How the AI Chooses Focuses in Non-Historical Mode

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Through the various streams that there have been we have only seen the players play on historical mode and nothing has been played using non-historical mode. My question is: How does the AI choose focuses in non-historical mode? Do the various focuses have weight on them or does the AI choose them at random?

 

[Grand Admiral]

Great question, my guess is they choose them based on how other countries choose theirs (whether they are threatening them) after they have completed industry focuses.

 

[Mac Lazer]

I don't know for sure, but my guess is that it weighs them based on their current situation.

 

[Bridger15]

Check out the replies by @SteelVolt in the AI dev diary. He discusses the waiting of national focuses outside of the more scripted historical mode, IIRC.

 

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I skimmed the AI dev diary and did not see anything similar to my question. I could have missed something though.

 

[Bridger15]

I skimmed the AI dev diary and did not see anything similar to my question. I could have missed something though.

Click the "only show dev responses" at the top of the page for the dev diary. Steelvolt posted a dozen or more replies and I could have sworn one of them was about historical vs. ahistorical focuses.

 

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After looking through the dev dairy again i saw no reply made by Steelvolt about ahistorical focuses.

 

[Athan.]

Do the various focuses have weight on them or does the AI choose them at random?

From the AI Dev Diary:

"Suggestion: Make another "Fully Dynamic" mode where there are no scripted weights and every AI has the same chance to pick different focuses."
1: this has been considered.

So choosing them at random has been considered, implying that Focus selections currently have scripted weights. That answers your question above, but doesn't give much further detail about how the selection happens, for now anyway. Maybe a dev could add some detail to it here. There are other parts of the same thread that talk about how the scripts tailor the AI to react to the world around them.

 

[kviiri]

I seriously hope that the AI picks its focuses sensibly, taking into account what's going on with the world at large and how it's being interacted with. For example, Germany being more likely to pick alliance with USSR if USSR maintains good relations with them or picks on common enemies.

 

[JerkyJerry]

I don't know what the AI will bring but I'm confident it will be fun!

 

[SteelVolt]

So choosing them at random has been considered, implying that Focus selections currently have scripted weights. That answers your question above, but doesn't give much further detail about how the selection happens, for now anyway. Maybe a dev could add some detail to it here. There are other parts of the same thread that talk about how the scripts tailor the AI to react to the world around them.

The reason we have not put any sort of time on doing a completely random focus selection is because it easily leads to really dumb stuff happening. Some focuses can easily lead to war, and unless there is some script modifying the weights to these, the AI can end up picking these in very bad situations.

Anyway, the focus trees have scripted weights, as stated, so if anyone would like to just set the AI loose on them, they could just go through the scripted trees and set all AI weights to 1.0 (or any other value higher than 0.0, as that blocks the AI from picking them, and the relative value is what matters.)

 

[External]

The reason we have not put any sort of time on doing a completely random focus selection is because it easily leads to really dumb stuff happening. Some focuses can easily lead to war, and unless there is some script modifying the weights to these, the AI can end up picking these in very bad situations.

Anyway, the focus trees have scripted weights, as stated, so if anyone would like to just set the AI loose on them, they could just go through the scripted trees and set all AI weights to 1.0 (or any other value higher than 0.0, as that blocks the AI from picking them, and the relative value is what matters.)

Thank you for the reply. This is what I thought the case was, but I wanted confirmation.

 

[SteelVolt]

Thank you for the reply. This is what I thought the case was, but I wanted confirmation.

Just to be clear, though: the focuses have AI weights even when playon non-historical. It is just not bounded by the historical lists

 

[grandad1982]

Just to be clear, though: the focuses have AI weights even when playon non-historical. It is just not bounded by the historical lists

Will the weights mean that the AI will pick foci that are suitable for the situation and make sense in the context of the geopolitical situation?

 

[SteelVolt]

Will the weights mean that the AI will pick foci that are suitable for the situation and make sense in the context of the geopolitical situation?

That is the general idea. At the very least they should avoid picking completely insane ones, but as it is scriptable it can be made more sophisticated over time and/or through mods if issues arise.

 

[fellaz007]

Hi SteelVolt, Thank you for your valuable answers.

Would it be easy to mod a "skript" to the AI by country so that they pick their focii in a certain sequence?

This would allow easy alt-history scenarios with fantastic (but somewhat predictable) progress.

E.g. I want to play a single player campaign with a democratic Germany in a world where I know that US will turn facist and France will become RED.

Does the awesome ModTools that were introduced in the dev diaries allow to skript this easily?

Cheers (another 6 days to go).

 

[SteelVolt]

Hi SteelVolt, Thank you for your valuable answers.

Would it be easy to mod a "skript" to the AI by country so that they pick their focii in a certain sequence?

This would allow easy alt-history scenarios with fantastic (but somewhat predictable) progress.

E.g. I want to play a single player campaign with a democratic Germany in a world where I know that US will turn facist and France will become RED.

Does the awesome ModTools that were introduced in the dev diaries allow to skript this easily?

Cheers (another 6 days to go).

You could do exactly that by editing the list used in historical mode. A more cumbersome way is to set extreme weights so that the order you want becomes extremely likely. But I would recommend the first approach, setting it up as a mod and using "historical" mode.
As for mod tools, i will have to refer to @Havebeard.

 

[fellaz007]

You could do exactly that by editing the list used in historical mode. A more cumbersome way is to set extreme weights so that the order you want becomes extremely likely. But I would recommend the first approach, setting it up as a mod and using "historical" mode.
As for mod tools, i will have to refer to @Havebeard.

Great. Thank your for the extra info.