AI

[Vachir]

Just a couple of quick comments after a very frustrating fight in which half my knights became hopelessly stuck in a water filled pit.

1. The AI can not handle steep hills. The terrain, especially close to the mountains but not always, makes for some very frustrating fights where horses get stuck, infantry get lost, and generally things become very messy and not a whole lot of fun. Either the AI needs a better understanding of how to navigate these sometimes rediculous hills and cliffs, or the terrain needs to be a lot less steep a lot more often so that the AI doesn't have to deal with this issue.

2. The AI can not understand the concept of 'friendly fire'. Any kind of missile troops have very great potential to kill each other, and any other nearby friendly units. Either the AI needs to get better at target selection and avoiding friendly fire, or friendly fire needs to be turned off. I would be more than happy with friendly fire, even for melee attacks, but the AI would really need to get better at how to move and attack without harming friendlies.

 

[Sir Prince]

1) Mentioned many times, it is a pain.
2) Yes, they do need to be able to avoid shooting each other more, but I don't find it much of a problem. But then again I have mostly calvary.
Also, in real life yes, archers never shot at anything near their own troops usualy.
Turning it off is not an option.


Also, I tried to find a thread that discussed this stuff but it's past page 4 or I missed it so I gave up.

 

[Vachir]

There are a ton of threads that touch on AI in general, but I thought it would be ok to post this as these two really easy changes would make a huge positive impact on M&B for me, and I'm sure other players have had similar issues with these features.

 

[Sir Prince]

Yeah, there are too many threads and that one I mentioned is several pages back. So creating a thread in this case was nesecary.

EDIT: THere are some in here: http://forums.taleworlds.com/viewtopic.php?t=3440

and maybe the other sticky.

 

[thadivine]

yeah...M&B really could use a better AI...troops doesnt notice walls either if you place them in, for example, the arena...

 

[Phantasy Star]

What I have noticed whilst playing the game has been that (well this may not be true but I have seena few instances to support this comment) the AI hit whoever is near them, friendly or not. For instances at the begining of a fight if you are near a friendly AI they swing at you. Also at the end of a battle they swing at you if they are near you.

The AI I think are great as they are at the moment but they could definatly use a better targetting system.

 

[Roady]

Any chance of adding script capabilities for AI?

Maybe even have separate scripts for troops and heroes.

• Heroes can have more complex AI scripts, since there are fewer on the field), and lead a small group of troops around the field.
• Toops can have a simple AI script since there are more on the field.

I'd like to recommend lua or python for the scripting language

I just see possibilities for the community to expand the AI of M&B.

 

[jrawlings]

For point 1:

If you start in a well or on a cliff. Use the "follow me" command to guide them to a safer point. You will need to move as slow as your slowest units to keep them together.

You won't have the time to prepare for fights like you normally would, but at least your folks will be together and in the end, you'll come out better than if you just abandon your guys.

Also, if in the water well and can't get out, dismount your troops to get out or stay in there and engage in the water where its effects negate you and your enemy's speed.

 

[Jarskull]

Here is an odd bit of AI:

I am running from a band of 12 Vaegir Deserters. There is a patrolling war party of 46 Vaegirs. I turn towards the war party. Deserters follow. I run past war party. Deserters follow past war party. War party keeps on partrolling.

HELLO?! War party? You in there? You a peace party? You considering desertion? Ha ha!

I have seen this happen many times. Only time I see one group engaging another is if they are off screen when I come upon them, and already battling/chasing eachother. Occasionally someone chasing me will run from a large party in the area, but I have not seen said large party even attempt to engage fleeing party.

Am I wrong or what? Only been playing about 30 hours worth.

 

[Sir Saladin]

You are not wrong Jarhead, this is just a silly game. Something to do for laughs. No computer or video game is about reality, just entertainment.

 

[Archonsod]

I have noticed some slightly more intelligent behaviour from the AI in the last few updates, mainly around weapon and shield use.
It looks like the AI is being tweaked, its just going to be a long process....

 

[Roady]

@Jarskull. I've noticed the AI lacking in that regard , profoundly when I'm caravaning and some deserters are riding me down and my riding through a war party helps me none against the deserters.

