Why does the AI not consider terrain penalties?

[delpiero1234]

Why?
I constantly see my allies (and foes) attacking in provinces with lots of mountains. Example from my current game as Savoy: Hungary invades Austria and decides to attack the Austrian army in Tirol..

 

[hwoosh]

Because the AI isn't perfect

 

[delpiero1234]

Because the AI isn't perfect

Yes I know that the AI isn't perfect but this is crucial in my opinion.

The AI would perform a lot better in war if it would consider them before attacking.

 

[hwoosh]

Yes I know that the AI isn't perfect but this is crucial in my opinion.

The AI would perform a lot better in war if it would consider them before attacking.

It does consider them, AFAIK, when it calculates odds of victory. The problem insofar as there is a problem is, therefore, precisely that it isn't perfect.

 

[delpiero1234]

It does consider them, AFAIK, when it calculates odds of victory. The problem insofar as there is a problem is, therefore, precisely that it isn't perfect.

If the AI would consider terrain modifiers like you are saying why does it attack in mountain terrain with a -3 penalty? The only plausible answer is that the AI does not consider terrain when going to war.

 

[Casadoom]

Because the AI isn't perfect

Because the AI is awful you mean. Not being perfect implies that it could be good.

Since all this game has going for it is war, especially since the last patch kind of killed colonization, the AI needs to be quite significantly improved. Naval landings and non-cheating victory predictions are what need to be the main focus of their efforts.

 

[delpiero1234]

Still playing as Savoy and I just witnessed Tuscany attacking me in Lombardia (I annex Milan). Their army got slaughtered while mine was nearly untouched. Both armies were around the same size and same tech but Tuscany had terrain penalties.. Good for me but I want an AI that is more challenging..

 

[Pugman]

This thread reminds me of marriage counseling.

 

[lordelenath]

Yeah, once you've figured out that the AI can't handle terrain penalties at all, every war becomes trivial. I repeatedly beat 4-1 or 5-1 odds because they keep attacking into mountains again and again and again. Sadly I don't know anything about AI programming, can't say how hard it would be to improve on that.

 

[Alblaka]

Did you play with normal or hard AI settings? If the AI ignores things like terrain features, which can have SEVERE impacts on battles, even on highest difficulty (I'm entirely fine with AI's dumbing out on low difficulty), it's a bug thatneeds to be fixed.

 

[delpiero1234]

I'm playing Ironmode. I think the difficulty for all Ironmode games is 'normal' but I could be wrong.

If I were playing a regular game on easy and the AI would attack in mountain terrain then I would not complain. However, I'm playing Ironmode.

 

[lordelenath]

The difficulty doesn't make the AI more stupid though, just less/more aggressive. I'm always playing on "normal", but as far as I know (and the tool-tips tell) that's the only difference.

 

[delpiero1234]

Well I would have appreciated a patch that fixes the AI much more than one that randomizes the New World..

 

[hwoosh]

If the AI would consider terrain modifiers like you are saying why does it attack in mountain terrain with a -3 penalty? The only plausible answer is that the AI does not consider terrain when going to war.

No, that is one possible explanation. The most plausible explanation, given the fact that we know the AI does calculate odds of victory and does incorporate terrain into those calculations in some way, is that it does do so and isn't very good at it. It's not like flicking a switch--"AI good at considering terrain" / "AI ignores terrain entirely". False dichotomy.

 

[hwoosh]

Well I would have appreciated a patch that fixes the AI much more than one that randomizes the New World..

What a pointless post. They're always improving the AI, as evidenced by the lengthy list of AI improvements in this patch and every previous patch's patch notes. Their AI guy works on the AI, and the rest of the dev team work on other things.

 

[Parallel Pain]

If the AI would consider terrain modifiers like you are saying why does it attack in mountain terrain with a -3 penalty? The only plausible answer is that the AI does not consider terrain when going to war.

Far from the only plausible answer:
The better answer would just be the AI does calculate but it's calculation is often off.

and AFAIK no general in history ever did his calculations absolutely perfectly. Even after we have GPS, satellites, and maps with terrain elevation value.

In any case players don't actually want a perfect AI.
Imagine if the AI could calculate battle results perfectly. You will only be able to defeat smaller enemies who won't even fight you but try to run, so you have to chase them.
And any war VS larger nations is unwinnable.

But I repeat:
WIZ please go program 3 different AIs already!

 

[Prydefalcn]

I've attacked mountains and been horribly butchered before, but that doesn't mean I did not take terrain affects in to account.

 

[delpiero1234]

I've attacked mountains and been horribly butchered before, but that doesn't mean I did not take terrain affects in to account.

Way to go