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| Thread: AI Mods: Classic AI (standalone) & XL Performance AI |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 3 4 5 6 · NEXT» |
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magnomagus
Admirable
Legendary Hero
modding wizard
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posted January 05, 2008 04:17 PM |
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AI Mods: Classic AI (standalone) & XL Performance AI
INTRODUCTION
UPDATE: NEW VERSION AVAILABLE FOR 1.6
This mod is now available for 3.0 and 1.6, see downloads at the bottem of this post.
This AI mod was originally designed for the Heroes of Axeoth.
This is a standalone edition of the AI from that mod, it is designed for general purpose, it should work on all types of maps and provide more different challenges for experienced players. There is also a 2nd experimental edition of the AI-mod included that can be used to boost the performance on very large maps. Don't forget to read the included info about this edition because it has some issues!
DESCRIPTION
The purpose of this mod is to improve the AI and bring back the ‘classic difficulty levels’. That's why it is called 'classic Ai'. In Heroes 3 and 4 you had five difficulty levels instead of 3, providing a better gradual increase in difficulty for advanced players. In Heroes 5 there is a very large gap between normal and hard. On normal the computer has very restricted intelligence, starting resources and building time, while the hard setting
can make a very tough opponent, because of hard-coded cheating.
The purpose of the mod is to bring back the ‘classic difficulty levels’ and tweak the ai to maximum intelligence (maybe intelligence is not the right word) on all difficulty levels. It is however not possible to create more than four levels so I removed the easy level
(Players who download this mod, don’t use it anyway). The new difficulty levels are: normal, hard, expert and champion.
Here is a screenshot:
Now the details:
GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS:
These changes apply to all difficulty levels:
-it can cast 5th level spells,
-it doesn’t center spells on creatures (stone spikes etc.),
-it considers movement paths on the battlefield, that allows him to strike first.
-value of towns increased (like heroic)
-value of grail increased (like heroic)
-protects important towns better (like heroic)
-it tries to build every day (like hard and heroic)
-the computer is less interested in attacking computer players (like heroic)
-the computer creates one main hero and a support hero when it owns one town, it creates one hero for every new town it conquers, up to a maximum of 8. (This setting is probably most human-like)
-the computer is more interested in border guards keys, value is the same as major artifact (9000), it was lower than minor artifact(1500). (This meant to be a bugfix, I can’t guarantee this works, but I hope one day I can see the AI opening a border guard)
CHANGES BETWEEN LEVELS
NORMAL
Starting resources Human: 30000 gold etc.
Starting resources AI: 20000 gold etc.
Neutrals power: 1
Neutrals growth: 1.09
AI-cheating: no
HARD
Starting resources Human: 20000 gold etc.
Starting resources AI: 30000 gold etc.
Neutrals power: 1.1
Neutrals growth: 1.1
AI-cheating: no
EXPERT
Starting resources Human: 20000 gold etc.
Starting resources AI: 30000 gold etc.
Neutrals power: 1.3 (campaign value)
Neutrals growth: 1.11
AI-cheating: yes
CHAMPION
Starting resources Human: 10000 gold etc.
Starting resources AI: 30000 gold etc.
Neutrals power: 1.5 (campaign value)
Neutrals growth: 1.11
AI-cheating: yes
Here is the link to the file (3.0):
Classic-AI modpack
Here is the link for version (1.6):
Classic-AIfor16
Have fun and post your comments!
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MMH5.5 Downloads | MMH5.5 Translations | MMH5.5 FAQ
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InfernoX880
Promising
Famous Hero
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posted January 05, 2008 05:41 PM |
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I see you decided to share this revalation (well, actualy you shared it in your previous mod). I made my own as well, it helped out and gave me a challenge, finally making Heroic more difficult than Hard.
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magnomagus
Admirable
Legendary Hero
modding wizard
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posted January 05, 2008 05:57 PM |
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I have to let you know about a few small mistakes in the documentation:
-I stated that it is possible to use the experimental XL-performance Ai together with the HoA mod, this is TRUE, but the enchantment stealer specialization from Grindan will no longer work, also some campiagn hero specializations will become very overpowered again.
-The info about starting resources for the ai is not entirely correct in the documentation (the info in the post is good!). On hard and expert the computer starts with more resources.
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Sunjah
Hired Hero
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posted January 06, 2008 05:11 AM |
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Edited by Sunjah at 05:24, 06 Jan 2008.
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Quote:
...
-The info about starting resources for the ai is not entirely correct in the documentation (the info in the post is good!). On hard and expert the computer starts with more resources...
