AI - The make or break of HOI IV

[Kullerud]

After spending some time re-reading all the devlopment diaries, I must say I'm impressed and very hopefull. The developers have really accomplished quite a feat in redesigning the best strategic war game series I know of.

But if there's one thing wich have always broken my games, it's a lackluster, stupid AI. Especially naval AI.
You do all this planing, you micromanage, you prepare, you start your war. Then either your computer opponent does something so stupid that you could have walked over him without any preperation, or your computer ally does something similar. Then I quit.

All the smart new ways to control your armies and production lines comes to nothing if the computer can't play the game properly, devious and smart. Even mulitplayer games need a competent computer player to handle the rest of the world.

Please, may we have a developer diary about the ai which puts all my worries to shame?

 

[Antpant]

Yeah, a dev diary about the AI would be great.

 

[skillor7]

I guess we shouldn´t make any predictions about the AI until a DD or the final release, as u can see in the WWW vids (especially Finland WWW).

 

[Daddl]

AI is always the worst part of strategy games, especially on a scale like HoI has. I'm quite sure that it won't be too bad, but I guess as long as you can't invade Britain or Japan with nothing else than two divisions on a couple of transports anymore I'm happy.

 

[Snappie88]

I guess we shouldn´t make any predictions about the AI until a DD or the final release, as u can see in the WWW vids (especially Finland WWW).

Oh dear... Here we go again :/

 

[skillor7]

Oh dear... Here we go again :/

okay, spaming threads about every mistake of the AI in the WWW videos is the way you want it?


Podcat has already mentioned that we will have to wait for the final game to see how the AI will be... :

AI is still in development (this never stops and its usually the last feature to feel finished), even minor stuff that could take 10min to fix will kick the legs from under an AI and turn it from Guderian to braindead duck.

 

[Tartan Spartan]

In a game with so much depth an AI which can't compete is a huge loss.

My three acid tests are
1) able to conserve units when retreating from frontal attack on a broad front.

2) ability to balance forces between active fronts, potential threats and reserve areas.

3) ability to launch an effective amphibious assault (and not to launch ineffective ones...).

Here's hoping!

 

[Mannstien]

In a game with so much depth an AI which can't compete is a huge loss.

My three acid tests are
1) able to conserve units when retreating from frontal attack on a broad front.

2) ability to balance forces between active fronts, potential threats and reserve areas.

3) ability to launch an effective amphibious assault (and not to launch ineffective ones...).

Here's hoping!

4. Able to drop Paratroopers

 

[Caesar15]

As mentioned before, AI is the last thing that's ready before the game is ready. So we won't be seeing any good AI until release I upon us.

4. Able to drop Paratroopers

That was actually a human player.

 

[stardude900]

One other thing to remember is that the WWW save is getting to be a bit old... DLC updates on released games, can screw with the AI's. This one has gone from Alpha level to now Beta. I have no idea what the AI is capable of, but it'd probably be different if they started a new game without any of the cruft from early builds.

 

[FOARP]

In a game with so much depth an AI which can't compete is a huge loss.

My three acid tests are
1) able to conserve units when retreating from frontal attack on a broad front.

2) ability to balance forces between active fronts, potential threats and reserve areas.

3) ability to launch an effective amphibious assault (and not to launch ineffective ones...).

Here's hoping!

None of the games in the HOI series have been capable of any of these, so I wouldn't worry about HOI4 being able to do these at launch. I'm hoping that the AI will eventually be upgraded to do at least one of them though (it's high time we had an AI that knows how to launch an amphibious invasion at least).

 

[Alex_brunius]

(it's high time we had an AI that knows how to launch an amphibious invasion at least).

Final expansion in HoI3 had a decent amphibious invasion AI. I saw games where Japan AI launched 3 simultaneus attacks with marines on different US Pacific Islands and covered at least 2 of them well with Carriers and Battleships.

 

[Mannstien]

That was actually a human player.

Indeed, what I meant was an AI capable of using them

 

[SchwarzKatze]

Final expansion in HoI3 had a decent amphibious invasion AI. I saw games where Japan AI launched 3 simultaneus attacks with marines on different US Pacific Islands and covered at least 2 of them well with Carriers and Battleships.

But was it finally able to handle the OOB? IMO AI is the problem that break HoI3 OOB.

 

[Beagá]

It was annoying feature even if you were playing the nation itself. Division commanders should be optional but I´d rather have no such commanders at all than making them "needed" always - seeing Zhukov in 3 INF division just made me 100% sure it was working poorly. Dat soviet OOB...

It´s not only about knowing which general to put into a level in OOB, but also when to promote him. HOI3 simply didn´t reward having high skill field marshalls. Why? Because it had to be made without loss of skill for each promotion.

 

[RogalDorn]

Don't worry about the current state of AI. It's all in flux, give it till release at least to judge...maybe even release plus 1 patch if you are a PDX fanboi like me.

 

[ingwe]

Now that the Beta is approved the game should be feature complete and the things to do are bug testing, balancing, and working on the AI. I suspect it will be the best AI of any HOI game (not necessarily saying anything), but as mentioned before, we will have to wait until the release to see.

 

[Axe99]

Final expansion in HoI3 had a decent amphibious invasion AI. I saw games where Japan AI launched 3 simultaneus attacks with marines on different US Pacific Islands and covered at least 2 of them well with Carriers and Battleships.

It had its moments, but it also had Canada landing 3-4 divisions unsupported in occupied Europe, as well as Japan doing some landings that were doomed to failure. It was definitely the best amphibious invasion AI we've had in the series so far (think not back to HoI1, the pain!) but it needs to continue to improve if HoI4 is going to be a successful game, as opposed to a successful set of mechanics and an AI that can't handle them. I do think the battle planner approach will help this some.

 

[Giovanni1234]

Draw your tactics is realy cool but would be better if your AI could be capable to execute the plan and not like all the times in the www.. the AI is in trouble vs the norvege or in the mongols' steppes vs none... the units stand in the middle of the nothing in the wait of your spamming clicks for attack every single province..

 

[gigzoid]

True, a badly implemented AI would break the game ... But, on balance, it is the flawed fairy dust logistics system (i.e. a bad core mechanic) which will mean I will buy the game (Paradox are a game company that should be supported) but with severe doubts as to whether it will be worthwhile to invest much time and patience into playing it.