Hearts of Iron IV - Development Diary 54 - AI

[Invictus5966]

I was at war with the allies and so was Germany aka common enemy and that would grant them the access. I'm also pretty sure Poland was quite quickly invited to the allies and called in against me. Same with Soviet Union, they were at war with the allies and so was I.

Ok that makes sense now thx for clearing that up. You were at war with the allies and when Germany DOWd Poland they were too... why were you able to move across Russia to attack Germany? You clicked on it real fast to fix that path. Was that a plan or actually movement? Russia was at war with the allies not Germany unless I missed that DOW?



EDIT I just reread your post. You were able to go thru Russia without permission to attack a neutral country (Germany) because both were fighting allies?

 

[HeartsofMetal]

Will it be possible to mod a more historic AI behaviour?

 

[ok2useLane]

A few bullet points that should answer the most burning questions:
* There is no 'hard coding' outside of the scripts. No where in the code does it say "if country is X, then do Y" or similar.
* The dynamic AI systems does not cheat. They use the same information as is available to the player, including estimating enemy forces based on intel numbers.
* Save for boosting party popularity, there is no feature in the game that the AI is completely barred from using. It being intended more as a sandbox feature for players. We have also had to limit it a lot when it comes to staging coups.
.

*love
*LOVE!!!
*Love!
Thanks so much for you hard work!

 

[Drake76]

At this late in the development cycle, am I the only one who sees "ENG" = England, being coded into the game as weird? This must be holdover language from CK2 and EU4. Certainly by 1936 ENG is GBR or UK, no?

 

[keynes2.0]

One thing that previous iterations of AI have struggled with is deciding what fronts to send troops to. There can be things like AI Italy garrisoning the north with 30 divisions while only having 10 to fight on the frontlines of southern Italy or AI germany going way over the supply limit in Norway.

 

[SteelVolt]

Will it be possible to mod a more historic AI behaviour?

Yes, within certain limits.

 

[Oscar Brink]

I was thinking a bit about this piece of script.

ai_chance = {
    base = 30
    modifier = {
        add = -25
        GER = { has_army_size = { size < 20 } }
    }
    modifier = {
        factor = 10
        GER = { has_army_size = { size > 19 } }
    }
}

Shouldn't the chance of Austria accepting anschluss also depend on the Austrian army size, rather than just the German one?
Something like this

ai_chance = {
    base = 30
    modifier = {
        add = -25
        GER = { has_army_size = { size - (Austrian army size) < 15 } }
    }
    modifier = {
        factor = 10
        GER = { has_army_size = { size - (Austrian army size) > 14 } }
    }
}

Now obviously you can't write it like that but I'm not a scripter, also I wouldn't know what would be a good difference in army size. This was just a thought I had.

 

[ModDayScenario2]

Sorry if this has been asked before now.

Is it possible to have an AI file for different things that might happen. I mean an AI file for:

invasion of europe
invasion of poland
defending against a specific attack
etc etc

and then call the specific AI file from an event?
AND then maybe at the turn of the year, the AI goes automatically back to the default or country.AI

ONE MORE: possible to have an AI file for each country needed?

Thanks.

 

[Adonnus]

"Netherlands wants to contain the aggression of Slovakia" Lol

Jokes aside it looks like you've put a tremendous amount of work into one of the hardest parts of the game and if what you've said here is anything to go by, it should be work well done by the time the game is released. I look forward to the AI kicking my ass.

 

[SteelVolt]

I was thinking a bit about this piece of script.

Shouldn't the chance of Austria accepting anschluss also depend on the Austrian army size, rather than just the German one?
Something like this

ai_chance = {
    base = 30
    modifier = {
        add = -25
        GER = { has_army_size = { size - (Austrian army size) < 15 } }
    }
    modifier = {
        factor = 10
        GER = { has_army_size = { size - (Austrian army size) > 14 } }
    }
}

Now obviously you can't write it like that but I'm not a scripter, also I wouldn't know what would be a good difference in army size. This was just a thought I had.

Right, while you could not make an actual calculation in the script, adding entries for the austrian army size is not a problem at all. This was just an example, and not exactly what is in the game right now.

 

[SteelVolt]

Sorry if this has been asked before now.

