Semper Fi - Development Diary #1

[GrafKeks]

To GrafKeks and cwg9: Doomdark is the full-time AI coder of the team, to my understanding. Since Johan says he's on-board with the expansion, that means he's hard at work building what we all hope will be a kickass AI.

That´s something I knew already for a long time ago ;P

Anyway I think the better AI will be one of the best features, due to the fact I trust DD I think he´ll do a good job

[PaxImperator]

Achievements sound like a useful and fun addition.

Does this screenshot show a common situation? It seems that those are quite some achivement listed, perhaps it would make sense to sort them somehow (tabs, categories etc.).

That was among the first things I thought upon seeing the screenshot. Sortability would be a major quality-of-life improvement.

[GrafKeks]

Achievements sound like a useful and fun addition.



That was among the first things I thought upon seeing the screenshot. Sortability would be a major quality-of-life improvement.

Indeed. +1

It´s a mess I didn´t thought of it ;P

[wolf1455]

cool feature.
2 questions.

1: Will this be incoperated in the secret war goal you decide when game start ?

2: As mentioned, different goals for every nation, I suppose it be the majors but as we know much of swedens history can Sweden be included in this list.
If you say yes maybee pandoras box will open but I must ask as Sweden is my favorit country to learn new features with.

[Chaplain]

Since Johan says he's on-board with the expansion, that means he's hard at work building what we all hope will be a kickass AI.

Ahem. Probably not. But Lothos has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to dramatically improve the AI. Here's hoping he's fully engaged.

[jju_57]

I hope the actuall bonuses will make more sense. Having +15% supply throughput for controling Danzig, when you actually occupy half of Europe sounds stupid

But maybe Germany starts the new 36 scenario 15% LOWER then it is now and this gets it back to normal.

[Slan]

But maybe Germany starts the new 36 scenario 15% LOWER then it is now and this gets it back to normal.

That would sound equally as stupid IMHO. I mean a territorially achieved advantage should give a territorial bonus, while a national/international achievement should give something national/international.

Of course this conversation is irrelevant, as we are talking about fictive bonuses

[Raptor1]

Has anybody noticed the background, with Italian units along with German in Sweden?

[Slan]

Has anybody noticed the background, with Italian units along with German in Sweden?

That's nothing new, it is present in 1.4.

[Raptor1]

Really? Well, that's good, haven't had a chance to play up to WWII in 1.4 yet, too many other things to do...

[jju_57]

That´s something I knew already for a long time ago ;P

Anyway I think the better AI will be one of the best features, due to the fact I trust DD I think he´ll do a good job

But I'm not sure some of the issues are really AI. For instance the SU can't defend against Germany but this isn't really an AI thing. I think it's the whole reserve unit MP concept and this is a major design change.

[cwg9]

But I'm not sure some of the issues are really AI. For instance the SU can't defend against Germany but this isn't really an AI thing. I think it's the whole reserve unit MP concept and this is a major design change.

This is certainly a factor, but it is still primarily an AI problem, not a design problem. When the SU sends all its units into Siberia, leaving nothing in the west between hitler and Moscow, that is definitely an AI problem.

When I talk about AI, I am talking about much more than tactical military AI (this is actually the AI that currently is in the best shape).

Strategic / theatre military AI should know to not leave an entire front or coast undefended and also to have some sort of reserve forces to respond in case of a surprise declaration of war. It should also know how to transfer units from one theatre or another to adapt to a situation. It should know how to set high level objectives for itself (invade germany, hold the western front, win the convoy interdiction war, etc) and then influence the production and research AIs to help meet those goals, while the tactical AI figures out how to win any battles needed to reach those goals, while sensibly coordinating among the different military branches (army, navy, air) to meet those goals.

Production AI is where you could maybe teach the AI that building only reserve units is maybe a bad idea, no? As well as teach the production AI to do manpower checks based on how many reserve units exist so it will at least have sufficient manpower to mobilize if needed. Also you could teach it that in an emergency mobilization situation, it should prioritize reinforcements rather than unit production. I would bet any money that it is currently the opposite, with unit production staying fully funded and reinforcements getting the leftovers. This is the right move most of the time, but not in this situation.