Another AI issue I'm having is with troops that don't follow orders.
I'm spamming "Hold this position" 50+ times on another hill and my 3 swadian crossbowman are camping at the previous hill we were at, firing at the enemy which spawned at the top of a steep cliff.
I'm trying to draw my troops back (aka retreat) so the enemy will climb down the cliff to chase my army.

 

[CrazyEyes]

In the LotR mod ("The Last Days"), for some reason, Isengard patrols/scouts/hosts(war parties)/whatevers will attack the "nobleman" party. The missions where the lords give you objectives to capture noblemen? Yeah, in the mod, they're "agents" (same thing). I.E., "I want you to capture an Isengard Agent who will be travelling from Isengard to Uruk-hai Outpost in 2 days."

Here's the annoying ass part. I always camp the destination, not the departure location, so I was at the Uruk-hai Outpost. An Isen patrol comes, and I start running around the outpost like a loser. The agent comes. Suddenly, the patrol engages the agent! WTF?! I was actually able to join the battle - on the agent's side... okay... agent dies. Lame. This must have happened two more times. One time, I gave up after waiting for an extra day - and found the agent fighting a scout band! I killed the scout band, and managed to take the agent alive. The other time (which was the first time this happened apperently), I never saw the agent. Ever. It confused the crap out of me until I realised what was happening. God damn TK'ing Isengard noobs...

 

[Vachir]

To follow up for .711, 1 is basically fixed with auto-dismount. I still find the terrain annoying to some extent as my specialized cavalry force all dismounting and fighting on foot because they spawned on a 70 degree angle hill seems like more of a workaround than an actual fix.

2 doesn't seem any better yet, although I must say, I'm noticing a lot more missile fire from enemy archers/crossbowmen now. They're pretty good at picking my infantry apart when there's no cavalry to harass them (especially annoying when all cavalry have become infantry due to 1).

On the topic of navigation map AI (3?) I've noticed the same thing. When I first started I had hoped that occasionally in a battle, allied troops would join in and help out, much like I often join a battle in progress to help them. I hope this is a feature that gets implemented at some point. I would really like to see the nav AI being more enthusiastic in general, as in chasing down any enemy of approximately equal force they come across rather than always running when slightly outnumbered or just ignoring enemies that don't give chase.

 

[joukkeli]

Well i've noticed that player and AI can hit trough friendly unit and that doesn't kill the friendly unit. Its very frusterating (sorry about my bad english). especially if you are alone against 40 forest bandits and they hit you trought the nearest forest bandit. Is there any change of implementing friendly fire in melee combat too?

 

[Archonsod]

To follow up for .711, 1 is basically fixed with auto-dismount. I still find the terrain annoying to some extent as my specialized cavalry force all dismounting and fighting on foot because they spawned on a 70 degree angle hill seems like more of a workaround than an actual fix.

The AI pathfinding is just generally bad. Ever noticed them get stuck against a wall in the Arena? Even more noticable in the Arena expansion mod with the fortified arena. Only seems to affect mounted units though. Foot troops tend to be fine.

2 doesn't seem any better yet, although I must say, I'm noticing a lot more missile fire from enemy archers/crossbowmen now. They're pretty good at picking my infantry apart when there's no cavalry to harass them (especially annoying when all cavalry have become infantry due to 1).

Friendly troops now look for clear lines towards their targets, and tend not to fire if there is another friendly troop in the way. I've noticed this since I usually have an army of Swadian crossbowmen. Friendly fire rarely ever occurs now among friendly troops, unless they begin shooting at an enemy between them.
Friendly fire against myself and the mounted NPC's still occurs, although this may be down to running into the bolt rather than obstructing the line of fire.

On the topic of navigation map AI (3?) I've noticed the same thing. When I first started I had hoped that occasionally in a battle, allied troops would join in and help out, much like I often join a battle in progress to help them. I hope this is a feature that gets implemented at some point. I would really like to see the nav AI being more enthusiastic in general, as in chasing down any enemy of approximately equal force they come across rather than always running when slightly outnumbered or just ignoring enemies that don't give chase.

Hard to implement, since I don't think time passes at all while your in battle. It would be nice to see though.