AI control of fronts

[unmerged(105989)]

The problem with this is will the AI see that france has just moved in a megastack on the set path.
The problem with the backstop is that when you want to toggle out of the AI control looniness has already happend (why else toggle out of aicontrol) and you find your self with a defeated army and a gaping hole in your front.

Its all speculation i guess as to how this is implemented if its done right thisll be a great addition if wrong then itll b useless for a few patches.it sounds better then dumping 20divisions in Africa and having Italy controlling them tho!

You're right - a LOT depends on how good the AI is at assessing odds and making intelligent choices on the attack. It would be nice if your AI generals were even smart enough to mass forces for envelopments, perhaps even with support attacks. Of course, the reciprocal is that your enemy AI will be really good then too.... Of course most people here wouldn't mind that.

 

[Luka]

You should get a copyright on this idea

I'm afraid I already beat him to it

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showpost.php?p=8596524&postcount=135

But yeah, completely stolen from Airborne Assualt anyway, so no creative rights for either of us. But still, AA has an AI worth emulating.

 

[henryjai]

this thing would make playing major powers less annoying as now it's like click hell. (transport your men, move up, right click on enemy island, toke island... repeat...)

of course i hope that AI won't do defense by walking all his troops around constantly, that is ANNOYING...

 

[raider75]

This will be great due to the larger scope of the map

especially since I intend to get embroiled in the Eastern Front

 

[Thracian]

i may grant the full control of the land forces to ai while i focus solely on the kriegsmarine

 

[henryjai]

i may grant the full control of the land forces to ai while i focus solely on the kriegsmarine

some new AAR features? [A kriegsmarine AAR!!]

 

[unmerged(105989)]

i may grant the full control of the land forces to ai while i focus solely on the kriegsmarine

Cooperative play in MP would be interesting too. One player takes land forces (or perhaps only the Eastern front) and the other takes another facet. Not sure how you'd work the management functions. Probably have one guy take the Head of State function.

 

[henryjai]

Cooperative play in MP would be interesting too. One player takes land forces (or perhaps only the Eastern front) and the other takes another facet. Not sure how you'd work the management functions. Probably have one guy take the Head of State function.

too bad HOI is usually a slow paced game, i can't imagine 5 people sitting in front of a computer just to coop playing a nation...

would be a fun feature if game runs faster, one guy control subs, one control airforce, one control armies, one control production....

 

[el alamein]

If anyone can recall back in the days of the Commodore 64, SSG released a fantastic wargame called Battlefront (which has now been updated for PC by Matrix Games/SSG). In the original version you could choose the posture of the headquarters and its element battalions (Attack/Defend/Probe/Retreat when heavily engaged with the enemy, Probe/Defend/Retreat/Support when in contact with enemy units, and Deploy/Objective/Reserve/Defend when out of contact with enemy units). The units under the command of that HQ then moved/deployed to suit the posture command. This was also used in the SSG version of the War in Russia (can't quite recall the name) using Army Corps as the units. Units would advance to the objective selected from a list by the player in the fastest/most efficient manner until contact was made with enemy units. Then the units will deploy to the nearest suitable terrain to assist in attack or defence. It was a simple yet ingenious way of maneuvering units, and the positioning was determined by the computer. The major difference with SSG wargames and Hearts of Iron is their use of hex terrain.
Hopefully the AI used in HOI3 will follow a similar method, with easy to follow orders that the computer can then carry out.

 

[Thracian]

too bad HOI is usually a slow paced game, i can't imagine 5 people sitting in front of a computer just to coop playing a nation...

would be a fun feature if game runs faster, one guy control subs, one control airforce, one control armies, one control production....

dönitz asks for more subs, göring asks for more planes, guderian asks for more panzers to the production-manager guy :wacko:

 

[unmerged(105989)]

