Matrix Games Forums

On the attack does the USSR AI obey any rules which might represent an attempt to simulate Soviet doctrine? Just curious and I am very impressed with this game,

No, the AI is not scripted but rather dynamic. It can be "teached" to use new tactics (e.s flanking, secondary routes etc.) but those are not doctrine bound, as that would be excessive given the number of factions we have and planning. Also, we are not planning to implement scripted AI at the moment, unless maybe some hypothetical military customer demand that specifically or something similar.

Wow. The AI can be "teached" to use new tactics. Please elaborate on that since it would be ground breaking. Who is the teacher? Thanks.

Kevin

I suggest you take a lot on Dev Diary about how AI works in game: tm.asp?m=4508631

There is nothing really ground-breaking in this approach, I guess. Programmer can add new parameters and behavior templates for the AI, effectively teaching it to apply "new" more advanced tactics. That process is not easy of course.

In a sense the AI opponent does resemble the Soviet doctrine in some aspects, because when I did research for it I mainly used American sources that described the enemy that uses the doctrine. For example, I read that every third artillery smoke screen would be used as a decoy, and that's what our AI tries to do.

Interesting. Thanks to both of you for your answers. Let me get more experience playing before asking more. I don't really have an agenda here in asking about the AI other than a desire that it behaves in a "realistic" manner and, of course, that would mean adherence to tactical doctrine on some level in order for it to suspend disbelief. Sorry I missed the developer's blog about the AI and it explained a lot.

Back to the front...

I found this interesting article online about Soviet tactics in games....

https://20thcenturywargaming.wordpress. ... wargaming/

These days when you use the terms "AI" and "teach" together the writer often is implying that neural networks are involved which is why I thought we had something groundbreaking here for a commercial wargame. Thanks for the link to the thread above.

Kevin

Yes that actually has happened: AlphaStar: The inside story

Although it is a much simpler real time strategy game (Starcraft 2), but for the first time AI beat the PROs every single game.

This is Googles Deepmind, years of developing and focusing only on the AI for probably millions of dollars investment.

You have to realise this is outside the scope of any commercial game.

The developers of Blitzkrieg 3 claim they use machine learning techniques to improve their AI but I never saw any good of that

Yes, I have been following Deepmind since I am a chess player as well as a wargamer. DARPA is also looking into machine learning to solve operational/tactical wargame problems. Definitely not within the scope of today's commercial wargames. Yet.

Kevin

PS: just today on Deepmind ...
https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech ... laying-ai/

US Army manuals FM 100-2.1 Operations and Tactics, 2.2 Specialized Warfare and Rear Area Support & 2.3 Troops, Organization and Equipment are available at

https://fas.org/irp/doddir/army/

Also, lots of good stuff on OPFOR at

http://www.s2company.com/file_cache2.php?fcat=IC*

I especially like the OPFOR Artillery/Defense/Offense/Engineer Smartbooks