Things not in manual I learned in AI Editor

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Things not in manual I learned in AI Editor - 2/2/2008 1:07:01 AM

miral

Posts: 170
Joined: 12/20/2007
Status: offline

Now, I know that, having said these are not in manual, I will be immediately be pointed to the page and paragraph in the manual where they are explained. However, strategic and logistical disaster never stopped the German Army from maniacally pursuing another splendid operational success, and neither will I be stopped here. And, manual or not, I do NOT claim to be the first to notice these things, but thought it might help new players, like me, if they were in one place. These all take place on the default settings for the AI.

Did you know that each AI nation holds back a Continental Reserve of 25% of their total forces to guard their interior against amphibious assault (though these would be useful against any deep enemy breakthrough)? You might want to calibrate this to the size of your land mass vs sea; 25% might be too much or too little.

Did you know that the default AI will only try and defend Cities worth 10,000 production? This seems far to high to me. It can be reset to any number of production points.

Did you know that the default AI standard unit has a stacking point minimum of 10 and max of 20? That is why we get hordes of puny units. This might have some worth on a huge map (but shouldn't you have a lot more productions points so it's a wash) but it seems to me to be far, far too low. I believe that this setting is one of the prime reasons that the AI can be easily beaten on the normal setting (+ and ++ settings are another matter). This can be reset to any number; I recommend, after a lot of testing, AI units of 50-75 stacking points. This gives them real punch on attack and staying power on defense.

Did you know that the default AI assigns Random Personalities to each AI nation, rating each seperately for Attackmindedness, Airmindedness, and Researchmindedness. I talked about this in another post, but that was such a damned long one I thought it might help to mention it again. This seems to me to be enormously important. And mysterious, as we don't know what exactly it means.

AT is a deep game with a shallow manual. That's ok, better than the other way around and I've bought my share of those too. But this Random Personality thing is most important and we can only hope the developer - and thanks to him for the best, most fun wargame I've ever played - will give us more specific information about it.

Did you know that the default AI setting for PP spent on Research is .05. Now the line in the AI editor about this is phrased somewhat ambiguously but I take it to mean that the higher you reset this number towards 1.00 the more the AI will research, and the test games I've done seems to confirm this strongly. I still cannot get the AI to produce support weapons like At guns, bazookas, ect. in any great numbers but, if this is set high, the AI will take the weapon systems it is producing and research the hell out of them. I've had Medium Tanks IV by turn 8, using .90 setting. Also, this is a round about way to get the AI into producing those support weapons by the middle game anyway, because once the AI reaches level 4 on the systems it has it has to start researching other systems it might not otherwise do.

I don't mean to bore with so many long posts but, I repeat, this is a very deep game with a shallow manual and the only way to find out things is to ask if others experiences are the same or greatly different, as concerns the AI. The AI editor is wonderful, quite accessible to computer limited people like me, and gives the game enormous flexibility. But, during these early months of AT, we still have to work out what exactly it does and how.

Best single piece of advice I would give anyone completely new to AT is: use the Editor to increase the size of the AI units.

Well, I meant to be brief, honestly I did. Have some things to say about the Air War in AT but will put in seperate post. All comments and criticisms appreciated.

Post #: 1

RE: Things not in manual I learned in AI Editor - 2/2/2008 2:40:24 AM

Iron Knight

Posts: 213
Joined: 12/24/2007
Status: offline

Thanks, your posts on this have been everyenteresting!

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Post #: 2

RE: Things not in manual I learned in AI Editor - 2/2/2008 3:11:02 AM

DasTactic

Posts: 1083
Joined: 10/10/2005
Status: offline

Wow! Great post Miral.

Thanks for sharing your findings. Could see some interesting mods coming through the community making use of this.

(in reply to Iron Knight)

Post #: 3

RE: Things not in manual I learned in AI Editor - 2/2/2008 3:12:56 AM

T_K

Posts: 131
Joined: 12/5/2007
Status: offline

I've tried these things. My impression is that the AI will build support units depending on the map and frontline conditions. I haven't done extensive enough testing yet to be sure how it will behave in various situations.

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Post #: 4

RE: Things not in manual I learned in AI Editor - 2/2/2008 3:22:22 AM

ghoward

Posts: 147
Joined: 11/9/2007
Status: offline

quote:

AT is a deep game with a shallow manual. That's ok, better than the other way around and I've bought my share of those too.

Documentation is the thing a programmer least wants to do (if you except taking out the garbage and unclogging the toilet). If one of them admits to liking it, or does it well, all the other programmers make fun of him and make him use the bathroom down in marketing. If you have actually seen good documentation for something, we should get the name of the tech writer, and buy her a copy of this game!