AI improvement - hero roles #1
Description
Observing the AI movements thanks to the new online open mode, I have come to
the conclusion that AI treats all his heroes equally.
This is not the best way to manage your kingdom.
AI should use his starting hero as a scout/gatherer, exploring the map and
collecting free resources and mines. Most important skills for him are:
logistics, pathfinding, scouting. More is even not necessary.
The second hero will be trained as the main force, putting more EXP in it and
giving him/her better armies. Important fights will be preferred to be done
with the main hero.
The third hero is a supplier for the main hero: his main role is to bring
reinforcements to the main hero(es) - the supplier has less armies, and has
less EXP (most important skills to consider: logistics, pathfinding, scouting,
wisdom, earth magic (town portal), diplomacy)
Subtypes of the main hero:
"Bruiser":
sec. skills: Offence, armorer, luck, leadership, ballistics, logistics,
pathfinding, resistance
creatures: any, dominantly the most XP, better attack/defence. Speed is not
important.
strategy: conquer, gather army, and dominate (defend) conquered land.
preferred hero race: barbarian/knight/necromancer
"Blitzkrieg"
sec. skills: logistics, pathfinding, wisdom, earth magic, air magic, fire
magic, sorcery
creatures: ultimately - dragons. In general, tough AND FAST creatures.
Flyers/shooters.
strategy: ignore minor targets on map, avoid fighting main enemy heroes far
from enemy capital, take major enemy castles, important mines (gold and
relevant resource - i.e. sulphur is fighting vs. warlock). Ultimate tactics -
dragons+expert armageddon, one strong fast troop+antimagic, and mass
destructive spell next turn. Town portal for transportation.
preferred race: warlock, wizard, sorceress
artifacts of most importance: +speed, +speed for troops, +magic effect
strategies for secondary hero types:
"thief"
this is the strategy for the "scout" when exploring enemy land - take most
important resources/mines, free artifacts. (gold/most relevant res. types for
enemy/most relevant res types for himself)
preferred tactics: avoid enemy contact, always rearrange troops in many squads
("1, 1, 1, 1, 1, THE_REST"), if forced to fight - hit with a destructive spell,
and run. Give gathered artifacts to main heroes.
"attache"
this strategy is used by a "supplier" when accompanying a main hero in the
enemy land.
activities: Gather resources (if accompanied, main hero will ignore non-EXP
resources, and take only chests, and artifacts). Give gathered artifacts (if
any) to main hero. Defend conquered castles instead of the main hero, to let
him move on.
Original issue reported on code.google.com by palmher...@gmail.com on 15 Jul 2010 at 11:12