Is it possible to have an AI file for different things that might happen. I mean an AI file for:

invasion of europe
invasion of poland
defending against a specific attack
etc etc

and then call the specific AI file from an event?
AND then maybe at the turn of the year, the AI goes automatically back to the default or country.AI

ONE MORE: possible to have an AI file for each country needed?

Thanks.

Short answer: no.

There are a bunch of things scriptable on country level, and these are organized in separate files. But giving the AI scenarios like you seem to be asking about is not possible.

 

[Quivis]

OK, where is the preorder button?

 

[208]

Even better: you wouldn't have to add it to a template yourself, the AI would pick up on it automatically and consider it for templates. That would create a need for the equipment, which would go into production.

How does the AI decide which equipment is worthwhile to include in templates/start creating divisions with, does it actually examine the statistical benefits of the equipment?

 

[SteelVolt]

How does the AI decide which equipment is worthwhile to include in templates/start creating divisions with, does it actually examine the statistical benefits of the equipment?

Yes, it looks how the change effects the templates stats, each of which can be weighted for importance, per template type, per country. This can be combined with how much it should strive for a given target template design.

 

[Modestus]

You can micromanage units that are part of an order as much as you want. Planning bonuses are currently not lost as long as the unit remains a part of the order.

Warning no one quote von Moltke unless you know what he really meant.


Hmm I was am beginning to wonder if preventing the player taking manual control for a period commensurate with the level of the Planning bonus (Combat bonus) is wiser, the greater the combat bonus the longer you need to wait before you can take back manual control of your Divisions.


Game play is about choices as it stands the system appears to me to be nothing more then a glorified movement mechanic, has nothing to do with actual Planning with almost no reason for the player not to use a Plan and even less of a reason to make a detailed Plan.


If for example in Daniels play-throughs he could not take control of his Divisions for say 10 days then he would need to invest more time creating what I will call a good Plan rather then drawing a single offensive front line at one end of a country, he could of course attack immediately and have manual control but would forgo the Planning Bonus.


Doctrines and certain Generals (high initiative) would allow the period that Divisions are under the AI to be reduced without a loss of the Planning bonus


Basically something like this........


A 50% combat bonus (Max planning bonus) means the AI has complete control for 10 days and the player can only order a Division to halt, it then remains on the defensive under AI control for the remainder of the 10 days.


A 25% combat bonus means the AI has complete control for 5 days.


No combat bonus means the player can take control at any time.

 

[irishboy55]

Did the automated battle plans you have now originated/built from HOI3's AI control system for theatres? Seems like I was the only person who used it, but it was good.

 

[Svenska Super]

Dear Steelvolt,

with great joy I read this DD. Not so much having a question about the hardcore scripting stuff as a non tech guy I am more interested to know
if you also attached your personal touch to it; what are some fun things we can encounter with the AI?
For example I think it would be great if the AI would would sometimes choose disruptive strategies that are hard to counter. Sometimes I watched HOI4 on twitch;
to my opinion went the invasion of China way to easy; almost seeing now numerical superiority to the chinese.
It would be great to have a bit of fun just China raging more openly with human wave strategy or something ) And later getting armor from Soviet Union as lend lease.
Why is the ability to purchase or give production license to someone not there? I think it would be cool

 

[FieldMedic]

I don't think it's unfair to say that the entire game kinda rests on the AI's (and by association your) shoulders. It is the very foundation that the rest of the game is built on. I've seen in Rome Total War 2 that bad AI can completely ruin a game like this...so you know...no pressure

 

[ruzen]

First of all thank you for answering all of our questions. Its really appreciated.
You said there is no way Players can plan (AI) ally battle plans. Then, Is there a way to make AI prepare for war or coordinate with player or eachother?
How do we coordinate attacks with our fellow AI buddies ? Is this something you want to be focus on future or you think Ally AI's doesnt feel seperated with player? Otherwise how do we make D-day possible ?

 

[SteelVolt]

Did the automated battle plans you have now originated/built from HOI3's AI control system for theatres? Seems like I was the only person who used it, but it was good.

It is entirely built from scratch, but given that Wiz wrot the basic stub, lessons from HoI3 are most likely worked in there before I got to it