Captain mode AI targeting ideas

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soul_jak

Sergeant at Arms
I’m not a captain mode player but cool idea I think.
An option for ranged Ai units to prioritize targets like have them focus on other archers or cav but if none are in range they automatically aim at closest enemy unit?
Could be cool what do u think?
 
I’m not a captain mode player but cool idea I think.
An option for ranged Ai units to prioritize targets like have them focus on other archers or cav but if none are in range they automatically aim at closest enemy unit?
Could be cool what do u think?

I've had the same thought and I came to this conclussion: This would cause serious balance issues. It's meant that if you have a shield support unit the shield unit should be able to soak most of the arrows from the enemy. If you could target we would remove all teamplay and every class would just have their own little fights.
 
I've had the same thought and I came to this conclussion: This would cause serious balance issues. It's meant that if you have a shield support unit the shield unit should be able to soak most of the arrows from the enemy. If you could target we would remove all teamplay and every class would just have their own little fights.
I'm all for a prioritization that lets AI archers choose the most viable targes just as a human would do. A purely range based prioritization causes serious balance issues because a single shield unit in front makes your whole army essentially immune to archer fire.
In most strategy you the player can manually pick a target unit for their troops. In Bannerlord in contrast you only order them to attack. This translates well to melee because cou can still manually move your units to the desired target so that they attack the correct unit. In ranged combat however you usually want to stay far away from your target so that that trick doent's work and we need an alternative.
The current meta in Captain is dominated by twohanded only or 5*towhanded+1shield. I wish for a more diverse metagame because there are so many interesting unit choices around that never see play because they are just not viable. A huge part of achieving that balance is in making archers more viable agains infantry heavy compositions and a competent archer AI is a huge part of achieving this without ruining the balance for other gamemodes.
 
What a great original idea that's been suggested several times by multiple communities.
 
What a great original idea that's been suggested several times by multiple communities.

Exactly, it is a suggestion discussed practically since the closed alpha-beta period of 2019; iirc that Silen was one of the first to emphasise this.

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@soul_jak It would be great if you could enable a poll to "measure" the general interest with it :wink:
 
It's being discussed regularly on Captains League discord.

Having an option to "Paint an area" to "Focus Fire" to launch non-targeted volleys (other than the area) has also been among them

Edit: And since mr. @Ling* (who runs the discord) is very much a legolas-archerboi, he might be able to list all the suggestions that's been made in terms of archery in Captains Mode
 
I'm all for a prioritization that lets AI archers choose the most viable targes just as a human would do. A purely range based prioritization causes serious balance issues because a single shield unit in front makes your whole army essentially immune to archer fire.
In most strategy you the player can manually pick a target unit for their troops. In Bannerlord in contrast you only order them to attack. This translates well to melee because cou can still manually move your units to the desired target so that they attack the correct unit. In ranged combat however you usually want to stay far away from your target so that that trick doent's work and we need an alternative.
The current meta in Captain is dominated by twohanded only or 5*towhanded+1shield. I wish for a more diverse metagame because there are so many interesting unit choices around that never see play because they are just not viable. A huge part of achieving that balance is in making archers more viable agains infantry heavy compositions and a competent archer AI is a huge part of achieving this without ruining the balance for other gamemodes.

Archers are super effective versus infantary now since 1.5.5. It's not rare when we do clan battles that we play 5 archers and 1 cav and totally dominate the battlefield. Sometimes we can win a game 3-0 without losing one unit. This is ofcourse a full clan versus a not so organised army but to say that archers are useless versus infantary is simply wrong.

But I agree that shields are to effective versus archers because it seems like archers only target shields for some wierd reason but with a full manual targeting system you could cheese the game so hard. Maybe you could code the AI to be a little bit smarter with their targeting.
 
Every pub game on Jawwali will turn into letting the enemy capture B while your fians rain down arrows on the helpless enemy who thinks staying in one spot is a good option.

This new mechanic could be the breaking point of shock not being the meta.
 
@Moton: There's Clan matches going on in Captain? I'll certainly give Bows another try the next rounds I play.

My point still remains that archers should be just as competent in selecting their targets as a troop of real players would be if you were commanding them and I see cheese mostly on the side where one exploits that the AI is helpless against some tactics thar real players would easily counter.
 
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@Moton: There's Clan matches going on in Captain? I'll certainly give Bows another try the next rounds I play.

My point still remains that archers should be just as competent in selecting their targets as a troop of reay players would be if you were commanding them and I see cheese mostly on the side where one exploits that the AI is helpless against some tactics thar real players would easily counter.

Due to 5 Shock being meta for months and months, most clans got bored and went inactive. If archers are viable now, then more players and clans will come back.

I believe there will be a small captain tournament to test format, and then Season 2 will begin.

That said, if archers end up being weaker than a shock rush variation, then people might not have interest.
 
I like this idea.. for example have an command order that says "focus fire on their archers" or focus fire on their shieldless units
Same for cavalary/inf or other units...prioritizing archers/other cav or inf,,, this would prevent some bots from being baited by a rogue player
 
@Moton: There's Clan matches going on in Captain? I'll certainly give Bows another try the next rounds I play.

My point still remains that archers should be just as competent in selecting their targets as a troop of real players would be if you were commanding them and I see cheese mostly on the side where one exploits that the AI is helpless against some tactics thar real players would easily counter.

Archers are as effective as they should be now. If they boost them anymore they will even get to strong.

I think the targeting AI should be a little better but you either gotta choose between super low damage archers that doesent feel like they have any real effect but you can target with them or strong and good archers that you have to position right to be effective. I would prefer the latter. Because we will still need balance in the game.
 
I played a few rounds of captain yesterday and was indeed satisfied with the performance of archers. Vlandian crossbowmen against a full Sturgian rabble rush even made top kills.
As soon as shields come into play the stats of archers worsen rather quickly but I think they still made an impact and I often found myself delaying parts of the enemy army (i.e. running away) while the actual battle took place elsewhere. I also think that archers make an impact by compelling the ememy to use shields rather than twohanders.
The stats of normal archers could also be misleading due to the low damage per hit and the way assists are counted.
 
This would be great, we also need to retain the attack nearest enemy command. Once a big mele brawl becomes a crazy mess.. if your units were just chasing down one other unit type in the blob... It would be a pretty bad day for your guys I think.

This would be amazing for archers like you guys said. When that lone cav comes along and draws their fire, it's very frustrating.
 
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