If anyone can recall back in the days of the Commodore 64, SSG released a fantastic wargame called Battlefront (which has now been updated for PC by Matrix Games/SSG). In the original version you could choose the posture of the headquarters and its element battalions (Attack/Defend/Probe/Retreat when heavily engaged with the enemy, Probe/Defend/Retreat/Support when in contact with enemy units, and Deploy/Objective/Reserve/Defend when out of contact with enemy units). The units under the command of that HQ then moved/deployed to suit the posture command. This was also used in the SSG version of the War in Russia (can't quite recall the name) using Army Corps as the units. Units would advance to the objective selected from a list by the player in the fastest/most efficient manner until contact was made with enemy units. Then the units will deploy to the nearest suitable terrain to assist in attack or defence. It was a simple yet ingenious way of maneuvering units, and the positioning was determined by the computer. The major difference with SSG wargames and Hearts of Iron is their use of hex terrain.
Hopefully the AI used in HOI3 will follow a similar method, with easy to follow orders that the computer can then carry out.

I think I remember the game system. I had a game called Halls of Montezuma which used that system I believe. Ran on my old Tandy 1000 TX (640K RAM, no hard drive). The only frustrating part of that system though was you couldn't reach in and redirect units that were doing stupid things or that had gotten entangled. Hopefully, and system that HOI has will fix that (after all in computer years, we're only talking a gajilliion generations apart)

 

[henryjai]

dönitz asks for more subs, göring asks for more planes, guderian asks for more panzers to the production-manager guy :wacko:

k i'll start two 99 serial of sub 7c and don't bother me anymore :rofl:


btw i am thinking this idea MUST be in HOI3 so people don't quit in frustration of East front.

 

[Hammer54]

Suggestion:

I've been reading up and thinking a bit about this... What would be really cool, and quite viable is this:

We get a GUI for administration of your staff. In this GUI you start top down, and choose for example a field marshal. Next to your field marshal you get a check box where you can choose if he can pick his own generals, or if you want to assign them to him. You also get a slider for how many officers he gets from each level below him. In addition you can give him controll over officers from other weapon braches.

Also, and this is important, you get a slider that defines his degrees of freedom... that is.. how many provinses he has to work with when making his plan.. for example 10 provinses off the axis... Later, when you assign him a axis, he knows that there are limits to the field of operation. An air marshal could perhaps get 50.

This same system can be applied to lower officers.. you could put a general on top, and define de same parameters. A general could for examlpe get 6 degrees of freedom.

Next thing you do is to assign troops to the different commands. This is done in a separate GUI, where you get a graphical overwiev over where troops are and who they are assigned to.. Once assigned the appropriate officer starts giving orders on where he wants his forces.

To achive the assigning axis part, we will need a way to communicate battle plans to your staff. This should be done in a battleplan gui, where you can set up defensive fronts, offensive fronts, objectives, axis of attack and areas of envelopment. If you plan a retreat, you also want to give your staff an axis to retreat on. Also, perhaps a time table and some sort of degrees of freedom here aswell.

The implication of this is that there must be several AIs working together. The field marshal gets an AI, the generals underneath him gets their AI and so on. AIs controlling other AIs. Another implication of this is that there needs to be an AI that communicate partial battleplans to lower staff, for them to execute.

I think I have seen a version of this somewhere. I think it was empire earth 3 where you could send battleplans to your allies. Also, diplomacy has a way of sending battleplans to your allies.

 

[el alamein]

I think I remember the game system. I had a game called Halls of Montezuma which used that system I believe. Ran on my old Tandy 1000 TX (640K RAM, no hard drive). The only frustrating part of that system though was you couldn't reach in and redirect units that were doing stupid things or that had gotten entangled. Hopefully, and system that HOI has will fix that (after all in computer years, we're only talking a gajilliion generations apart)

Yeah that was another game from SSG. I think the idea was that units would deploy based on the broad orders given, representing the 'fog of war' for commanders where they don't have full control of the placement of subordinate units. I agree though that the AI should be much, much better these days than the good old C64, Tandy days

 

[unmerged(105989)]

Yeah that was another game from SSG. I think the idea was that units would deploy based on the broad orders given, representing the 'fog of war' for commanders where they don't have full control of the placement of subordinate units. I agree though that the AI should be much, much better these days than the good old C64, Tandy days

I remember having a lot of fun with that game and system. And the game edit function was so easy, a junior high kid could figure it out on his spare time (and I'm NOT a computer guy by any stretch).