Tips for managing AI

[Breidr]

I got this game to play with friends. The Co-op is top tier in my opinion. This takes all the things I liked about MWO and makes them less frustrating because we are basically PvEing in big stompy robots. As a fan of games like Mount & Blade, I'm glad I picked it up.

I have started my own file in campaign mode just to goof off when I have time. It's decent, but my AI lancemates are DUMB. I constantly have to be pressing F!+something, even when nothing is going on, or they just...yeah. If they keep all of their components, it's a good day. It's not making the game harder or anything, it's just annoying and sometimes frustrating.

Has anyone more experienced mastered the art of managing an AI lance? Any mods I might want to pick up?

[Clever Name]

Order them to an advantageous location; use terrain to provide cover from attacking enemies. When the enemies come into range, order your lance to attack either the closest enemy first, or the one that does the most damage. Just make the decision quickly.

The best place for your lance to be is either at the base of a hill, waiting for the enemy to come over the top of the hill; or have your lance at the top of the hill, waiting for enemies to come towards them from all over the map (warzone, battlefield, garrison, defense contracts).

It depends on what enemies you're facing, what weapons your lance has. Point being: use hills as much as possible. If hills aren't available, use rock formations to provide cover.

Cities are generally harder to manage an AI lance in. Not much you can do other than pilot either a flanking mech or one with a strong alpha that can drop enemies quickly.

[Grubfist]

There are mods to make 'em smarter, but the main things I can think of are:
1. Hire pilots with more experience and a higher rank. This contributes to their level of AI. Smarter AIs are more accurate, take less damage, and use more advanced tactics like circling enemies and following up on damaged enemy components.
2. AI won't follow very well if they are engaged with an enemy. If you want them to go somewhere and fight enemies along the way, tell them to go to a position. If you want them to just stop doing stuff and follow you, have them set to follow and disable their weapons.
3. Use the "everyone attack X" command liberally. This helps them remove total enemy guns firing quickly. Have them focus enemies with lots of weapons rather than simply more total tonnage. ideally lighter enemies with many weapons since they can be killed quickly.

[Eagle_of_Fire]

Originally posted by Breidr:

Has anyone more experienced mastered the art of managing an AI lance? Any mods I might want to pick up?

Mods have absolutely nothing to do with this. It just shift the problem around. You might be more comfortable where it land then but it is still the same problem anyways.

You are going to get an understanding of how the AI work naturally simply by playing the game, because the enemy AI is exactly the same as your lance mates AI. I'm not going to waste too much time talking about this since learning this is a big part of the fun.

Boiling it down to its core, my "mastery" of using my lacemate AI stand simply on only two principles: 1) you need to understand how the AI use the mech weapon groups and manipulate it so it will act like you want it to. 2) Always keep an eye on and direct your lance mates during the whole fight, because they have no sense of preservation nor threat priority. I hardly ever order a single mech around (except for keeping one out of the fight if they get in trouble, close to being cored etc) and simply use F1-F1 98% of the time. Which, if you didn't know, select your whole squad and direct them to focus solely on your target.

Explanation:
1) AIs use weapon groups from group one to group six in number priority. This mean that the mech positioning toward its targets is going to be dictated solely by the weapon stats of group one and secondarily also group two if it can't use group one somehow (mostly because of heat buildup or range issues). So you have an Archer and you want the mech to be a missile boat first? Place the LRMs in group one and two. I would recommend that you place an alpha-like command in group one and break down the LRMs into subsequent smaller groups as to make sure that the Archer would still fire part of its ordnance if it is running too hot. Then place the med lasers group 5 and the arms group 6 (->use all the groups, even if you have to duplicate the previous ones<-). This isn't a do all be all kind of thing because the Archer will still get engaged by fast moving units/mechs, path stupidly sometimes and not be able to use its LRMs in a given situation, etc... In which case it will fall back on the other weapons in the following weapon groups. The AI will also engage with its med lasers and fists if it run out of missiles (ignoring the weapon groups of ammo depleted weapons) so you'll still see the odd situation from time to time... But by far and large, it will do the job you are asking it to do. Similarly, if your goal is to build a big brawler type of mech with a lot of armor and big hitting weapons, make sure to juggle both the range and damage of the weapon groups in regard to what you want it to do. AC/20 mech you want to engage the enemy all the time and tank? Make sure to place that AC/20 in group one. Same loadout but you want it to be slightly further away? Move that AC/20 to group 3 or 4 and make sure the weapons in group one and two has the range you are looking for.
Don't forget to experiment. ;)

2) The AI is has no sense of preservation nor does it have any sense of remaining armor distribution usage. If you punch a hole in its back it is just as likely to turn around (sometime they are simply running away trying to disengage or use their range somehow) and twitst its torso trying to hit you (hint: they can't do that efficiently) and offer you their exposed part again. Welp, your lance mates have the exact same problem. Solution to this? Make sure they always face the hardest enemy in front of your lance at that moment. (Hint: if you don't do like everybody else and don't have almost paper thin armor at the back and most of the armor at the front of your mech(s)... Time to look into that.) This is why force directing their fire with F1-F1 is so important: they get so focused on your designated target that they (mostly) always turn their weapons toward it. With the added bonus that they don't ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ around not firing because they're stuck into some strange maneuver loop. This force them to offer their vastly more armored front to the enemy and minimise casualty and lost limb/equipment while maximizing damage.

