Italian AI?

[unmerged(89305)]

I haven't played AoD in a while. I just installed and loaded up a new 1.07 1938 game as nationalist spain.

At the start of 1940 I saved and loaded up my soon to be axis allies, to see what they were up to (I'm always curious)

I noticed that many of Italy's forces in Libya were set to anti partisan duty, and were taking 35.00% attrition losses per week due to being out of supply. Their units all over the place were down greatly in strength, so this has obviously been going on for a while. They had plenty of spare convoy transports and lots of supplies stockpiled in Rome, although they did seem to have run out of money.

Is there something wrong with the 1938 scenario, or the AI for Italy? I dont know how my soon to be allies will face in north africa when all their soldiers have died of starvation.

 

[unmerged(151142)]

only played the 36 campaign in 1.07 against Italy as UK, and he was doing great. The first time he put up a real fight. W/o air support I would have gotten nowhere. So if there's trouble it must be in the ai 38 files

 

[JonnyA]

Every version of AoD I have played has the Italian AI packing north Africa with massive numbers of divisions, irrespective of whether they can supply them or not. The UK also seems to always want to put 30+ divisions into the same region, an area that in real life saw battles of a only few divisions per side. In my current game as Germany, the UK has about 25 divisions in Malta and is able to supply them despite the entire Italian navy and airforce operating unopposed against convoys in the central Med.

 

[unmerged(89305)]

Thanks for the responses guys. I'll try a 1936 game and see if the problem still exists there.

Is there any way to be nationalist spain in 1936???

 

[makif130289]

Thanks for the responses guys. I'll try a 1936 game and see if the problem still exists there.

Is there any way to be nationalist spain in 1936???

run hands-off game until the outbreak of SCW, then quit and open the save game as Nationalist Spain.

 

[Commander666]

the UK has about 25 divisions in Malta and is able to supply them despite the entire Italian navy and airforce operating unopposed against convoys in the central Med.

The UK may be losing a lot of convoys (but they have a lot and can afford losses). And is the Italian AI actually attacking them? In 1.05 I have only noticed this "stacking problem" when Italy or N. Spain have lost their capitals. Further resistance becomes ineffective with the Spanish garrisoning their new capital in Mallorca and Italy in Palermo. But I have never seen the Brits stack up in Malta. I agree that that kind of thing does not make for a good game.

 

[JonnyA]

The UK may be losing a lot of convoys (but they have a lot and can afford losses). And is the Italian AI actually attacking them? In 1.05 I have only noticed this "stacking problem" when Italy or N. Spain have lost their capitals. Further resistance becomes ineffective with the Spanish garrisoning their new capital in Mallorca and Italy in Palermo. But I have never seen the Brits stack up in Malta. I agree that that kind of thing does not make for a good game.

I am not sure if the Italian AI is attacking, but I have the entire Italian navy broken down into suitable task forces set to a mixture of convoy attack and naval interdition for the sea areas around Malta. Every week or so there is a naval battle against unescorted stacks of UK transports, none of which are ever sunk despite being attacked by much faster warships. I mean, I love AoD but this sort of thing just depresses me, it has been mentioned so many times and none of the patches ever fixes it. The supply levels on Malta drift up and down but the UK and US base plenty of air units there too, so I can never attack or interdict the ground units properly, I have tried every mix of air missions I can think of. I bet if I invaded the British Isles now they would be empty apart from the fixed garrisons, while 20+ divisions sit idle in Malta.

I've never programmed AI myself and I'm sure it's hard, but can't some provinces have 'don't put more than X divisions here' rules for the AI?

 

[Count of Reval]

I've never programmed AI myself and I'm sure it's hard, but can't some provinces have 'don't put more than X divisions here' rules for the AI?

I have never programmed AI myself either (so don't believe me), but have out of curiosity studied the AI-speak in ai_file_doc a bit. You can try to search for province_priorities in each eng_X.ai file, add something like shown below (Malta should be a province 31) and experiment with the different % values. I'm not sure, if it works, but if I were you, I would try that. Maybe it's nonsense.

province_priorities = {
		31 = 0.1	#Only assign 10% of desired forces to cover the province 31
}

EDIT: Checked, and as far as I understand the province_priorities string may exist in two different places in the ai file - in the garrison section (which controls the AI defense priorities) and in the front section (which also affects AI offensive priorities). The province priority mentioned above (which has value as a %), is the one which describes the front preferences. In most of the ai files, it seems to be missing/ignored by default. The other province_priorities string that is there (the one that regulates defending), has to be an integer in value, I suspect - so don't change it to 0.1, like I advised before.

