Will the ToE AI be less dumb??

The new Heroes games produced by Ubisoft. Please specify which game you are referring to in your post.
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Jolly Joker
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Unread postby Jolly Joker » 12 Jun 2007, 15:41

No, no, I'm with you, it was just a technical remark. :)
As I said in other threads, with H 5 the number of interesting games has reached H 2 level again for me - H 3 is a great game, but most maps are just a mop up after a certain point.

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Unread postby Fortuna » 12 Jun 2007, 15:47

Okay, very helpful.

I like RPG's, but when I play HoMM, I want a strategy game. I'm the kind of player who doesn't finish the campaigns on games of this kind; they just aren't interesting enough, and feel really artificial (not to mention annoyances such as hitting the maximum experience cap for the map when you're only halfway done with it). If I want an RPG, I'll play one--preferably one that can pay more attention to story and character development than is possible in the HoMM setting. The vast majority of all my HoMM 2 and 3 playing has been done on unscripted maps. Sure, I don't lose often, but medium-sized maps on the hardest difficulty level can be quite a challenge--and a challenge in which my strategic choices determine the outcome. I'm perfectly happy for the final battle to be anticlimactic if that's the result of my careful resource strangulation. If the main attraction is an Epic boss fight where the computer is going to have basically the same army no matter what I've done to cut his throat in the rest of the game, then what's the point of playing for hours?

And this whole idea of preventing AI heroes from fleeing on high difficulty level is just unbelievably asinine. "We can't GIVE the player wins on the Heroic level. Heroic heroes do not flee!" Uh huh. If that's the kind of strategic brain power calling the shots at Nival, it's no wonder the adventure-map AI is bad.

Thanks for the answers, gents.

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Unread postby Corribus » 12 Jun 2007, 15:53

Jolly Joker wrote:As I said in other threads, with H 5 the number of interesting games has reached H 2 level again for me .
That's quite a statement. I was under the impression that there were not that many H5 maps available.
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Jolly Joker
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Unread postby Jolly Joker » 12 Jun 2007, 15:59

Percentagewise, I mean. :)

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Corribus
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Unread postby Corribus » 12 Jun 2007, 16:17

So the question arises - will there be enough mapmakers, with good enough knowledge of scripting the AI, to turn out enough good maps to sustain the game?
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Unread postby PhoenixReborn » 12 Jun 2007, 16:42

Corribus wrote:So the question arises - will there be enough mapmakers, with good enough knowledge of scripting the AI, to turn out enough good maps to sustain the game?
http://www.maps4heroes.com/heroes5/maps.php

Granted some are duplicates/russian-english versions, and only a few have scripted events, but I haven't had any problems finding fun MP maps to play against the a.i. on. There's new ones every week.

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Unread postby Jolly Joker » 12 Jun 2007, 16:47

Well, I don't know. My likings are probably a bit different from most.
In general I don't like single player maps that much, mainly because things are set, more or less. If I play the map again, it will play pretty much the same. Another thing is that SP maps often get the difficulty wrong or at least not to the point. So the only real reason to get to it is a good story and some nice ideas like they started to become over-abundant in H 3 where some maps were more like adventure games - cleverly hidden artifacts, blocking with ships and so on. Still, those make the point even clearer: those are one-time maps.

So I prefer simple so-called MP maps. I love maps like Dominion which are different, geographically for each player, maps you can play from each position - or even better with each alignment from each position.
On these maps there is no scripting, so it's just the raw AI. On the other hand those maps are not that difficult to make.

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Unread postby Corribus » 12 Jun 2007, 16:51

Jolly Joker wrote:So I prefer simple so-called MP maps. I love maps like Dominion which are different, geographically for each player, maps you can play from each position - or even better with each alignment from each position.On these maps there is no scripting, so it's just the raw AI. On the other hand those maps are not that difficult to make.
They are if the AI sucks.
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Unread postby Alamar » 12 Jun 2007, 17:01

My personal preference is for "one-shot" or "two-shot" types of maps. Once I play a map for a few times [in general] there's not really much of a reason to play with too many other factions or positions because you basically know the layout & everything else you need to know about the map.

With "one shot" maps the map maker has the ability [if used] to control many more aspects of the game than what you'd see on a "balanced, MP, free-for-all map".

Unfortunately the map editor doesn't seem very user friendly and, as such, there aren't tons of the maps out there that I'd prefer to play. In addition I haven't really bothered to learn a new programming language so I can take other people's good, but raw, maps and add in events/scripting for the AI that would make it play better [for me].

