Author Topic: AI Reinforcement System  (Read 1473 times)

Offline TechSY730

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AI Reinforcement System
« on: December 16, 2010, 10:23:36 am »
Can anyone give me the details about how the AI reinforcement system works?

Here is my understanding of it so far:

Every now and then, the AI gets some "reinforcement points" that it needs to spend on, well, reinforcements. How much it gets every time is scaled with difficulty (higher difficulty = more reinforcement points) and the AI type (turtles get a large multiplier; defensive focused, like entrenched homeworlder and support corps, get a moderate multiplier; offensive focused, like mad bomber and viscous raider, get a penalty; AIs with a "balanced" offense/defense balance get the normal amount).

On top of this, each planet has a "max points that can spent on each turn" which, in addition to being scaled by the above factors, is also scaled by the mk lvl. of that planet and possibly with how many reinforcement warp gates units + guard posts on that planet.

Finally, the "reinforcement point cost" of each ship is dependent on that ship's ship cap (generally, higher ship cap = cheaper, lower ship cap = more expensive), and a chunky multiplier to cost for every step up tech level (Mk. II costs like double or so of Mk. I, etc). On top of all this, is the type of ship. For example, Guardians cost a good chunk more, and Star ships cost MUCH more. And finally, certain ship types, like star ships, guardians, and some of the spire fleet ships, have a max-per-planet and a max-spawned-per-reinforcement.

Of course, there are the reinforcement restrictions. Such as, no guardians on player core-worlds (worlds next to player homes), no spawning higher Mk. ships than the planet's Mk lvl, even if you have the points to spare (higher level AIs and turtle AIs can break this rule to a degree, and Technologist AIs and The Core laugh at this rule), and so forth

Is there anything I got wrong or that I missed?
« Last Edit: December 16, 2010, 10:27:35 am by techsy730 »

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: AI Reinforcement System
« Reply #1 on: December 16, 2010, 10:46:54 am »
I think the wiki has an article on this, though I may be misremembering.

Basically the AI gets to reinforce a certain number of planets each time, and sometimes doubles up reinforcements on a particular planet.  But once a planet is picked for reinforcement that's the only "point" spent.  All reinforceable structures on the planet get reinforced. The type(s) of ship is picked semi-randomly (guard posts tend to reinforce with the ship they have the most of) and the number of ships added is based on the ship cap of that ship type (iirc).
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Offline TechSY730

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Re: AI Reinforcement System
« Reply #2 on: December 16, 2010, 11:00:55 am »
Ahh, so it is more of a per planet thing than I thought. Also, I forgot about the AI sometimes being allowed to "double up" on reinforcements.

Thanks, you helped fill in a few holes I had in my understanding.  :)

Also, I love how transparent you guys are about advanced game mechanics. Alot of other developers would say something like "The AI gets more ships, that's all you need to know".

Offline Wingsofdomain

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Re: AI Reinforcement System
« Reply #3 on: December 16, 2010, 02:16:41 pm »
Alot of other developers would say something like "The AI gets more ships, that's all you need to know".

Haha indeed. xD Thats what making AI war so good. The comunity.

Offline x4000

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Re: AI Reinforcement System
« Reply #4 on: December 16, 2010, 09:00:49 pm »
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Offline Wingsofdomain

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Re: AI Reinforcement System
« Reply #5 on: December 17, 2010, 08:22:48 am »
All the detail you could ever want, hopefully: http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=AI_War_-_AI_Reinforcements

:)


HAHAHA.... That wiki is greater then the bible lol! xD. You'll find all answers there!

Offline ShadowOTE

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Re: AI Reinforcement System
« Reply #6 on: December 20, 2010, 01:34:15 am »
Trust the wiki, for it knows all... except for details that change on a per-beta basis (ie, the whole game ;) )

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: AI Reinforcement System
« Reply #7 on: December 20, 2010, 08:33:43 am »
Yea, it is really amusing to me how we run into problems because we make changes (of widely varying depth) to the game so frequently.  For example: none of the various forms of documentation can possibly keep up ;D 

In my view this is actually a fairly big problem, and we have tried harder recently with updating the tutorial for 4.0 (already out of date!  But not as much as it would have been), asking some folks to help update the wiki, etc.  And of course players have higher-than-average access to and success with the "ask one of the people who actually code the game" approach :)

In general it reminds me of the saying "if you go to math class, you're going to run into math problems".  The fact that you're having to do integral calculus isn't an indication that going to math class is a bad thing (well, actually, some people might disagree with that, but you get the point), just that you'd better figure out how to deal with the problems ;)

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Offline Suzera

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Re: AI Reinforcement System
« Reply #8 on: December 20, 2010, 09:57:15 am »
In general it reminds me of the saying "if you go to math class, you're going to run into math problems".  The fact that you're having to do integral calculus isn't an indication that going to math class is a bad thing (well, actually, some people might disagree with that, but you get the point), just that you'd better figure out how to deal with the problems ;)

Integral calculus is fun though. Math class is just a very complicated puzzle (which is why math homework sucks so much because you have to keep doing it after the puzzle is "solved").

Of course it may just be because I am that weirdo that would rederive math properties that I was unsure of but that applied to a bunch of questions during a test. Math proofs are really the fun part. I could do those all day long (and I work on them while I am bored).

You've seen how this translates into my approach to AIW. Everyone else sees missile frigates and bombers. I see sets of range circles, damage rates and hp totals represented by icons. It is a very big math puzzle with modular amounts of variables.
« Last Edit: December 20, 2010, 10:02:28 am by Suzera »