British AI

[unmerged(2238)]

So I was browsing through the forums, etc, thinking of ways that Victoria could be made different (and better!) than HOI and EU. I thought of some of the ways the time period differed, different gameplay institutions, etc.. But then I realized that the real dealbreaker for how good Victoria would be is how sophisticated the British AI (and to a lesser extent, any colonial AI) would be. It is pretty much the lynchpin of the game, and it, as shown by HOI's British AI, is a hard thing to do. Britain has a million fronts and innumerable islands to try to defend or at least influence. This calls for a very convoluted AI that actually knows what is important, what isn't, and where best to defend it all from. If this game is going to be a success, or be very good at all, the British AI really has to shine. I don't really have any positive solutions to any of the inumerable problems programming a British AI brings up, but it really isa difficult thing to do, and I would say it's the key part of the finished product.

And don't get me started on finally trying to get a real, working Naval AI in a EU engined game...

 

[John Poole]

Yes English AI in EU2 and to a more serious extent British AI in HoI was woefully deficient. Considering the time-period I hope good British AI is at the top of Paradox's priorities when making the AI for each country in this game.

 

[Johnny Canuck]

I think something that will help the development of the British AI (& all AIs) is that, as the EU-engine has evolved from EU1 through HOI, more and more AI variables have been exported to the AI files. The list of what can be tweaked now in an HOI ai file is quite impressive. This greatly increases the ability to tweak the AI without having a programmer at Paradox do it. I imagine that this will be very useful during the beta stage.

 

[unmerged(2238)]

Originally posted by Johnny Canuck
I think something that will help the development of the British AI (& all AIs) is that, as the EU-engine has evolved from EU1 through HOI, more and more AI variables have been exported to the AI files. The list of what can be tweaked now in an HOI ai file is quite impressive. This greatly increases the ability to tweak the AI without having a programmer at Paradox do it. I imagine that this will be very useful during the beta stage.

It's still depressing to think that in the end the users will probably have to do it, though. But who knows? Why can't a be pleasantly surprised and have a very capable British/overseas AI?

 

[saskganesh]

perhaps...the role of "Dominions" could be to ease the burdens placed of British AI ! (see "white dominions" thread)

 

[Zagys]

Originally posted by saskganesh
perhaps...the role of "Dominions" could be to ease the burdens placed of British AI ! (see "white dominions" thread)

That would weaken the British even more though. Splitting one huge empire into several smaller ones will lose alot of coordination between them as they all act independently and do their own thing.

 

[Johnny Canuck]

Originally posted by John_Keats
It's still depressing to think that in the end the users will probably have to do it, though. But who knows? Why can't a be pleasantly surprised and have a very capable British/overseas AI?

I don't think the users will have to make a good British AI. The fact that so many AI variables can be easily altered by anyone likely means that every beta tester can potentially work on the AI file, not just the programmers (i.e. Johan & a couple others).

 

[saskganesh]

Originally posted by Zagys
That would weaken the British even more though. Splitting one huge empire into several smaller ones will lose alot of coordination between them as they all act independently and do their own thing.

not necessarily, if dominions --not vassals, not independents, but some sort of administrative hybrid -- take care of regional issues --Indian Army handles all south asia, BNA army handles Canada and US picture, etc. and the the more powerful mama BE looks at the global picture and at europe. so BE has multiple AI's working for it, and basically is in alliance to itself. with a strong navy in place the BE should be quite tough regardless.

 

[Zagys]

Originally posted by saskganesh
not necessarily, if dominions --not vassals, not independents, but some sort of administrative hybrid -- take care of regional issues --Indian Army handles all south asia, BNA army handles Canada and US picture, etc. and the the more powerful mama BE looks at the global picture and at europe. so BE has multiple AI's working for it, and basically is in alliance to itself. with a strong navy in place the BE should be quite tough regardless.

Hmmm, that might be a good idea.

 

[unmerged(15764)]

pet ai? BE takes care of the white dominions if they need help hehe...

 

[Tim O]

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Originally posted by saskganesh
not necessarily, if dominions --not vassals, not independents, but some sort of administrative hybrid -- take care of regional issues --Indian Army handles all south asia, BNA army handles Canada and US picture, etc. and the the more powerful mama BE looks at the global picture and at europe. so BE has multiple AI's working for it, and basically is in alliance to itself. with a strong navy in place the BE should be quite tough regardless.
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I definitly like this idea, is it feasible though?

 

[saskganesh]

Originally posted by Timothy Ortiz
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Originally posted by saskganesh
not necessarily, if dominions --not vassals, not independents, but some sort of administrative hybrid -- take care of regional issues --Indian Army handles all south asia, BNA army handles Canada and US picture, etc. and the the more powerful mama BE looks at the global picture and at europe. so BE has multiple AI's working for it, and basically is in alliance to itself. with a strong navy in place the BE should be quite tough regardless.
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I definitly like this idea, is it feasible though?

i don't know enough about scripting an AI to know myself. anyone with backround in that area?

this kind of thing has to be tested before we marry ourselves to the concept.

 

[unmerged(5588)]

Perhaps with a priority assessment for each local A.I. for diverting resources from the total income of the whole empire? How would this work with naval issues?

EDIT: clarification

 

[Johnny Canuck]

Originally posted by saskganesh
i don't know enough about scripting an AI to know myself. anyone with backround in that area?

this kind of thing has to be tested before we marry ourselves to the concept.

I am by no means an expert, but I would certainly think this is possible. There would need to be a new AI variable which would allow a user to ensure that a given AI works with other AIs when calculating troop movements, etc. For example, the British AI could be "linked" to the various Dominion AIs in such a way that each Dominion AI fulfills its own garrision requirements first, but then puts surplus forces at the disposal of the British AI. Also, if the Dominion forces are insufficient for domestic purposes, such as if they have a bordering neighbouring, the British AI attempts to make up the deficit. This would hopefully ensure that each Dominion looks after itself first, but also puts troops at the disposal of Britain if they can do so. If there was just a single British AI which included the Dominions, it would be harder to keep some Canadian forces in Canada (as the AI would likely view a Canadian Infantry Division as the same as a British Infantry Division, & its deployment would be no different from any other Imperial division). The minimum garrison requirements for each Dominion could either be based on an automatic calculation involving factors like the # of provinces, # of neighbours, if at war, etc., or it could be set in the AI file itself (such as, if at peace, keep 4 divisions at home, & if at war, keep 6 divisions). That might do the trick.