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Unread postby Jolly Joker » 12 Jun 2007, 17:14

Corribus wrote:
Jolly Joker wrote:So I prefer simple so-called MP maps. I love maps like Dominion which are different, geographically for each player, maps you can play from each position - or even better with each alignment from each position.On these maps there is no scripting, so it's just the raw AI. On the other hand those maps are not that difficult to make.
They are if the AI sucks.
Yeah, but it doesn't suck - not for me, at least.

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Unread postby Corribus » 12 Jun 2007, 17:20

I was just saying "If". As you have said, my perceptions of the H5 AI may be biased because I've only played campaign maps, which may include scripts that dictate AI behavior.
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Unread postby Apocalypse » 12 Jun 2007, 17:22

Well, from my experience it kinda sucks.
And it's true that the AI loses his main hero early (even with QuickCombat)... In 90% of my MP-with-AI games it does... seriously :disagree:
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Unread postby Gaidal Cain » 12 Jun 2007, 18:42

Jolly Joker wrote: Compared with H 5 there is no battle AI in H 3.
And compared with H4, there is no open battle AI in H5 either. In H4, creatures knew that it usually payed off trying to round slow wlakers in order to get to shooters the next round...
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Unread postby Corribus » 12 Jun 2007, 18:51

I don't know... I think the H5 battle AI is good about targeting back-row units. Although it does have a tendency to specifically target units which I feel are less important... like the blood maidens. it goes after them like nothing else.
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Unread postby Alamar » 12 Jun 2007, 21:56

Gaidal Cain wrote:
Jolly Joker wrote: Compared with H 5 there is no battle AI in H 3.
And compared with H4, there is no open battle AI in H5 either. In H4, creatures knew that it usually payed off trying to round slow wlakers in order to get to shooters the next round...
What is "trying to round slow walkers ..." mean?

IMHO the H5 battle AI isn't too bad with the exception that it doesn't use special abilities well ....

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Unread postby Gaidal Cain » 13 Jun 2007, 08:03

It means that when engaged in Melee, it doesn't try to go around and attack it from the back one round in order to be able to go for the archers the next one.
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Unread postby Humakt » 13 Jun 2007, 11:42

In HoMM 4 there's also "guard radius" in battles. Meaning your movement is vastly hindered when trying to get through between two enemy troops close to each other.

Concerning Heroes 4, AI had to endure all the bugs in initial release, especially Fountain of Youth recyrcle bug; types of bugs I haven't faced for long time. Problem was (and propably still is) in difficulty settings of the game, which makes custom maps practically necessity for challenging game. And H4 AI has to actually explore map (trait which it seems to overvalue over capturing mines objects a bit ). It uses decently Fog of War to escape its troops and doesn't neglect caravans either (once it escaped town I was approaching thanks to caravans).

Actually I think I'm going to make a test map that shows AI development in larger scale with different conditions in Heroes 4 (without scripts).

When comparing AI's (upgraded) H4 is like adorable child (or fool if you prefer) that makes some clever things sometimes while H5 is a cheating jerk with lifespan of two months. Combat AI's are decent in both, though siege does leave much to hope for.
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Unread postby MistWeaver » 13 Jun 2007, 12:51

Humakt wrote: When comparing AI's (upgraded) H4 is like adorable child (or fool if you prefer) that makes some clever things sometimes while H5 is a cheating jerk with lifespan of two months. Combat AI's are decent in both, though siege does leave much to hope for.
Seconded.

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Unread postby Alamar » 14 Jun 2007, 01:03

Gaidal Cain wrote:It means that when engaged in Melee, it doesn't try to go around and attack it from the back one round in order to be able to go for the archers the next one.
I see what you mean now and yes H5 is terrible about that. I thought that behaviour was supposed to be updated during a patch though?????

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Unread postby tumorbane » 19 Jun 2007, 15:12

Romanov77 wrote:I have 1024 mb of ram which is MORE THAN ENOUGH to run this game as I can run much better games (about graphics and AI) perfectly.
Interesting thread. In a "H6" thread a few months ago, I argued that I'd much prefer H6 just to work better/have better AI than a million new monsters/towns (that would just make the AI dumber) and got shotdown.

Since reading the thread I upgraded from 1GB RAM to 2 and it makes a world of difference.


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