Alfryd please don't be so touchy
*sigh* It's just that I've been pointing out this AI defect for well... months certainly. Certainly quite shortly after Paradox announced buying the IP.
When heroes are in panic they just flee and don't notice in certain period of time anything or anybody around them. For instance, if Cleric meet another hero fleeing in panic, then she'll cure that hero and most probably he'll cheer up and will return to fight.
That's logical and acceptable AI enough for me.
What if the hero
isn't injured in the first place? What if they just took a look at the monster nearby and decided to wet their pants and run home?
'Logical and acceptable' AI for me would be noticing the cleric,
telling the cleric that you need help, evaluating whether that cleric's help would be enough to turn the tide, and then coming back into the fight with the cleric in tow.
Conversely, there are situations where heroes
should flee in terror without waiting to be injured: if a single level 6 ranger is up against an elder dragon, then running away
immediately is the only sane option. But a
dozen level 6 rangers? That's a different story entirely.
...sometimes heroes in the game will start to flee even if they have health and mana potions in his bag. just because of scare. after the distance from monsters will be big enough, those scared heroes will stop, heal themselves and most probably will return to fight.
This is no good to me if my settlement has been razed in the meantime. What I'm mainly worried about is situations where heroes outnumber an approaching monster 6 to 1, but at least half of them flee in terror because no single hero is tougher than that monster- I've seen this happen all the time in single player quests and it drives me crazy. Case in point- in the Fortress of Ixmil quest, I'll use Call to Arms with my warriors when monsters arrive to attack the settlement, and then each warrior will arrive on the scene and
individually flee in terror, one at a time- thus leaving me with exactly NO heroes to combat the threat! All despite the fact that my overall hero forces are more than adequate to fight the invasion!
This is particularly irritating because heroes DO make allowance for the number of enemies, so that many weak goblins may be as much of a perceived threat as a single tough minotaur. Why won't they do the same for allies! It's madness! I don't even see why it's particularly hard to do. I am
almost certain that the AI needed for this is relatively simple and could be coded up with very little trouble: This is, like... maybe a dozen extra lines of code! I can probably do a tech demo, if it would help!
Please, please, I am
begging you- at least
attempt to provide some kind of patch or update post-release that will rectify these kinds of problems.
I have to say that heroes behaviour is verisimilar enough for such game like Majesty.
At least three of your own (p)reviewers disagree. I would wager there will be more. This isn't just about verisimilitude (though that's always a plus): It's about being able to muster your forces en masse reliably and without frustration.
(Also, will ranged units use hit-and-run? I'm sort of guessing 'No'?)
Banquet said:
Majesty 1 freeplay mode didn't use random maps, you picked a pre-built map to use. Not being able to produce random maps is therefore no reason for Majesty 2 to not include Freeplay.
That's not entirely accurate. ALL the maps in the Majesty 1 were randomly generated, including in single-player quests and multiplayer deathmatches. You just picked a terrain type, enemy force pattern, random events, starting gold, etc. Even your own buildings would start in random locations.
That said, I would also like to see a freestyle mode where you can pick a pre-made map, and then vary the types of monsters/invasions that would occur. But I can understand if it's difficult for technological reasons.
