Suggestions for AI improvement

[manticore]

Now, the AI in Panzer Corp is much better than what we are used to in PG, and I can only guess how difficult it must be to program an AI to adapt to different situations, but I would like to make a few suggestions based on my observation playing the main caimpaign and the DLCs.


1. The enemy artillery should have its turn before all other units (even before air units).

- The AI has the quirky habit of attacking with its land units first, then shooting the same unit with its artillery, which defeats the purpose of the
artillery being there in the first place. Now, at times, it does attack with its artillery first, which leads me to believe that there needs to be a more
hardset rule concerning which unit attacks first. At the moment, I don't see any downside to having artillery shoot first, except those circumstances
where it might waste that precious shot on a strength 1 unit.


2. The retreating manuever needs to be improved.

- Currently, it seems pretty much random where the unit retreats to. I guess you could argue that in the heat of battle you are bound to run in any
one direction, but I hate it when my units run towards the enemy's multiple bunkers rather than away from them. The retreating unit should at least
be able to take into account the current location of any visible enemy units nearby (at least those that he can see).


3. Enemy air units should avoid being in range of AA, unless it can make that deadly blow on the elite unit that forces the player to pound on the desk and
restart the scenario. Then kamikaze is more than acceptable.

- This might make player's AA units less useful, but I hate seeing enemy air units throw themselves at my AA units just to make some dent in my units.


Those are the improvements I can think of at the moment. They are small quibbles, and I feel are a testament to the wonderful work you guys have done, if I can only make so few suggestions


Thanks always for listening to the community!

[Razz1]

Units are supposed to retreat in the direction they last came from, but many times I find them retreating forward which is opposite where they came from.

[soldier]

I think the AI would be improved if the artillery that was in range could be made to fire first in the sequence but move last. Too often the AI fires its artillery after its assaulting armour and then moves it up into dangerous areas leaving the infantry and TD units out of position. This is especially obvious in the bagration scenario, where the tanks and then artillery attack first and take up much of the front line on the river crossing.

[bebro]

I agree about arty firing first, and moving later, though the AA range idea could be tricky: if it's enough to have some AA unit around your most vulnerable units (like arty or inf in transports) to keep enemy planes away this could be counter-productive.

[Erik2]

Some if this have probably already been mentioned, but...

Retreats:
Units in transports that are attacked should be allowed to retreat a portion of their remaining movement points, say 1/2 of the MPs. Currently they only retreat 1 hex which makes it easy for the attacker to move a unit forward and usually kill it.

Unit switches: Make more AA units switchable, ie 20mm and others that were capable of a ground-firing role.

AI:
Should never move units in transport (at least not trucks) towards known enemy units. Currently I sometimes see artillery/AA units in trucks move next to an enemy unit. This may be curtailed by setting correct unit behaviour in the editor.

The AI often attacks with low-strength units against full-strength enemy units. Units with strengths below ie 5 should only defend/repair unless there is an undefended objective nearby up for grabs.

Objectives on river hexes should be defended by AI units behind (or in front of) the objective. Currently the AI places the unit on top of the river.

[Rood]

I completely agree that Artillery (and the same goes for Anti-Air) should always fire first before ground (and air) units attack. I tend to do the same 90% of the times aswell. However I do also fire one artillery then attack and then maybe fire with another artillery, but what I often see is that the AI will attack with a unit and then fire with artillery (and then not always following up with another attack).

As for some other quirky behaviour I guess this has to do with a unit/opponent being set to aggressive, in that case it will attack while understrength and move forward while unprotected.

As for retreating, I haven't found too many issues with it. However sometimes I have an enemy that retreats once onto a river hex, and then it can retreat again across the river. This obviously doesn't happen a lot, but possibly a unit that has already retreated once should not retreat across the river but surrender.

I guess you can spent a life time perfectioning an AI when there's some many variables so I'm quite happy with how the AI is performing right now.

[Mercutio]

I tend to agree about the artillery for the most part. However, it needs to take into account reloading as well instead of firing when it wasn't necessary (like an understrength unit that is going to be wiped out anyway)

The AI really needs to stop sending bombers unprotected when it should know my fighters and AA will kill it easily. Use fighters for protection, target my fighters for air superiority, not the bombers that have an escort!

It appears the AI is more aggressive about attacking your units at higher difficulty levels. I would say a big improvement would be for the AI to not be so aggressive. Moving out of entrenched positions and fighting the attacker in the scenario is often the wrong move. This spreads their units, weakens them from combat, then lets me setup kills for the weakened units that are less entrenched. The AI really needs to consider if attacking will leave it worse off than the defender before giving up a good defensive position. While it may make the AI take longer, it would be better off considering if it has more in quantity or quality before counterattacking.

[_Flin_]

What I do not like about the AI (FM level) is that it just clogs the towns.

It has prestige, it buys 6 units around the town and lets them stay there. Quite often there are good defensive positions in the vicinity that could be used, but aren't.

So what I like for the AI (on the defense):

- strategic positioning
Find out the probable attack vectors of my army (draw a line between main force and objectives, look for defensible position (river, hills, forest), go there
- Hide and counter tactics
Out gunned and outnumbered? Retreat to the forest, or out of the way. Sit there for 5 turns, counterattack. Overall the attacking of the rear is quite bad, although way better in the DLCs