Topic: Some small Ideas, improving a lot

In statistics, we could add one graph showing how strong the economy is

• maybe counting bread

• maybe somthing like BIP (GDP)

• maybe also add used wares to wares

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the-x wrote:

Difficulty of the AI

the AI starts with normal soldiers that have x upgrades in attack value

normal x=0

challenging x=1

very hard x=2

epic x=3

unbeatable x=4

this suggestion lacks the fact that not every tribe has so much attack upgrades.
However this idea was discussed some time ago. If you don't mind you could search for the old thread and bring it back up so we can take the old arguments into account.
Recently we had a change in the code that would allow for such a feature in scenarios maybe there is a chance of using this however I don't know exactly.

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hessenfarmer wrote:

the-x wrote:

Difficulty of the AI

the AI starts with normal soldiers that have x upgrades in attack value

normal x=0

challenging x=1

very hard x=2

epic x=3

unbeatable x=4

this suggestion lacks the fact that not every tribe has so much attack upgrades.
However this idea was discussed some time ago. If you don't mind you could search for the old thread and bring it back up so we can take the old arguments into account.
Recently we had a change in the code that would allow for such a feature in scenarios maybe there is a chance of using this however I don't know exactly.

Yes, couldnt this easily be done - for example if we set x to 4 it works for all tribes and fir atlantean we could make instead amor instead or we reduces it to x=2 which also gives nice situations? You can set up interesting games against AI then, ill look for the post though what argument should be against it?

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hessenfarmer wrote:

the-x wrote:

Difficulty of the AI

the AI starts with normal soldiers that have x upgrades in attack value

normal x=0

challenging x=1

very hard x=2

epic x=3

unbeatable x=4

this suggestion lacks the fact that not every tribe has so much attack upgrades.
However this idea was discussed some time ago. If you don't mind you could search for the old thread and bring it back up so we can take the old arguments into account.
Recently we had a change in the code that would allow for such a feature in scenarios maybe there is a chance of using this however I don't know exactly.

Campaigns can now define difficulty stages. The player gets to choose the difficulty in the scenario select screen and the choice is made available to the scripts.
This feature is not applicable here, but it should be fairly easy to add a property ai_difficulty to LuaPlayer that allows the starting condition script to determine whether the player is controlled by an AI, and if so, which kind. However I'm not sure if this wouldn't desync in multiplayer.

+1 for the suggestion to give stronger AIs better starting conditions, though I wouldn't call an AI epic or unbeatable just because it starts with slightly better trained soldiers

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I would appreciate ways to boost AI players would boost AI players - but I don't think stronger starting soldiers is the way to do it. There are already ways to give the AI a starting advantage - you can make them start with a town while you only have a HQ; or you can even give yourself "basic outpost" starting conditions to make it harder. Strong starting soldier would be different to that, but similar in the sense that it is only the early game that is harder. Or do you mean that all newly trained soldiers would have the free bonus?

For me, I'd prefer a way to make the AI stronger in the mid-game rather than the early game. Here are two ideas that I've been throwing around in my mind to give AI players an (optional) 'unfair' advantage:

• Shorter building cooldown and construction times; so that they can mine and manufacture a bit faster.
• Each soldier lost gives a free random military item in the AI headquarters. (ie. when the AI loses a battle, it will get a free random item in its HQ which will either help it recruit or train a soldier.

My thinking is that when I play a game vs the AI, the outcome essentially comes down to what happens at first contact; because the AI basically just attacks until they run out of soldiers. So if I'm strong enough to defend my core infrastructure, I win; otherwise I lose. When the AI has a starting advantage, it means I have to try to avoid a fight to survive the early game; but once I'm set up, the early game advantage doesn't matter anymore. I'd prefer if the AI's advantage was a bit more persistent. This way, in a FFA with AI players, the later players might still offer some resistance.

Ultimately though I think what the AI really needs is better decision making. They seem able to run only a basic economy, and rather than scaling up, they seem to fill most their land with sentries (which they don't even have enough soldiers to fill). Maybe one day I'll have a shot at trying to improve it.

That reminds me, I did glance at the building selection code. I didn't read through it enough to get an understanding of how it works, but I did notice something that seems like it is a probably a mistake. Just from context alone, I'd guess that this line should read inputs[50] = (bakeries_count_ > 1); (Although I don't expect it would make much difference.)

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