AI thoughts

[Bhruic]

Originally Posted by tiberiu

Take note I said "battle" not game. Given that KB is single player, the AI wouldn't need to compose his army because it is pre-set. He would just need to choose the best action for his moves. Your assertion about complexity and time necessary for a competent AI is improbable, given that in KB often you only need to calculate 5-10 plies or less ahead and in chess 10-20 sometimes more.

Without trying to be offensive, it's obvious you don't understand how coding an AI works. Your attempt at a distinction between "game" and "battle" is irrelevant, unless you are going to try and make an AI that only works in a single fight. Yes, each individual army is set ahead of time, but the composition of armies and the number of battles to be fought brings a level of complexity that Chess doesn't even come close to.

Remember KB is single player. A good AI wouldn't need care about hero's spells or abilities, only about his own actions.

That'd be as silly as me saying that a Chess AI doesn't have to care about what moves the other player makes, just its own moves. Of course the AI has to care about the here's spells and abilities, because the use of those abilities can greatly alter what options it has available. If, for example, the hero casts the "Target" spell on one of his units, the behaviour of the AI changes drastically.

AI should :
- differentiate between summons and real units. (he doesn't)
- use talents much logically, (for example all units with Running waste the ability on turn 1 needlessly, also 1 stack of 1000 necromancers should not cast Plague instead of attacking)
- attack where it hurts. A golden rule is to attack where you deal most damage. If you attack a stone skinned Ghost, in effect, you waste 1 turn.

Ok, now this is the sort of suggestions I was looking for. So let's go through them.

1) If the AI differentiates between summoned and real units, does that not make summoned units irrelevant? What is the point of having the ability to summon units if the AI is going to ignore them?

2) How do you determine what is a logical use of their talents? Running on the first turn, for example, doesn't it make sense to try and close on the enemy as fast as possible to try and limit the number of turns they can hit you with ranged units?

3) How do you determine what "most damage" is? The AI already does a decent job of trying to close on wearker/ranged units to prioritize them over melee, what beyond that should they do? Are you suggesting they should spend a turn not attacking to try and get closer to a weaker unit rather than spending that turn attacking a stronger one?