Or you could teach the diplomatic AI to mobilize when certain threat of war escalates (hard to pin down the triggers for this) or generally to pick laws better (right now I believe it's just one line of code that says basically pick the most "advanced" law available).

Of course, research AI could maybe be taught that if you have a large reserve infantry army, some infantry techs are probably a good idea? And maybe some infantry doctrines, especially those that boost org and morale? And as Russia you probably have supply problems so would be nice if the AI could prioritize supply techs.

The list goes on and on. To conclude, the problems is not fundamentally a design and mechanics one (I actually think the overall design and concepts in the game are excellent, although these are certainly also areas that can be tweaked and better balanced), but rather the AI often has no clue how to use the existing design, features and mechanics. Not to mention we are really talking about over a half dozen different AIs (theatre, HQ/Army/Corps AI, Production, Research, Intelligence, Diplomacy, Trade, probably some others I missed) that have absolutely no idea how to coordinate together to create a comprehensive, consistent, synergistic overall strategy.

Hence my naive and no doubt incorrect hope that Paradox will pour most of their development resources with SF into the AI, not into adding in even more new features.

Already, with this new achievement system, it begs the question, will the strategic AI have any idea how to use it? Will it actually try to set itself up to meet the criteria to unlock any of these achievements? And will the achievements it decides to pursue make any sense, fit in at all with the overall geo-political, economic and military strengths of the nation? Or will it simply be achievements the AI accidently unlocks by happening to coincidentally meet all the criteria? My guess is the latter.

[angj57]

Sounds great! Although I will be very (pleasently) surprised if the AI knows how to use them.

Can I suggest minister and old-age general deaths as another kind of historical flavor? It adds to the immersion when I see the old WWI generals gradually dying off, just as it subtracts from the immersion when I see Stanley Baldwin as PM in the middle of the war.

[cwg9]

As per above post, there needs to be a random leader generator, especially if you are going to add feature of older generals dying from old age. No army/fleet/air squadron should ever have to go without a leader just because you've run out of the historical ones on the list.

[Ex Mudder]

Of course, there are different achievements for each country, and you may gain, lose or regain them depending on what happens.

Could we see a list of achievements? The scrollbar gives the impression there are a lot of them. Also, can we sort by or exclude based on have / qualify for / not yet? And will we get a nice little tab at the top of the screen when one becomes available, like the "new national decision" alert for EU3?

I like the idea quite a bit though. I hope that control of the Panama Canal gives the US a supply throughput modifier. I just wish I could make a convoy from DC to San Diego to supply the Pacific Theater instead of sending everything overland.

[Slan]

Could we see a list of achievements?

They are subject to change, so no point in analyzing them yet...

[Bhaal]

this is freakin awesome!

[Kovax]

The whole "achievement" concept sounds like something out of a fantasy RTS. I'm NOT impressed with the idea.

Now, if the surrender events can be made to work properly and plausibly, THAT would be an "Achievement" worth celebrating.

[Trin Tragula]

We get Triggered modifiers as in eu3 then Excellent!

The whole "achievement" concept sounds like something out of a fantasy RTS. I'm NOT impressed with the idea.

Not really, they're just ways to model the added benefit certain things may have for you. Like how controlling both sides of the Bosporus got you extra toll income in eu3
Depending on how they're scripted they may be used to give bonuses for synergy or to more properly model the importance of strategic locations.

[demanvanwezel]

The whole "achievement" concept sounds like something out of a fantasy RTS. I'm NOT impressed with the idea.

Now, if the surrender events can be made to work properly and plausibly, THAT would be an "Achievement" worth celebrating.

OK, let's call them "things you can do and actually give Bonni to the player that does them" is that better?

besides in the features stand something about good surrender events so that should be for a later dev diary

damned people I thought I was a cynic but with all the whining here about the first dev diary which is usually the least impressive, congratulations on a realistic worldview but I prefer to give them the benefit of the doubt