The very clever roguedjack has written an AI overhaul mod in the form of a Custom Battles module and a Sandbox Campaigns module.
These are available for in-game download from the Community Downloads button (Main menu, Campaigns or Epic Battles screens).
We are very interested in feedback on how the modded AI performs, and whether there are any occasions where odd behaviour occurs.
Here are the contents of the Read.Me file
RISE OF AI 1.0
by roguedjack
for FOG2 1.0.2
WHAT IS IT?
A modded "Rise Of Rome Campaigns" campaign with a modified battle AI.
Modifies only the AI files and for this campaign only. You can still play all other campaigns and scenarios with vanilla AI.
It does not modify in any way anything else in the game.
It does not cheat or break rules intentionally in any way.
The AI will play differently, which could be good in some situations and bad in others.
Just consider this as a new AI opponent you can play with.
WHAT TO EXPECT
It will try to do things like :
- generally be more active
- try to not have units getting stuck behind their friends, bumping in the wrong enemy or too timid to attack
- not using too many units on the same target or chasing stuff around and ignoring other targets
- preparing charges with shooting and concentrating fire
- ...and other stuff.
Deployment is tweaked a bit.
It does not modify force composition or teams objectives.
Be warned that the AI turns will be a bit longer. In particular there is a bit of a freeze at the beginning of AI turns and lags at the end.
Note that the AI will now resolve mandatory melees during its turn when it feels like it, like the player would. It will not wait the end of turn autoresolve.
OVERVIEW
Overview of changes from vanilla AI.
- Rewrote the unit list ordering algorithm.
- Rewrote the target rating and selection algorithm.
- Rewrote the threat map algorithm.
- Modified behaviours of missile units.
- Modified some route/pathing behaviours.
- Modified charge chance.
- Modified flank threat evaluation and reaction.
- Tweaked deployment to move back lines closer to 1st line.
- Tweaked master plan reaction distances and positioning.
- Minor tweaks to other stuff.
CODING
Modified AI.bsf and AITools.bsf
Modified MoreScenarioTools.bsf (needed for deployment changes).
New rjai_XXX files.
If you are interested in looking at the scripts all added or modified code is wrapped in commented blocks where possible:
// RJ AI
// END RJ AI
New functions/types/globals are prefixed with RJAI_
Vanilla code is left in comments where possible.