AI

[Hans Gruber]

I am really looking forward to this game as CC1 & CC2:ABTF were a huge part of my youth and an introduction to what has become a life long interest in military history. From CC3 on the series was plagued by poor AI and while what I've seen so far on streams looks good I am a little concerned with the AI. In most of the battles covered the axis should be defending but they seem to be just charging into certain death. I'm hoping that the AI gets tweaked to know when they should stay put and maximize cover and make the player root them out.

[Case]

yeah looks like the AI is going to be just rushing into killzones nonstop

[PipFromSlitherine]

Most of the streams have the AI set to be very aggressive to ensure that there is plenty of action. They will not be so suicidal in practice.

Cheers

Pip

[osheamat]

What cheats or game mechanics does the AI not have to work through in order to function. Do they know where my units are? Extra morale, supply or anything else?

[Surtur]

These are all optional (difficulty) settings you can choose. Like extra morale or visibility.

[SteveM@Matrix]

The AI does not know where your units are, nor get extra anything, by default. You can change the game settings to give it those things though.

[Hans Gruber]

This is concerning. The AI seems to struggle mightily. Why not just script the AI, especially in the attack? Repeat playthroughs might become repetitive but I would take that over fumbling AI leading to boring scenarios. Is development of the AI going to continue?

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/09/27/the-flare-path-close-combat-preview/

[Nats]

Originally posted by 9./JG52 Hans Gruber:

This is concerning. The AI seems to struggle mightily. Why not just script the AI, especially in the attack? Repeat playthroughs might become repetitive but I would take that over fumbling AI leading to boring scenarios. Is development of the AI going to continue?

If its anything like other CC games you get to play a dynamic campaign where you can fight the same battle map multiple times with differing units as you retreat and advance. So in that case they cant script the attacks. I prefer open dynamic games anyway.

[Sagit84]

Originally posted by Nats:

Originally posted by 9./JG52 Hans Gruber:

This is concerning. The AI seems to struggle mightily. Why not just script the AI, especially in the attack? Repeat playthroughs might become repetitive but I would take that over fumbling AI leading to boring scenarios. Is development of the AI going to continue?

If its anything like other CC games you get to play a dynamic campaign where you can fight the same battle map multiple times with differing units as you retreat and advance. So in that case they cant script the attacks. I prefer open dynamic games anyway.

Yeah. I think they did disservice to the game and themselves by removing a campaign map.

[PipFromSlitherine]

The CC series has a variety of campaign styles, and everyone has their faves. We are certainly not against more strategy-style campaigns a la LSA etc in future games, but that was not the direction we chose for this one.

Cheers

Pip

[Nats]

Originally posted by PipFromSlitherine:

The CC series has a variety of campaign styles, and everyone has their faves. We are certainly not against more strategy-style campaigns a la LSA etc in future games, but that was not the direction we chose for this one.

Cheers

Pip

That's a shame, I hate it when games go backwards in terms of features.

Personally my favourite CC game was the Battle of the Bulge one that was a classic. I liked the look of the Russian front one and then Arnhem one as well but never got those - one CC game is enough for me. I would buy a remake of the Battle of the Bulge one though. Just the ill equipped Americans having to try to stem the German panthers was superb gameplay. I dont think that has been bettered in a CC game since.

[Yggdrasil]

Originally posted by Nats:

Originally posted by PipFromSlitherine:

The CC series has a variety of campaign styles, and everyone has their faves. We are certainly not against more strategy-style campaigns a la LSA etc in future games, but that was not the direction we chose for this one.

Cheers

Pip

That's a shame, I hate it when games go backwards in terms of features.

Personally my favourite CC game was the Battle of the Bulge one that was a classic. I liked the look of the Russian front one and then Arnhem one as well but never got those - one CC game is enough for me. I would buy a remake of the Battle of the Bulge one though. Just the ill equipped Americans having to try to stem the German panthers was superb gameplay. I dont think that has been bettered in a CC game since.

My favorite would be Cross of iron, which is like Bloody First in that you don't follow a campaign, you follow troops through the war. However, the AI was terrible. As for games with campaigns, my favorite was Arnheim. My hope is that BF becomes the new favorite.

[xe5]

Originally posted by Sagit84:

Originally posted by Nats:

Yeah. I think they did disservice to the game and themselves by removing a campaign map.

CC3 with it's linear campaign marked the high point of CC's popularity, coincidentally the last version of CC that Microsoft published. Even some at Atomic didnt care for the strategic layer introduced in CC4, calling it "a game of checkers layered on top of a game of chess". Not surprising coming from veterans of a game studio that had developed the far more complex V for Victory operational series in the early '90s.

[Nats]

Originally posted by xe5:

Not surprising coming from veterans of a game studio that had developed the far more complex V for Victory operational series in the early '90s.

I loved the V for Victory games I played those on my Dads Spectrum when I must have been 16 or so. Arnhem and El Alamein werent they?

[Hans Gruber]

Started a new campaign with me as veteran US vs green Axis and while "defending" on Sbiba Ridge I have time to post. Axis 5 armoured vehicles plus 3 tanks (Pz III & IV) just sitting there not attacking. Snooze. AI needs to be more aggressive in attack operations.

[xe5]

The AI can be scripted for its level of aggression or defense. See this post at Matrix/TBF[www.matrixgames.com]