Until modding veterans arrive and give you a better answer, I think that your best shot to make Brits take easy with Malta is to lower in the all eng_X.ai files (files named like eng_1936.ai, eng_1939.ai etc in the ai folder) the area_multiplier value of province 31 or delete the whole row "31 = X # Malta". The same should be done with province_priorities. (Malta and Gibraltar are 2 oversea provinces that get special attention from UK in the ai files.) But concerning your last question, as far as I know, currently there isn't a possibility to cap the number of units some particular province can have (you can do it only indirectly through different multipliers, ratios and things like that).

 

[Commander666]

I think JonnyA is not suggesting it be fixed by modding. He wrote: "it has been mentioned so many times and none of the patches ever fixes it."
He's saying "I've never programmed AI myself and I'm sure it's hard" and - I believe - expressing a desire that the devs stop messing about with changing the game and get the game so it doesn't have the long list of idiotic problems. In short, why have the devs not hard coded IN ANY PATCH "some provinces can't have more than X divisions"

Why have they not hard coded that UK must have a unit defending Cardiff and so end another great AI weakness in this game?

And why have they not fixed the convoy management system so I can stop complaining?

 

[Count of Reval]

I think JonnyA is not suggesting it be fixed by modding. He wrote: "it has been mentioned so many times and none of the patches ever fixes it."
He's saying "I've never programmed AI myself and I'm sure it's hard" and - I believe - expressing a desire that the devs stop messing about with changing the game and get the game so it doesn't have the long list of idiotic problems. In short, why have the devs not hard coded IN ANY PATCH "some provinces can't have more than X divisions"

Why have they not hard coded that UK must have a unit defending Cardiff and so end another great AI weakness in this game?

And why have they not fixed the convoy management system so I can stop complaining?

Agree, I misinterpreted JonnyA's post. It was rather an expression of dissatisfaction and wish to devs in the form of rhetorical question.

 

[unmerged(151142)]

Disagreed. I liked your post, Count of Reval. What does it help to complain over and over again? If there's someone who offers constructively to help instantly that's a lot better than waiting months for the next problematic patch. Being a part time programmer seems to be part of the paradox customer deal. Back to topic: First I wasn't sure if the UK AI wasn't using Malta as a hub to load troops for reinforcements in North Africa but I'm sure this is simply unbalanced. Your suggestion should work just fine. We'll give it a try.

 

[JonnyA]

C666 and the Count both understand my post correctly. Admiral Solo, I am only complaining about the situation because it is one that is raised so many times by so many people, and each new patch that is released is announced as having solved this sort of thing, but doesn't. It is so frustrating as AoD is otherwise such a great game. If I hadn't paid money for the game, your point would be valid. But I did, and all I want is to get some known weaknesses fixed.

 

[unmerged(151142)]

I am 100% with you!!! To be realistic though you need to make a distinction between hard- and softcoded stuff. I think people like us can fix some minor softcoded things, change leaders, pics, events, and general balancing questions etc, whereas a patch, if there is yet one to come, should get rid off the hardcoded issues that you and I could never even touch. Yes, and the Malta garrison is softcoded, somewhere in the AI files. And yes, we will fix it and have a better game.

 

[unmerged(43138)]

Usually I do not expect much from the Italy at all, but this time I am very surprised:
Malta taken, Suezchannal controlled and cutting of the Tommis from the south + enough supply

Very lucky AI or maybe the early sealion helped

Added:
AoD 1.07, no mod just some grafic added

 

[makif130289]

Usually I do not expect much from the Italy at all, but this time I am very surprised:
Malta taken, Suezchannal controlled and cutting of the Tommis from the south

Very lucky AI or maybe the early sealion helped

Is this WIF mod for Darkest Hour ?

 

[unmerged(151142)]

It's not the strong Italian AI, it's the weak English one! Canadians do not send exp. forces and the Brits have many divs on Malta but not in Africa. It needs to be rebalanced in your AI file (see other posts on this forum)