Really simple AI things that need to be fixed

[Green Giant]

Look, I have zero experience programming an AI but there's some things going on that really seem like they would be simple fixes.

- The AI should not flat out abandon fronts. As Germany I recently had some surprising difficulty getting through the low countries. I zoomed out as I pondered this and then I realized France had completely abandoned the Maginot! The AI likes to shift huge masses of forces around for seemingly silly reasons.

- Germany should not declare war on the USSR until the war in France is over.

- Vichy and Italy need to guard their home borders and coasts. Why is Italy abandoning it's homeland? The Italy AI should station a certain percentage up to a cap of it's forces at home in key cities and ports and DON'T FUCK WITH THEM. If you wanted to get really fancy you could also tell it to station a mobile reserve to contain any invasions.

It's starting to get a little inexcusable that things like this are happening. I understand at release things are still being ironed out but we are well into the post release development of the game. Like I said I don't have experience programming an AI but it seems like it wouldn't take a very complicated logic to fix this.

 

[albso437]

If it was easy to fix, like you suggest.
Don't you think that they would have fixed it already?

 

[grandad1982]

I basically agree with you except about the point of not declaring war on USSR till France is done.

I absolutely agree that it's a terrible idea for Germany to do that most of the time, however I think that the general strategic awareness of when to DoW on a nation needs to improve rather than setting a hard limit on what the ai can and can't do. The problem really is the NF driven approach to the war declarations.

 

[Broletariat90]

What I really don't get is why the AI feels lit has to declare immediately after it finishes a NF that leads to war. How hard is it to code it to wait and not immediately use it's casus belli? I mean you usually have like 6 months to use it. It's not going to just vanish if you wait a month or two. I feel like I will just be told well we like it like that because its more sand boxy but at this point in time with all the issues the game is facing, its time to just hard code or script.

 

[Drewoid13]

I

I basically agree with you except about the point of not declaring war on USSR till France is done.

I absolutely agree that it's a terrible idea for Germany to do that most of the time, however I think that the general strategic awareness of when to DoW on a nation needs to improve rather than setting a hard limit on what the ai can and can't do. The problem really is the NF driven approach to the war declarations.

Totally agree. Nf locks a nation into a declaration a player know is wiser to wait on.

 

[Khevenhuller]

What I really don't get is why the AI feels lit has to declare immediately after it finishes a NF that leads to war. How hard is it to code it to wait and not immediately use it's casus belli? I mean you usually have like 6 months to use it. It's not going to just vanish if you wait a month or two. I feel like I will just be told well we like it like that because its more sand boxy but at this point in time with all the issues the game is facing, its time to just hard code or script.

It is the sand boxy bits of this game that I really do not like, because history is not a sand box and countries and leaders faced constraints. Minecraft is a sand box game. But if you want internal consistency and player immersion then you probably should consider alternative approaches.

Much better to set up the AI that it is aware what it needs to prosecute a successful Barbarossa or Sichelschnitt, and wait until it has the resources and conditions to do so. I think one of the issues has to be weather, a rather unsung element in all this, but it should really make a mess of your air power and ability to move anywhere on poor roads. Attacking Russia in October would be a mud march of vast proportions, so you just would wait. Wait out winter too, for good reason, and go in Spring. This is irrespective of the NF and more about operational capability. You can make this a better game by going back and seeing what was actually possible. Could an opponent throw you off balance and force you into a decision that is sub-optimal? Did operational decisions take on a life of their own and get undertaken despite the fact they were looming disasters? Were operations conducted based on vanity, political requirements or personal ambition? You bet. Trying to make these work could provide far more fun than simply indulging in a domination fantasy.

K

 

[Dalwin]

What I really don't get is why the AI feels lit has to declare immediately after it finishes a NF that leads to war. How hard is it to code it to wait and not immediately use it's casus belli? I mean you usually have like 6 months to use it. It's not going to just vanish if you wait a month or two. I feel like I will just be told well we like it like that because its more sand boxy but at this point in time with all the issues the game is facing, its time to just hard code or script.

I used to think that it was declaring immediately, but after a closer examination it turns out that it is just in many cases declaring stupidly rather than immediately. When trying to figure out what has been causing the quick German collapse in 1.3.3 I started watching the German AI more closely. I have seen it finish the NF to attack Russia in January of '41 but then delay the actual DoW until march.

It is still too often driven in undesirable directions by blindly following the NFs, but it actually does under certain circumstances delay the declaration long enough to shift forces to the front and to build planning bonus.