5]

After a few AI tests I have been sticking with PBEM. The PBEM experience is amazingly addictive and there's simply no way the AI is ever going to compete with that. The AI is for when you are stuck in long haul with nothing better to do

[jhdeerslayer]

All in all I think one of the better AI's around for a game of this type.

[Joel Billings]

Gary spent tons of time trying to get the AI to do a better job with it's command control and formation integrity. Unfortunately, he couldn't get it to do a good job keeping units and their HQ's together. This is why once you learn the system, you need to go to Challenging or Hard levels so that the benefits will offset this command problem. It suffers all the same integrity penalties that a human player would. I think it is true to say that the AI is not limited by APs, however it doesn't do a lot of things that a human player would do with this AP ability. For example it doesn't cheat and replace all of the bad leaders. In fact in many areas the AI will wait for the automated method of doing things to kick in instead of spending APs to do things better manually. It gets no additional manpower, so although it may have more units, it has no extra men to fill them.

As for warping, yes, the AI will warp move under certain conditions. It tries to do this only when the unit is near a linked rail line. We've managed to eliminate some of the cases where the AI was warp moving out of pockets or near pockets as we've gotten reports and saves showing clearly illegal moves. We had to allow the warp moving of units that can reach rail lines as the AI can't easily perform the unit shuffle that a human player can do. It should not warp move and attack in the same turn.

We think the defensive AI is reasonable, and if played on Challenging level will give a good game. The attacking AI (especially the Germans in 1941) is not as good, but still can play decent enough, and if you give it Hard help it will give you a good game. The next patch has an improved turn 1 script for the Germans in Campaign 41. We hope to use this new scripting method to improve the turn 1 moves in many of the scenarios. Getting off to a good start is always important, especially in a smaller scenario, so the new scripts should help.

[Swenslim]

Thank you for reply !

Maybe in next pathces you can impliment C&C range on/off penaltyes for AI ?

[Rasputitsa]

ORIGINAL: starbuck310
AI is only for practice.

As most customer surveys and polls show that half, or more, of players will never PBEM, then it becomes more important that the game's AI provides a reasonable performance, even though it will never be as effective as a human player.

[Tarhunnas]

Thanks Joel for taking the time to reply! (and for apparently taking the time to read most of these threads...)

[Tarhunnas]

ORIGINAL: Rasputitsa

ORIGINAL: starbuck310
AI is only for practice.

As most customer surveys and polls show that half, or more, of players will never PBEM, then it become more important that the game's AI provides a reasonable performance, even though it will never be as effective as a human player.

I agree with Rasputitsa. And even though you might only use the AI for practice, you would still want it to use the same rules and suffer the same penalties as a human player, otherwise you would learn the "wrong" things by playing against it.

[Swenslim]

In my opinion this game is more PBEM playbale then WITP AE for example. Here you need to take 225 turns to complete... compare this to more then 1000 turns in WITP AE

[cookie monster]

Depends...

Some guys play 2 day turns

One guy is advertising a 3 day turn PBEM

A 2 day turn game obviously goes twice as quick