[Breidr]

Originally posted by Eagle_of_Fire:

Originally posted by Breidr:

Has anyone more experienced mastered the art of managing an AI lance? Any mods I might want to pick up?

Mods have absolutely nothing to do with this. It just shift the problem around. You might be more comfortable where it land then but it is still the same problem anyways.

You are going to get an understanding of how the AI work naturally simply by playing the game, because the enemy AI is exactly the same as your lance mates AI. I'm not going to waste too much time talking about this since learning this is a big part of the fun.

Boiling it down to its core, my "mastery" of using my lacemate AI stand simply on only two principles: 1) you need to understand how the AI use the mech weapon groups and manipulate it so it will act like you want it to. 2) Always keep an eye on and direct your lance mates during the whole fight, because they have no sense of preservation nor threat priority. I hardly ever order a single mech around (except for keeping one out of the fight if they get in trouble, close to being cored etc) and simply use F1-F1 98% of the time. Which, if you didn't know, select your whole squad and direct them to focus solely on your target.

Explanation:
1) AIs use weapon groups from group one to group six in number priority. This mean that the mech positioning toward its targets is going to be dictated solely by the weapon stats of group one and secondarily also group two if it can't use group one somehow (mostly because of heat buildup or range issues). So you have an Archer and you want the mech to be a missile boat first? Place the LRMs in group one and two. I would recommend that you place an alpha-like command in group one and break down the LRMs into subsequent smaller groups as to make sure that the Archer would still fire part of its ordnance if it is running too hot. Then place the med lasers group 5 and the arms group 6 (->use all the groups, even if you have to duplicate the previous ones<-). This isn't a do all be all kind of thing because the Archer will still get engaged by fast moving units/mechs, path stupidly sometimes and not be able to use its LRMs in a given situation, etc... In which case it will fall back on the other weapons in the following weapon groups. The AI will also engage with its med lasers and fists if it run out of missiles (ignoring the weapon groups of ammo depleted weapons) so you'll still see the odd situation from time to time... But by far and large, it will do the job you are asking it to do. Similarly, if your goal is to build a big brawler type of mech with a lot of armor and big hitting weapons, make sure to juggle both the range and damage of the weapon groups in regard to what you want it to do. AC/20 mech you want to engage the enemy all the time and tank? Make sure to place that AC/20 in group one. Same loadout but you want it to be slightly further away? Move that AC/20 to group 3 or 4 and make sure the weapons in group one and two has the range you are looking for.
Don't forget to experiment. ;)

2) The AI is has no sense of preservation nor does it have any sense of remaining armor distribution usage. If you punch a hole in its back it is just as likely to turn around (sometime they are simply running away trying to disengage or use their range somehow) and twitst its torso trying to hit you (hint: they can't do that efficiently) and offer you their exposed part again. Welp, your lance mates have the exact same problem. Solution to this? Make sure they always face the hardest enemy in front of your lance at that moment. (Hint: if you don't do like everybody else and don't have almost paper thin armor at the back and most of the armor at the front of your mech(s)... Time to look into that.) This is why force directing their fire with F1-F1 is so important: they get so focused on your designated target that they (mostly) always turn their weapons toward it. With the added bonus that they don't ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ around not firing because they're stuck into some strange maneuver loop. This force them to offer their vastly more armored front to the enemy and minimise casualty and lost limb/equipment while maximizing damage.

Thanks for the write up, it's a big help. I'll start by redoing weapon groups. A lot of the mechs are set up how I would use them, not necessarily good for the AI. I'm getting a handle on how to command them, similar to how I learned Mount & Blade. Using F1-F1 and then pulling them back with F1-F2.

I'll see how it goes. Thanks again!

[Eagle_of_Fire]

Whenever you direct your lance mates with F1-F1, once they're done they'll automatically default back to going back in formation like F1-F2. So it is generally not necessary to tell them that again.

If you want them to move somewhere without stopping to engage enemies, use F1-F3. But keep in mind they'll more than likely keep their back to enemies while ignoring them if you do that. Not necessarily a good idea if you want to retreat.

[Dalinar917]

Alright time for me to type out the usual spiel that I do when this kind of post pops up. Hope you don't mind long posts OP because this one is gonna have some reading involved with it.

-First thing first, you start the game with very bare bones lancemates, a couple of which don't even have ranks (military ranks that is). As soon as you can you want to replace any non ranked lancemates with Lieutenants. Then when Captains become available (via higher rep) replace all Lieutenants with Captains, then do the same when you unlock Majors. The higher their military rank the better they perform.

