AI Needs Immediate Rework

[governorx]

Ever since the last major update my allied AI teammates are indiscriminately stealing my villages. This is abhorrent AI behavior and should be rectified immediately. Why abhorrent? Because it hasn't ever done this in 20 years. AI doesn't steal your villages ever. I am pretty sure that was a mantra in the development 20 years ago.

Imagine playing a game of clash, and your AI teammate taking 4/6 of starting you villages. Proof attached.

I would also like to say that over the years AI changes have broken a lot of playability. A bit more management of these types of changes appears to be necessary.

[Lord-Knightmare]

I probed your save and I see what's causing it
The AI Ally stole your villages to heal its injured units. As I see that near-death Saurian Skirmisher at 6,6, it's proven
This is the culprit

Code: Select all

                               [candidate_action]
					enabled=yes
					engine="lua"
					id="retreat_injured"
					location="ai/lua/ca_retreat_injured.lua"
					max_score=192000
					name="ai_default_rca::retreat_injured"
					score=0
					type=""
					[args]
					[/args]
					[filter_own]
					[/filter_own]
				[/candidate_action]

So either lowering that score, or setting enable to no might do the trick.

Another method is making a modification add-on to return village ownership back to the player so they dont get their income taken away.

[Lord-Knightmare]

Follow-up Post:

You can try switching the AI Algorithm from "Default AI" to the "Old Default AI (1.14 version)" one and play without that new "feature".
Once you make a side have have a "Computer Player", the AI Algorithm selector is available as a drop-down under it. Hope this helps.

[Atreides]

I think maybe the addon that lets villages be used without changing owner could help also? I always use it so I can feel better about using my allied AI's villes to heal.

p.s. yes this does not affect any AI problem that may exist, just mentioning an alternative...

[shevegen]

I think this is a general problem with the AI, it can be too predictable and makes too many mistake.

Perhaps one day some heroic dev who is bored could re-consider the whole AI. Leave the old code as
it is, but try to come up with new AI, in particular with different "strategies". One thing I hate is how
leader units tend to suicide, aka run in to kill a weak enemy unit and then die. Not every campaign
seems to have that issue, and if you know the AI you can "work around" it a bit, but even then it
shocks me when I played for many turns and then the allied leader I have no real control about
decides to be a hero and storm out into the open - to then die the next turn, and I lose the game.

In regards to AI perhaps we could have different AI types aka non-linear AI playing styles too. Like
rather than try to kill the most, to simply try to see where you can do the most damage on a
pattern-based grid layout including the income, e. g. to win the game in the long run instead. Often
the AI right now forces the computer to go "all in", and then tends to lose in later turns due to
lack of resources. This of course depends on the map as well and not every campaign has that
issue, but ... just saying. More varied AI would be great. I think manually switching may be a bit
too cumbersome. Perhaps we can have some tests to see which AI combination would be more
fun. And add a bit of randomness too, in particular when replaying campaigns.