Slitherine

Hello,

I loved the game, when it first came out, and bought the DLCs up to 42 (I think), but stopped playing because of glaring problems with the AI.

There are some well-known problems with the AI, such as moving their unit in trucks all the way up to your units, or following up their attack with artillery bombardment, rather than preceding it.

However, the one that annoyed me the most was how on higher difficulties, when my Panzers would near the final victory point, the AI will suddenly just spend hundreds, if not thousands of prestige points in buying up anti-air gun and artillery to surround their last city with. I can understand how defenders would naturally be mobilized to defend the city, but it was ridiculous to see the measures used to thwart even a half-decent player like me.

Now, there must have been some patches released since then, and with the Afrika Corp expansion pack coming out, I was wondering what kind of changes were/are being made to the AI, and whether the issues I brought up were/will be addressed.

AI spamming the same type of unit around a city hex is ridiculous and annoying as hell. At least if some kind of randomization was introduced, to buy different types of unit. As it is now, it looks incredible gamey and artificial

The spamming has been fixed in Afrika Korps

Thank the heavens!

I'm assuming that the spamming fix will also be applied to the original Panzer Corps?

When AK is released the 1.10 version will be released with it. This will be free to those with PzC and has the AI improvements. The AK campaign expansion will be purchasable.

Will the new AI make the DLC campaigns harder?

AFAIK there are no plans to revamp the DLCs, which will play the same as they do now. Aren't they hard enough for you?

But, the question still remains. Can you play the old campaigns with the new AI?
I'm not sure, but I read it somewhere that you could opt. Am I wrong?

dragos wrote:Will the new AI make the DLC campaigns harder?

The AI has gotten a bit better with artillery firing first (mostly), and units in transports are not moved next to enemy units (as often as before). But there are no plans yet to update the earlier scenarios using the additional design tools in AK.

Why would anyone need design tools to make the AI smarter ?

I suppose that should be achieved with brilliant C++ code (insert your favorite prog language here).

You are right, of course. I propose developers implement a neural network for the AI, so that he learns from player movements and use the same tactics against him

huertgenwald wrote:Why would anyone need design tools to make the AI smarter ?

I suppose that should be achieved with brilliant C++ code (insert your favorite prog language here).

More options to script the AI in Afrika Korps is the clue here. The designer has much more control of how the AI units will move and fight. I have implemented this in a custom campaign I am working on and can definitely see a 'smarter' AI at work.
You no longer how to compensate by giving the AI a large superior number of units to provide a challenge.

Or you could teach the AI to work with combat groups of planes, arty, inf & tanks and hardcode to use them in an appropriate order

I'd kinda like to know if the devs will be going back and adding this better AI to the original campaigns and DLCs or does it somehow happen automatically after applying the patch.

rich12545 wrote:I'd kinda like to know if the devs will be going back and adding this better AI to the original campaigns and DLCs or does it somehow happen automatically after applying the patch.

This is what we can read in the changelog:

AI

Some general improvements in AI play logic.
The AI can now use more unit orders, in particular drop paratroopers and switch multipurpose units.
The AI supports a number of new settings available to modders via the new editor.

The first one, AI play logic, I really don't know.
The last two I know they won't be applied to DLC or vanilla campaign. They would have to redesign all the missions again.

AI performance should be better in the vanilla campaign and the DLC's after the update .
Any scripts or triggers that already were present, won't change. Any new scripting and trigger options available through v1.10 will not occur for those scenarios would require an overhaul.

Good to know, thanks!

VPaulus wrote:

rich12545 wrote:I'd kinda like to know if the devs will be going back and adding this better AI to the original campaigns and DLCs or does it somehow happen automatically after applying the patch.

This is what we can read in the changelog:

AI

Some general improvements in AI play logic.
The AI can now use more unit orders, in particular drop paratroopers and switch multipurpose units.
The AI supports a number of new settings available to modders via the new editor.

The first one, AI play logic, I really don't know.
The last two I know they won't be applied to DLC or vanilla campaign. They would have to redesign all the missions again.

A quick correction, the AI should be able to use more unit orders in vanilla campaign and DLCs too. Although there are probably not many paratroopers on AI side in these scnes, but there should be some switchable units at least. General improvements also work in any scens, including old ones. But new AI scripting options only benefit scenarios which make use of them.