-DO NOT give the AI any super short range weapons to use. So Machine Guns, Small Lasers, Small Pulse Lasers, Flamers, and SRMs are a no go. The AI charge into range in which all of their weapons can be used.

-Give the AI mechs to use with specific builds. Since they try to stay at an optimal range in which they can fire all of their weapons, try to focus on making all of the weapons on that mech have the same effective range if you can.

-Command your lance often. The more you command them the more you'll get preferable results. I cannot stress enough how useful F1+F1 helps in chaotic engagements.

-This point was made above but organize their weapons by effective groups. They fire in order of weapon group number and prioritize weapon group 1 over all of the other groups. So place your most deadly weapons on the mech in groups 1 and 2 (or 3 as well) and the rest in the others. Also make sure the groups are organized with batches of 1-3 weapons and are heat effective. If the group will make the mech overheat then the AI WILL NOT fire that grouping. AI also does not follow chain firing, so that option will not help you any with an AI controlled mech.

-My final tip is in regard to pilot stats. Along side of making sure you hire officers of high rank (or as high as you can at the time), you should look for pilots with good shielding and evasiveness skills. These skills will help with mitigating some of the damage they take. Shielding is just an outright damage reduction, and evasiveness is their ability to just outright dodge incoming fire.

Hope the bullet points above will help you with better handling the AI!

[Cockpuncher]

My basic tip for handling AI is to read this guide:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2834500688

[George W. Kush]

another tip: Large energy weapons AI prefer PPC's over Large Lasers. my atlas-k: 2 PPC's(grp 1&2) LRM20-ST(grp 3), AC/20 (grp 4), melee (grp 5) with a grand total of 3.15-3.36 heat sink/per sec avg out in a 100 difficulty at about 1200 damage~ with an AI pilot. i dont really know if this is an issue or not or if the AI just hate me but when ever i put the 3 AI (all elite pilots) in my lance in the same mech like have all 3 running the same exact Atlas D build for example one of them will do super good in a contract like 1000+ damage while other 2 will barley hit 300 but if i swap out 2 atlas for say a king crab and the corsair next contract all 3 AI will have 1000+ damage

[Ry0K3N]

You cant. The AI beyond saving and does not even reach mechwarrior 4 level wich was more than 20 years ago. Get some coopmates.

[Eagle_of_Fire]

Originally posted by Ry0K3N:

You cant. The AI beyond saving and does not even reach mechwarrior 4 level wich was more than 20 years ago. Get some coopmates.

Scripting is scripting. It won't do more today for you than it did 20 years ago.

[wboson]

Originally posted by Eagle_of_Fire:

Originally posted by Ry0K3N:

You cant. The AI beyond saving and does not even reach mechwarrior 4 level wich was more than 20 years ago. Get some coopmates.

Scripting is scripting. It won't do more today for you than it did 20 years ago.

"AI" has evolved a lot. Take a look at DOOM reboots for example. There are even better examples but can´t recall them atm.(Maybe Gear of Wars).

I was using F1-F2 a lot also, noticed that when I was reversing then AI was also facing enemies and backing up to regroup. But lately they just ignore all my commands. Some of them just run alone straight in middle of enemy lance and get vaporised.

It would just perfect If there were simple commands like- stay in LRM\PPC support range, aggro attack etc..

[mlmcdougal]

I manage my lancemates with VoiceAttack (available here on Steam) allowing you to issue voice commands instead of fumbling around looking for keys when you're in a hurry. PLUS VoiceAttack is a separate interface program that can be configured for any other games that could also benefit.

[George W. Kush]

easiest way to manage your AI is to tell them to fix bayonets and charge xD

[pete]

Originally posted by Narthan Dume:

easiest way to manage your AI is to tell them to fix bayonets and charge xD

F1 F1 & F1 F2

[Eagle_of_Fire]

Originally posted by wboson:

Originally posted by Eagle_of_Fire:

Scripting is scripting. It won't do more today for you than it did 20 years ago.

"AI" has evolved a lot. Take a look at DOOM reboots for example. There are even better examples but can´t recall them atm.

Ai as most people perceive it don't exist yet. I would argue that the reason people think it has advanced so much is not because of how we use it but because of the increase in processing power of normal computers. I've told numerous people in the past years that I can't believe any AI good enough to be thought sentient could ever evolve until we reach a superior hardware evolution to what we have today. Quantum computers are likely going to be this next step but even then I can't believe it's going to be soon enough that I'm going to have the chance to own one at home in my lifetime. Wait and see.

Originally posted by mlmcdougal:

I manage my lancemates with VoiceAttack (available here on Steam) allowing you to issue voice commands instead of fumbling around looking for keys when you're in a hurry. PLUS VoiceAttack is a separate interface program that can be configured for any other games that could also benefit.

I don't want to be "that guy", but I assure you that I can hit F1-F1 at least 12 times in the same time I would require to simply say something to the like of "All - Attack". And that would be while piloting my mech (I already do all of that when I play normally, hitting a single key 24 times is going to take a tad longer but is still stupidly easy to do).

So, going to say: not a fan.