AI thoughts

[tiberiu]

Originally Posted by Bhruic

Chess is a much less complex game than KB - by far.

You're kidding, right?
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. Also computers now are capable of playing GM level only in seconds. It is much more easy to determine the outcome of an action in KB then in chess, partly because there are less total actions available during a complete turn. We have the player with only 5 units instead of 16 at start, usually it is not hard to determine what is the best spell to be cast, the same with rage skills. What's required is basic pruning which is currently replaced by seed-based randomness.

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

Take for example the average battle at start of game. The 40 enemy skeleton archers should only know that they have no chance of killing 1 Soothsayer before the battle ends, so it would be pointless to attack it. However, attacking the Slingers would result in 1 Slinger dying, which automatically becomes the best move.

At the moment, the AI is so weak that it often attacks where it doesn't do any damage to the player's forces.

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.

PS. Some people already use chess engines to create smarter AI for games. A good example is eternal essence AI project mod for Heroes of Might and Magic 5 which uses Fritz Chess Engine to calculate Ai's move. I have seen here what a chess engine can do to a game AI and it's just ... beautiful.

[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?