The 3rd Video Development Diary

[RELee]

I loved it!

"No, no! Why is it doing that?"

King, you should do voice-overs for TV.

 

[Laffertytig]

i think a few very valid points have been raised about this feature. just how is the AI gonna know what your plans are (for example a naval invasion) without having a way to tell it?

what we really need (and the AI as well) is a way to project a theatre of control on where we intend to attack/invade. to use a general example, if we intend to launch barbarosa in 12 months then we should be able to create a theatre in russia.

without such an ability then this feature sounds useless. maybe thats the plan and it just wasnt shown in the dev diary?

 

[Palm]

Isn't the idea to place those green markers to tell the AI? Like placing a marker on London for example.

 

[Cybvep]

Isn't the idea to place those green markers to tell the AI? Like placing a marker on London for example.

From experience I can tell you that the AI will not do much if you pick London as your objective when playing as the USA, for example. It won't transport troops to protect the UK. It would do that if you were able to add British provinces to your theatre, though.

 

[unmerged(105989)]

From experience I can tell you that the AI will not do much if you pick London as your objective when playing as the USA, for example. It won't transport troops to protect the UK. It would do that if you were able to add British provinces to your theatre, though.

Now, if you are able to include the British Isles in that theater's zone, then it should be able to make the check if it has the appropriate resources. As things stand now, the AI is simply pulling numbers out of its hat for projections, as it doesn't know where it will be responsible for.

 

[unmerged(207829)]

so...will the theatres get a say in what's being built...ie will the theatre array counts in ai production minister be active, or will/should they still be commented out?

 

[Darkrenown]

I am pretty sure they have always been there in Paradox' internal debug versions, you won't see it in the release though.

This.

 

[Darkrenown]

Not much use for the human, I guess. I'm hoping the production AI will have access to that info, so that long-term planning in LUA scripts can finally be realized.

It's mostly for the player...You see a breakdown per front on what the AI thinks it needs, if it has enough troops to hold the front if it's set on defensive etc. You can also see if any of your allies are planning invasions or need help on their fronts.

 

[misterbean]

what I want to know, and I'm guessing a lot of other people with me, would be something like: I, playing Germany, start the game in 1936, fully intent on taking Sweden along with Norway during Weserubung. how can I tell the OKH to start planning such an invasion? put an objective marker on Stockholm and Malmö? would that be enough to let the AI know the plan?

 

[joeenochs]

I am not sure if I am getting it. As correctly mentioned in the video the problem with the human player using the AI control currently is
that a human player is so much better than the military AI with the same number of forces. So using the AI will always
feel like waste. So I think the only solution is that especially for the higher levels (theatre, army group) the AI is simply fighting "better" and especially for the lower levels (army, corps) that it is very closely following the human objectives so the superior human inside will have a bigger impact. The second problem (more direct control over the AI) should be the easier one so I would expect a big effort here. But the video focuses on the new planning system instead.
Yes the AI will be better with better forces so the game is more fun if the opponent's AI does a better job in production due to planning. But whatever forces
I have produced as a human if I can make much better use of them than the military AI will be a handicap for me. I might still do it and call it role playing
but this is usually just another word for overcoming a flaw in the game mechanics by using your phantasie.

 

[Kriegsspieler]

I wouldn't rule out the possibility that a theater a.i. could take intended targets into account. It's clearly not in the game now, because if it were I expect that our video "guide" would have said so. But if the theatre a.i. can reckon its attack/defense options against active opponents, and it clearly can, then it's not such a stretch to anticipate a time when you can get its help in reckoning what will happen against potential opponents that you "paint" into the theater.

 

[Baltasar]

Can you please please please... not play music when someone is talking. It's hard to understand as it is but Chris is not a native English speaker and propably, most people watching it aren't either.

 

[comsubpac]

Can you please please please... not play music when someone is talking. It's hard to understand as it is but Chris is not a native English speaker and propably, most people watching it aren't either.

he is a native english speaker he just doesn't speak oxford english.

 

[Kriegsspieler]

He's got a point, though. When I am listening to French or German, I do not want too much distracting noise coming in with the words.

Masbe it's just a matter of balancing the volume better. King has such a rich Scottish accent, it's a shame to let it be obscured at all.

 

[comsubpac]

it could be worse...
[video=youtube;4rJAw-fuYHk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rJAw-fuYHk&feature=related[/video]
... he could try making the DD in french...

 

[Modo]

You see a breakdown per front on what the AI thinks it needs, if it has enough troops to hold the front if it's set on defensive etc.

This might be useful for beginners, but mostly it looks like a nice debug tool. Good for you. However, most players will plan military objectives, so they won't need the AI to tell them what is needed. It's circular even if you'd use only the theatre level AI (the least amount of control over units), since the player is still the one planning and setting up everything, so he/she already knows the plan.

However, if you take the human out of the equation, the production AI could have a specifically tailored marshall tell it what it needs to be working on. There you go, instant long-term strategy agent for your wargame engine. (Well, minus the politics of picking targets to defend/help/attack/ignore.)

You can also see if any of your allies are planning invasions or need help on their fronts.

I guess this might be helpful if you'd want to prop them up with expeditionary forces.

 

[joeenochs]

Exactly, Modo, I don't need the AI to tell me that I need transport ships to invade Britain.

And yes, king even admits it is a new debugging tool! Only that debugging tools should be deactivated in the sales version.

 

[dz_duck]

You can also see if any of your allies are planning invasions or need help on their fronts.

I guess this might be helpful if you'd want to prop them up with expeditionary forces.

Or coordinate your invasion with theirs (does it tell you the planned date?).

 

[Darkrenown]

Nope.

 

[SuiciSpai]

Or coordinate your invasion with theirs (does it tell you the planned date?).

When its done ready!