Does the AI Play to Its Opponent?

[thephilosopher]

I'm not exactly sure quite how to ask this question, but I'll describe some experiences recently while playing single-player games against the AI (usually on Medium, sometimes on Hard).

 

I've noticed that the AI seems to roughly match my pace of development. When I've developed more slowly, the AI has taken longer to go to Phase III and attack me. Whereas, when I develop quickly and expand my territory more quickly, the AI attacks earlier and develops more quickly. Meanwhile, when I set up games and watch the AI play another AI on Hard or Very Hard, the games seem to drag on forever and the AI develops pretty slowly.

Are these just coincidences? Or does the AI develop more quickly when its opponent does?

[thephilosopher]

12 minutes ago, m7600 said:

I've never noticed that, but it's entirely possible. For what it's worth, here are PetraBot's scripts.

Maybe the answer is in attackManager.js and attackPlan.js.

Though buildManager.js and some other files are probably related to this issue as well.

Hope that helps somewhat.

 

Thanks! Some of the issue might just be that when I develop more quickly, my cavalry is more likely to wander near the AI's territory when hunting. It could just be responding to having earlier encounters with my cav/troops.

[Gurken Khan]

46 minutes ago, m7600 said:

Here are some other lines that say that Petra will attack the strongest enemy

Interesting. In earlier versions I usually was everyone's favorite enemy, playing with four enemies I could actually count down the attacks. ('Mkay, red and yellow attacked me, where's - ah, there's purple, now let's wait for teal...') That has changed with a25, I guess the accessibility of an enemy now has a stronger impact for the AI.

[Freagarach]

@Gurken Khan PetraAI will also try to coordinate their attacks with allies. That they don't arrive at the same time is probably due to their walking distance.

[Gurken Khan]

17 minutes ago, Freagarach said:

@Gurken Khan PetraAI will also try to coordinate their attacks with allies. That they don't arrive at the same time is probably due to their walking distance.

I can't remember AIs ever form an alliance AND attacking me. When they attacked me individually I often noticed a very similar timing; sometimes I could watch them fight each other just outside my border.

[Freagarach]

Not that I know, but I do know that every time I have a match and do nothing, she only attacks with a giant army (~150 units) after a lot of minutes, instead of also rushing/attacking with smaller parties.

[Ceres]

@Freagarach

Does Petra account for e.g. a wonder of an enemy only when she really sees him, or can she "see" the opponents even if not yet encountered (i.e. "behind the scenes")? Does she know that an opponent is e.g. Iberian before its first real encounter?

[Freagarach]

PetraAI is omniscient.

[thephilosopher]

17 minutes ago, Freagarach said:

PetraAI is omniscient.

That's what I thought. I'm well behind in any technical details of AI, but when looking at replays from the perspective of the AI, it can see the entire map the entirety of the time. That feature was some of why this came to mind in the first place: I noticed that the AI seemed to behave very differently depending on what I was doing, and then I watched the replay and noticed it could "see" me the entire game.

[Old Roman]

Sort of makes the 'reveal map' option seem like a very legitimate alternative.

Earlier today noticed that when I pop a number of garrisoned troops out of barracks, it knows if a sufficient  number of troops are still inside to hold it and will immediately stop hacking and start capturing if there are not.

[Freagarach]

8 hours ago, Old Roman said:

Sort of makes the 'reveal map' option seem like a very legitimate alternative.

Do note while she knows everything, she still is _very_ dumb. So not ticking that option makes it a tad fairer, I guess.

[Ceres]

Would it make sense to make her even "dumber" in terms of not being omniscient, in sandbox mode, or as a separate toggle? Admittedly, I'm asking this question more out of curiosity rather than because Petra is too hard to fight (well, we set her to 'medium', so we still have lots of possibilities for challenges). It could be interesting to see her behaviour of she didn't know where her opponents are (just like for human players without an unrevealed map). But on the other hand, it might not be worth the effort to code such an optional setting.

@FreagarachoWould it be complex?

PS and OT:

I cannot delete that misplaced "o" letter when using the mobile (Android) Firefox browser, sorry.

Edited October 13, 2021 by Ceres

[Freagarach]

It would be both complex and useless. Even if the AI does not have full vision, the functions she uses assume she has.

[Stan`]

Balancing will

[thephilosopher]

I think I'd rather not remove the feature from the AI. If anything, it makes the AI a more interesting opponent at any stage of learning how to play the game. It shouldn't take first-timers very long to learn how to beat the AI on Sandbox, even with the AI's omniscience. And once you get past Sandbox, the AI's omniscience seems to help her become a more interesting opponent who doesn't just repeat the same set of steps each time (i.e., attack at 9 minutes, build a barracks here and here, and so on).

Lately I've been working toward the goal of developing about 8-10 units per minute, which seems to be the bare minimum of what really good players do. And even getting into that range, the AI can still throw me a challenge or two when set to Medium (even though I now win on Medium the vast majority of the time).

 

Edited October 13, 2021 by thephilosopher

[Gurken Khan]

The only thing I mind about the omniscient AI is that it can throw down a foundation of a CC in a region where it never had a unit close to it.

[Ceres]

I like @Gurken Khan 's post but not the AI's capability you describe. It's indeed a bit unrealistic if it happens. But on the other hand I also agree with @thephilosopher 's remark. Bottom line (for me): It's okay as it currently is.