Two questions, if I may:
1) Can you be really specific in what you mean by "documentation?" The read me I have is quite short and doesn't say anything about resources, and for specific changes it says, "see next page," but there is only 1 page.
2) The specific change I would really like to know about are the
"<AttackComputerAggressivityCoef>0.5</AttackComputerAggressivityCoef>
<CowardiceVersusHuman>0.2</CowardiceVersusHuman>
<CowardiceVersusComputer>0</CowardiceVersusComputer>"
What exactly do these do? If I wanted the CPU-AI treating all enemies equal (whether CPU or Human), I would have the first entry at 1, correct? Do you know what Cowardice does?
Thanks for sharing this mod, looks cool!
...okay, I lied, I really would like to know what these do as well, if you know...
"<RolesSupplierFreeScanMaxMoves>10</RolesSupplierFreeScanMaxMoves>
<SupplyDayIncomes>2</SupplyDayIncomes>
<WeakMoneyForDeniedBuildings>0.1</WeakMoneyForDeniedBuildings>"
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Nelgirith
Promising
Supreme Hero
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posted January 06, 2008 10:40 AM |
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Quote:
Quote:
<AttackComputerAggressivityCoef>0.5</AttackComputerAggressivityCoef>
<CowardiceVersusHuman>0.2</CowardiceVersusHuman>
<CowardiceVersusComputer>0</CowardiceVersusComputer>
If I remember correctly :
- AttackComputerAggressivityCoef means the chance that the computer AI will attack another computer AI, while AttackHumanAggressivityCoef is the same but against human players,
-CowardiceVersusHuman means the chance that the AI will flee against a human player, the highest the value is, the highest the chance is. Currently it's at 0.3 on heroic and the AI stupidly flees even if it has a huge army
-CowardiceVersusComputer means the same vs computer.
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magnomagus
Admirable
Legendary Hero
modding wizard
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posted January 06, 2008 10:41 AM |
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Quote:
Can you be really specific in what you mean by "documentation?" The read me I have is quite short and doesn't say anything about resources, and for specific changes it says, "see next page," but there is only 1 page.
You are right that documentation is not the right word for a txt file, but I copied the text out of a pdf I created for the Heroes of Axeoth, that also explains the mistake about 'the second page' because in the pdf the info about resources was on a second page. I don't understand why you say there is no info about resources because there is, there is only no resource info in the xl-performance-AI txt file because that mod is exactly the same except for the amount of heroes created by the computerplayer. The info about the resources in my post is corrected so I advise you to refer to there or you just look in the mod-files (you already did)
Quote:
<AttackComputerAggressivityCoef>0.5</AttackComputerAggressivityCoef>
<CowardiceVersusHuman>0.2</CowardiceVersusHuman>
<CowardiceVersusComputer>0</CowardiceVersusComputer>"
I did a lot of tests with these settings, when you set aggressivity to 1 the computer is indeed just as interested in killing computer players as human players, this was the old setting for easy and is not very challenging. I also know if you set it to 0, there is not much differnece from 0,25 because it still sometimes attacks computer players.
The cowardice makes the computerplayer more cautious in his decisions to attack the human player or computer player, that's why it is higher on heroic then on other difficulty levels, because on a heroic 1vs1 match it is supposed to attack only when it has a high probability of winning.
Quote:
<RolesSupplierFreeScanMaxMoves>10</RolesSupplierFreeScanMaxMoves>
<SupplyDayIncomes>2</SupplyDayIncomes>
<WeakMoneyForDeniedBuildings>0.1</WeakMoneyForDeniedBuildings>
I don't know, I only know these lines affect all difficulty levels, so i didn't make any changes in this section
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Nelgirith
Promising
Supreme Hero
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posted January 06, 2008 10:45 AM |
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Quote:
The cowardice makes the computerplayer more cautious in his decisions to attack the human player or computer player, that's why it is higher on heroic then on other difficulty levels, because on a heroic 1vs1 match it is supposed to attack only when it has a high probability of winning.
I wouldn't call it playing cautiously when it flees with still a huge army and still has the edge over you ... and I mean it really FLEES, aka loses its whole army.
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magnomagus
Admirable
Legendary Hero
modding wizard
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posted January 06, 2008 10:56 AM |
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Quote:
I wouldn't call it playing cautiously when it flees with still a huge army and still has the edge over you ... and I mean it really FLEES, aka loses its whole army.
True, but I'm very unsure this setting affects the willingness to flee, because I've already heard complaints from others that the computer also flees far too soon on hard, while it has the lowest setting 0,1. I also had contradictory experiences myself. I fear the willingness to flee is something that cannot be changed.
