Which AI generals provide the biggest challenge in SP

Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2012 10:44 pm

I'm not speaking of who has the best special operations-- although that can certainly play a role. which AI general makes the best use of their time, money, and regiments?

I've been digging into the SAI files and noticed that there are "ego templates" for each general. there is a low-income template, a main game ego template, and an end-game ego template.

my belief is that these ego templates help dictate what the AI will do at different stages in the game. for example, Rommel has "Armor" as his primary ego template throughout the entire game. if such is the case-- this might help explain those games where I've captured every city while he's scrambling to make medium tanks and neglecting his economy!

I've sat there thunderstruck by Kuribayashi spamming oil depots on the Iwo Jima mission-- but when I looked up his primary ego template-- his entire game was built around mechanized regiments! it would make sense if you knew he was programmed to work with mechs-- but in the context of the campaign it made no sense at all! he didn't have mechs as an option for the Iwo Jima mission!

I couldn't really set this up as a poll-- because there were too many options. but if people would feel free to point out the best AI general from each country-- it could help my investigations into making the AI generals slightly less retarded.

Posted: Thu Jan 19, 2012 7:29 pm

For Germany, I like to play myself and Rundstedt AI versus 6 Russians. Rundstedt seems to enjoy artillery halftracks, mortars, and Hummels, and he is great for just demoralizing the enemy into a retreat. Then I finish them with a strike from an assortment of armor I deploy in a city. Only problem is, he doesn't micro too well, but, all in all, he is by far the German AI I'd like on my 6.

For Japan, I think that Yamamoto AI is pretty decent. In the early game, he regularly trumps the Wingate generals I play against. (I try to use realistic scenarios.) YammyAI makes alot of infantry. It really helps during the first ten minutes, but then he continues making infantry, even when the British AI has >6 tank regiments. That says something. Kamikaze

is also clincher for why I like him. Nagumo seems to waste his EXP

on

.

I think Nimitz AI doesn't know what he's doing. He rushes to build AT Mech and Shermans, in the early game, and then by the twenty minute mark he spams AT infantry. But, all of those units DO help, especially when he decides to Nuke

.

Zhukov AI seems, to me at least, on of the only real challenges in the game. Koniev wastes his time with paratroops, Chuikov builds piecemeal, and Rokossovski tries to get armor quickly. However, Zhukov's style seems like something right out of online PvP play. Infantry first, and he makes about five at least. Anti-tank mech next. Then, he builds alot of heavy and artillery tanks. Arty Tank

versus AT infantry/ occasional Light Tank

makes Zhukov a, quite literally 'tank.'

Out of all the AI Generals, i have to give Zhukov General

. THE BEST.

I personally think that the British AI is a joke. Especially Monty. What happened to the daring commander, that all of the sudden make around 8 regiments and then quitting?

That's just my two cents on the matter. Gizmo, do you agree? Also, do you mind telling me what my favorite generals' stats/ favorite tactics according to the files are?

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 9:02 pm

You are right about that

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 11:27 pm

still looking into the whole stats-thing, because there's a LOT of things there: 8 ego types, 5 nations, and probably 20+ files worth of info to look into.

there are 8 Ego templates, but these seem to indicate a basic preference and set of priorities:
Armor: Zhukov, Rommel, Wingate, Wavell, Patton, Kesselring (late game)
Artillery: Rundstedt, Rokossovski, Chuikov
Balanced: Montgomery, Konev (end game), Kesseling (early and mid game)
Campaign
Infantry: Mikawa
Infantry + Planes: Yamamoto, Mountbatten, Konev, Nimitz
Mechanized: Eisenhower, Kuribayashi
Planes: Arnold, Nagumo, Manstein

the ego templates list isn't finished-- still looking into it. but I'm impressed by how two generals can use the same ego template and get different results.

there also appear to be national templates as well-- but haven't had the chance to look into this in great detail.

Yamamoto and Nimitz have identical Ego templates: they emphasize infantry and aircraft from start to finish. the only difference between Konev and Yamamoto is that he switches over the "Balanced Ego" for the end of the game.

to put this in perspective Montgomery uses the "Balanced Ego" from start to finish.

with "Infantry + Planes" Ego there is a line of code that instructs that there is to be a minimum interval of 90 between attacks. in the "Balanced Ego" there is no such minimum interval!

Zhukov is a bit more difficult-- because his SAI profile is VERY similar to Rommels...

I'm probably gonna get rid of Industrial Sabotage... can't seem to get the AI to ignore that op or use it more sparingly. I'm tempted to redesignate as something more deadly like... summoning a regiment of artillery half-tracks or something. none of the AI can resist that op. even when I give it to other generals!

right now I've been tinkering with the SAI profiles so that most generals start with Infantry in the Low Income stage, switch over to Mechanized in the Main Game mode, and then end the game with Armor.

since a lot of mods allow for over 5 times as many regiments as the original game allowed, I've been thinking of lowering the minimum attack time from 90 to 45 to see what happens. compare the 20 regiment limit of the original to the 120 regiment limit of Morgenblitz-- forcing the AI to attack more may not be so bright early in the game-- but near the end of the game it's probably not such a bad idea. and I think it's worth a shot.

there's still a lot more research I'd need to do to make the AI better.

in my experience the campaign AI is universally terrible. often not spending a single experience point. so that's the AI that I would most like to change!

Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 10:23 pm

which file determines the ai type? I found it a while back but I completely forgot which one it is and where.

Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 2:51 pm

the SAI profile for each general (located in the SAI folder) gives the Ego template for each general and nation. each general has three templates:

low income
main game
end game

the priorities and decision-making rules for these ego templates is located in the Templates folder. I'm not sure which files get used yet.

my guess is that two files get used by every general

template_sai.tgi
template_sai_aa.tgi

then the appropriate ego template gets added on top of that.

this was a useful study-- because unless the new special operations conform to an existing template or get added into these SAI files the AI will simply ignore them. even when I created powerful special ops like "Scorched Earth" and "Aerial Supremacy" the AI will ignore these in favor of operations it is already familiar with.

I created an "Industrialization" special op for Eisenhower that reduces the recruit costs of everything by 20 percent for two minutes on all the enchanted buildings. (it cuts the cost of HQ tents deployed from the Corps HQ early in the game, later on it can be used to reduce the recuit costs of anything except tech research)... the AI wouldn't use it because it couldn't recognize the procedure!

Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 8:44 pm

I noticed, when opening up the balanced SAI template, that the AI is only designed to manage 1 military goal in the low-income stage, 2 goals in the main stage, and 4 goals in the end-game stage.

what I did was change the early low-income stage to have 4 goals-- and I changed the CV (probably City Value) from 1.2 to 2.5 (the defense value assigned to cities in the mid and late game stages). this doubled the city value that Montgomery had in the early stage of the game. it also meant that instead of having one potential city to capture he could have four. it's made Monty a much better early-game general.

Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2012 6:17 pm

Usually depends on which country tho