Development Diary #27 - 6th of May 2009

[King]

It is truly awesome. Thank at all~! There is two simple question.
1) Green star button was about "Upgrade or not" in HoI2. Is it now about "AI or not"?
2) If green star is the symbol of AI, we can activate AI any level I want by simply press "Green star" button (and assign objective)? (And if I want manual control a corps in AI control-Army, simply detach that corps from the AI control-Army.)

1) At the moment there is more than one green star in the unit interface. Who knows how it will be at final release
2) Yes, you can use corps, armies, army groups or theatres, or a mix of these. You can control some units in an area and not others. The only restriction is that all units below the one you order via the AI must be controlled by the AI.

[Cpack]

How about repeatability of AI's tasks

For Example at HOI2, Japan conquers Phillippines as a target.
Now, if you as USA reconquer Phillippines, the AI never try to reconquer it again......something like a on and forth going war.

In former HOI games, when an attack or target was reached, it never come back, even if there was the possibility to do so as in aboves example.

[King]

How about repeatability of AI's tasks

For Example at HOI2, Japan conquers Phillippines as a target.
Now, if you as USA reconquer Phillippines, the AI never try to reconquer it again......something like a on and forth going war.

In former HOI games, when an attack or target was reached, it never come back, even if there was the possibility to do so as in aboves example.

Since the AI is nothing to do with HoI1 or HoI2 AI this is a bad example.

[bkmotoman]

What do the lower numbers on the counters represent (i.e. 0-1, 2-2)? Number of combat and support brigades in the unit?

BTW, everything is looking awesome.

[fbaker4]

""The big difference is not only does it consider other strategic possibilities, it will also remember them.""

OOOOOO! (eyes wide) _real_ AI!

[King]

What do the lower numbers on the counters represent (i.e. 0-1, 2-2)? Number of combat and support brigades in the unit?

BTW, everything is looking awesome.

attack and defence

[nigo]

this feature will work for planes or ships?

[Cpack]

Since the AI is nothing to do with HoI1 or HoI2 AI this is a bad example.

So then it looks really good for much better AI performance.

No more 60 Divisions sitting in Tokio while I have conquered Phillipines back with 10 divisions and Japan is doing nothing.....

Arrgh can't wait anymore...

[sbr]

This DD makes it really hard to keep my expectations under control.

If the AI is truly as good as advertised this game is really going to be something else.

[vbtemp]

If the AI developers can write a book about how they developed this AI... I'd be willing to pay top dollar for it.

[Dominik]

It would be great if subordinate structures would have their strength listed as the brigade has. For example:
8.Armee HQ 3,000
13.Grenzdivision 6,000
14.Grenzdivision 6,000
X.Armeekorps 30,000
XIII.Armeekorps 30,000

etc...

As far as the manual control of single corps inside AI controlled army goes I understand that I can make a corps independent (not part of any army) and then order the army to do something with AI control while the corps will be left under human control?

[ozidnz]

Can AI use army and air forces coordinated?
BTW great DD

[Lazy_Boy]

Wow so we can finally put Hitler interfering with his generals to the test!

This all seems quite amazing. If this all works well you guys have made a huge advancement in AI development over anything else. Strategic layers of planning has never been any AIs strength. I can't wait to test it.

How are air and sea incorporated into this system? Those are really the main things everyone will want auto managed. Convoy raiding and western air defense are the last things I want to micromanage when I'm in the middle of Barbarossa. Same with bombers over Germany while island hopping in the pacific.

[Kinseek]

Now should you decide to assume manual control of a unit (say a Corps inside an Army Group) then this will deactivate the whole chain of command. Each existing unit will continue to follow its current order (e.g. move here or attack there) but no new ones will be issued. The AI cannot cope with human interference of its orders.

How come? Wouldn't it simply be a matter of automatically giving the AI the same orders the player initially gave (attack Leningrad) with the new set of units under its command (which would be say one division less now) which would just make it recalculate whatever it calculates when the player issued the first order?

It would just make it simpler to remove and add units at will without interfering with the intended operations.

I asumme you meant that all units attached to say a theater will be disconnected from AI control if you remove just one unit?

[King]

How come? Wouldn't it simply be a matter of automatically giving the AI the same orders the player initially gave (attack Leningrad) with the new set of units under its command (which would be say one division less now) which would just make it recalculate whatever it calculates when the player issued the first order?

It would just make it simpler to remove and add units at will without interfering with the intended operations.

The short answer is no

[Cpack]

One important open question:

If I give the defence of the Pacific Islands or Phillippines to the AI as a Theather, the AI needs transports, Aircover and ships to fullfill its mission
(reinforce Islands....)

How does this work in combinations with airforce and navy?

[DocMorningstar]

Please try reading the dev diary

"Now should you decide to assume manual control of a unit (say a Corps inside an Army Group) then this will deactivate the whole chain of command. Each existing unit will continue to follow its current order (e.g. move here or attack there) but no new ones will be issued. The AI cannot cope with human interference of its orders. "

Please try reading the dev diary

"Of course you are in no way shape or form required to use this system. You can assign AI objectives from corps upwards. So you could say in 1941 assign a theatre HQ to look after France for you while you focus on the eastern front. Then in 1942 give the AI control of Army group North and Centre while you focus in on the southern part of the front. It is entirely up to you how much or how little you use this feature."

Natch. So can't assign any level of AI control 'above' a level where you are maintaining human control; I suppose this is because the AI just can't deal with units 'inside' its area of control without getting crazy complex.

Example. Germany. Eastern Theater. The entire theater is under AI control, and the player has set up 3 army groups (North, Center, South) which the AI is using to whup butt. The player then decides to grab control over group south. From a coding perspective, the AI would then have to 'fill' the hole in its strategy (IE send forces from group N and C) - which would resulting in big problems OR have to keep track of what the player is doing and try to fit that into it's strategy (which would be computationally expensive).

So, if you want to leave 'theater' control at the AI, but still want to maintain player control over some units in there, you need to use units not assigned to that theater, thereby losing any sort of theater HQ bonus. Cool. Kind of makes sense from a 'whole system' perspective. If the 'player' is operating a set of units outside of their own theater, then it would make sense that the AI general sitting back at HQ couldn't give any sort of commands.

This is actually 'more' and 'better' than what I was hoping for in my wishlist post the other day. Outstanding job guys!

-Doc

[Rich Oliver]

I'm not quite clear on this: an AI on "Defence", can attack / advance if there is a very favourable opportunity, but an AI on "Prepare" will never attack/ advance?

[King]

I'm not quite clear on this: an AI on "Defence", can attack / advance if there is a very favourable opportunity, but an AI on "Prepare" will never attack/ advance?

Yes an AI on prepare will wait until you unleash it. So let's say you plan an attack towards objective X. An AI on prepare will simply start getting units into the best positions to attack. Allowing you to unleash all your combat power in one go (by flipping it our of prepare stance).

[zeekater]

I'm not quite clear on this: an AI on "Defence", can attack / advance if there is a very favourable opportunity, but an AI on "Prepare" will never attack/ advance?

Yup, it will get ready for an attack and position its troops in such a way, but won't attack, even if there is a very favourable opportunity.

Probably a nice stance for a country like France in september 1939, even though it can advance into germany with relative ease, it won't

EDIT: sorry King