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Nelgirith
Promising
Supreme Hero
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posted January 06, 2008 05:10 PM |
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Wouldn't it be wiser to adjust the aggressivity of the AI towards human (iirc there's a value that considers the power of the AI vs the human) to the minimum and put the flee factor to 0 ?
Anyways, most of the time a human flees a battle, he has lost the game unless he's doing a hit&run strategy that the AI will never be able to do.
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magnomagus
Admirable
Legendary Hero
modding wizard
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posted January 06, 2008 05:29 PM |
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Quote:
Wouldn't it be wiser to adjust the aggressivity of the AI towards human (iirc there's a value that considers the power of the AI vs the human) to the minimum and put the flee factor to 0 ?
Well as I said earlier, I almost didn't notice any difference between the heroic setting 0,25 for aggressivity and setting it to zero. The computerplayers still seem to attack each other sometimes when they come close. (I tested this with the cheat code to reveal the whole map)
[Edit] I realise now you were talking about the other aggressivety setting, (not the one that sunjah quoted), By default this is always 1, lowering it should certainly need testing to know it's effect, but I don't think making the computer less aggressive can be considered creating a more challenging AI.
About the fleefactor: I doubt it is really the flee factor, when I experimented setting the cowardice level lower. I experienced more willingness to attack me (the ai came earlier) not less willingness to flee. In the thread about HoA someone told me he found the computerplayer to flee earlier on hard then on expert, while the value on hard is lower. Of course everything may be a coincidence, because every person may have another perception of 'fleeing early' or 'attacking soon'. But in case of uncertainty I chose not to change this setting and believe that Nival did the right choice.
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Cleave
Promising
Famous Hero
Raging Blood
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posted January 06, 2008 07:22 PM |
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Sounds terrific! Thanks for making it a separate mod.
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yasmiel
Supreme Hero
Former Chessmaster
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posted January 10, 2008 02:28 PM |
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Too bad there still is no option for "fair and square player vs AI". On normal you get more gold, on hard AI gets more. I would apreciate having equal starting resources + best AI without cheats.
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siinn
Adventuring Hero
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posted January 10, 2008 03:53 PM |
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you know... santa doesn't really exist dude 
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magnomagus
Admirable
Legendary Hero
modding wizard
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posted January 10, 2008 04:14 PM |
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Quote:
Too bad there still is no option for "fair and square player vs AI". On normal you get more gold, on hard AI gets more. I would apreciate having equal starting resources + best AI without cheats.
Originally the setting for starting resources for AI was only 10000 gold on normal. I wanted this mod to be 'general purpose' so I didn't want to boost the normal level too much. For hard I decided to give the AI this small benefit, because it is still meant to be 'hard' and removing the cheating takes out a lot of power. In practice I don't think you will experience very large differences between your proposal and the way it is now. My main problem is that I can create only 4 difficulty levels and this is too limited to make everyone happy.
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Cleave
Promising
Famous Hero
Raging Blood
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posted January 10, 2008 07:15 PM |
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I've been playing with this mod. It changes many things and gives a different "feel" to the game. One very good thing is that the AI turns are not as long as they were in the unmodded game.
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phoenixreborn
Promising
Legendary Hero
Unicorn
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posted January 11, 2008 12:44 AM |
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@Yasmiel that is the easiest thing to change right at the top default stats.xdb...
but actually humans having 30, 30 20, 20, 20 vs. AI having 20, 20, 10, 10, 10 is exactly equal due to 66% price for AI buildings.
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magnomagus
Admirable
Legendary Hero
modding wizard
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posted January 11, 2008 01:03 AM |
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yasmiel
Supreme Hero
Former Chessmaster
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posted January 11, 2008 06:11 AM |
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Quote:
you know... santa doesn't really exist dude
He doesn't??????
Awwwww....
Anyway. Thanks to one of posters above for the info on how to change resources.
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apkairan
Tavern Dweller
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posted January 14, 2008 05:34 AM |
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cool
cool.
Just one thing,
you mentioned the AI cheating on heroic and champion difficulty.
How does that AI exactly cheat? Can you be more specific?
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magnomagus
Admirable
Legendary Hero
modding wizard
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posted January 14, 2008 10:15 AM |
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No, I don't know it exactly, the cheating is 'hard-coded' in the exe file. I only know it makes a large difference sometimes because choosing the hard or the expert level can make a large difference while the settings considering intelligence and conditions are now the same.
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