Proper AI behavior settings

[Horst]

What could be easily done for the DLCs and all maps in general, is to check each units’ AI behaviour setting and see if something can be improved there. This could also be of interest to any other amateur map designer. Let’s summarize some existing settings which are used in the game and how they should be used:

Hold position (passive): Units hold position and do nothing.
One possible issue: if you put units in a transport, they would never leave it, e.g. Streets of Moscow (DLC41) where Bridge Engineers sit idle in trains.
In another example, I played the Polish side in the Poland scenario from the Wehrmacht campaign just for fun once. The Pz.I was just sitting passively north of Oppeln while I sneaked with my Polish pals past it and captured the airfield and Oppeln. Hold position (active) as mobile security force would be better there in this example, so the Pz.I could defend the flags and attack any intruders.

Hold position (active): Units hold position but may move to kill or capture.
This is often the observed behaviour when defending units jump out of their high entrenchment just to attack a squishy unit, not knowing the big brother arty is waiting behind ready to rain death. Flag defenders, which are often infantry, should rather have the (fire) option instead, to get a favourable kill sometimes. I haven’t done any tests with (fire) yet, but maybe even (passive) is better just to make sure the flag is defended as long as possible.

Hold position (fire): Units hold position but may attack adjacent units.
This is possibly the most favourable setting in defense as flag or trench defender. However, it could be disastrous if the defender has only Spotting 1 and no other ally nearby to check if opposing enemy units are supported by arty in the fog behind. It is still plausible though that defenders wouldn’t just sit there when a favourable kill is possible, even not knowing of any support behind. That’s the point of recon and spotting values after all.

[Kerensky]

For the most part DLC make extensive use of these settings, but if there are any anomalies we're open to hearing about them, especially if and when we push forward with updating the DLC.

Just keep in mind that trigger settings are also involved in this process and while some units may start with seemingly strange or unusual settings, when they appear (turn settings) and what they are eventually instructed to do (AI triggers) plays a key role in all of this.