Vanilla AI in 9.2 beta patch now builds very close to 40-width divisions.

[blahmaster6k]

Title. I've been playing around in the 9.2 beta. Now that you can see all your allies' division templates in the intel screen, it's easy to see what the AI is going towards. In 1943, the UK has a 38-width 13/4 infantry template with four support companies, though the majority of the British army is still 7/2 divisions. The USA also had a few divisions of a 13/4 template. I ended the game before seeing if they ever upgraded to 14/4, but it is apparent that the AI is now trying to build large divisions. In this case, I have to hand it to paradox for listening to the good players who want a more challenging AI. Thanks!








(Inb4 downvotes from the 40-width should be banned crowd.)

 

[TheKillingJoke]

That's good to hear. I was curious why it was hard for me to push as a late game France on USA. Good to hear that its because they are building better.

 

[blahmaster6k]

That's good to hear. I was curious why it was hard for me to push as a late game France on USA. Good to hear that its because they are building better.

Ironically, it was the USA that made me give up my Democratic France run, though not as an enemy. The beta patch has a lot of issues, Germany did Danzig or War (historical turned on) but never declared on Poland, and WWII kicked off when they attacked Luxembourg. Since GER never declared on Poland, the Soviets did, causing a three way war. After I defeated the Axis the USA sent 200 divisions onto my front lines to "help" fight the Soviets. It was impossible to get supply anywhere so I just quit.

EDIT: another AI improvement I noticed was that the soviets seemed to be mass grouping tank divisions along some sections of the front, i could see 3x medium tank divisions in 4 provinces in a row (in 1944) and few tanks elsewhere along the front, before I gave up the game. Not sure if this is by design or just a coincidence, but if it is that would be a massive improvement.

 

[TheKillingJoke]

Ironically, it was the USA that made me give up my Democratic France run, though not as an enemy. The beta patch has a lot of issues, Germany did Danzig or War (historical turned on) but never declared on Poland, and WWII kicked off when they attacked Luxembourg. Since GER never declared on Poland, the Soviets did, causing a three way war. After I defeated the Axis the USA sent 200 divisions onto my front lines to "help" fight the Soviets. It was impossible to get supply anywhere so I just quit.

EDIT: another AI improvement I noticed was that the soviets seemed to be mass grouping tank divisions along some sections of the front, i could see 3x medium tank divisions in 4 provinces in a row (in 1944) and few tanks elsewhere along the front, before I gave up the game. Not sure if this is by design or just a coincidence, but if it is that would be a massive improvement.

Ive seen alot of improvements. Naval Invasions are happening better. On my French Empire game, I saw the USA naval invade Japan and actually capitulate them.

 

[Harin]

Title. I've been playing around in the 9.2 beta. Now that you can see all your allies' division templates in the intel screen, it's easy to see what the AI is going towards. In 1943, the UK has a 38-width 13/4 infantry template with four support companies, though the majority of the British army is still 7/2 divisions. The USA also had a few divisions of a 13/4 template. I ended the game before seeing if they ever upgraded to 14/4, but it is apparent that the AI is now trying to build large divisions. In this case, I have to hand it to paradox for listening to the good players who want a more challenging AI. Thanks!

(Inb4 downvotes from the 40-width should be banned crowd.)

Were you playing without mods when you saw these large divisions? I am playing a game right now with Expert AI and I discovered several countries were building 40 widths.

 

[blahmaster6k]

Were you playing without mods when you saw these large divisions? I am playing a game right now with Expert AI and I discovered several countries were building 40 widths.

No mods at all except a historical flags mod. None of the other graphics mods I used to use seem to have been updated for 1.9, and I definitely wasn't using EAI.

 

[Harin]

Thanks for the reply! It is good to hear that the vanilla AI is starting to fight fire with fire.

 

[sekelsenmat]

Well, there is a downside, if the AI builds 40w I guess historical divisions will no longer be viable

 

[Cpack]

Even more stunning, because they changed nothing in the ai_template files….

 

[Kryndude]

Huh, nice I'll start my new game on beta then.

 

[Feeblezak]

Rather they didn't. The AI building multiplayer meta meme formations will make more historical formations unviable in singleplayer.

 

[Leinad965]

Rather they didn't. The AI building multiplayer meta meme formations will make more historical formations unviable in singleplayer.

If historical division should be stronger, than it should be fixed in game core mechanics, not in game AI. Like they nerfed artillery in past, to make more historical divisions viable.

P.S.: I am not sure, if 40w infantry division is really stronger. Last test here in forum showed that can be slightly worse. Only tank division is worth 40w. And big tank corps are real think in Russia.

 

[mpop]

Although I do notice the balance is now off as I played 5 games now as Manchuko and I got steamrolled in 2 games by China very early because they're very strong with 40 width infantry and huge manpower pool. Germany usually capitulate in 1943 and can't hold out until 1945.

 

[Thumping_Fox]

Is the beta running well for you?

Some of us have been having bad performance issues, the FPS will drop to around 30 fps, even when the game is paused.

 

[The_Blind_One]

How the heck does the AI know how to build 40w if there's no template for them in the ai_templates?

I'm really confused, I'm almost certain that the AI does not build anything outside of the AI_templates.

Can someone verify this claim of 40w being used by default AI?

 

[Leinad965]

I tried "hands off" beta 1.9.2 and I see some 27w templates, but I cannot find any 40w. But I can confirm, that Japan has hard time with China. They lost against China in my game, but they conquered whole pacific afterwards and declared war against China again in 1945.

 

[Leinad965]

And save, if you want to check yourself

 

[MelkorADeceiver]

I have noticed in the late game, (around 1944-1945) that the ai does build 40 width divisions or at least close to it. If I recall, even the last patch they did. The Swedish ai is particularly fond of them for whatever strange reason. Other ais do it too, but Sweden seems to do it the most. Someone check Sweden’s divisions around 44-45 and they should be 40 widths.

 

[Leinad965]

I have noticed in the late game, (around 1944-1945) that the ai does build 40 width divisions or at least close to it. If I recall, even the last patch they did. The Swedish ai is particularly fond of them for whatever strange reason. Other ais do it too, but Sweden seems to do it the most. Someone check Sweden’s divisions around 44-45 and they should be 40 widths.

Ok, you are right... Sweden has 34.4 width, 14/4 division

 

[The_Blind_One]

For all of you who are wondering ...

The Generic AI or in other words the AI for minor nations (such as sweden, Iraq, Mexico, etc) DOES have the ability to produce 40w infantry (14/4) but none of the major nations should be able to do this according to the files. There are also some strange outlying templates for japan which as an example has a 10/2 infantry division or the national guards for the USA which is a 12/0 division.

And save, if you want to check yourself

I checked your save and you were talking about Sweden but Sweden is a minor nation and uses the generic AI as I've previously discussed and CAN use 14/4 outs of the box for a while now. There's nothing strange about their behavior as they are just following normal ai code. (Brazil for example in your save also has 14/4's as it uses the generic ai)

Nothing in 1.9.2 beta version files seems to indicate the type of divisions that the opening poster seems to claim. Such as the US or UK having 13/4 divisions. Though perhaps these nations got access to these divisions due to their puppets making them (which are using the generic AI) and these nations inheriting their troops and/or templates somehow ... that's the only reasoning I've got.

P.S
Minor nations using the ''generic'' ai will build 40w (14/4) once they have a large enough surplus of infantry equipment.