Weak AI? Give him more time!

December 2, 2000, 08:48

i think giving more time to the ai will probably make it better.

open Const.txt under Call To Power 2\ctp2_data\default\gamedata and find these lines

quote:

AI_GOAL_TIME_SLICE 25 # time in milliseconds for an AI frame
AI_MAX_TIME_SLICE 250 # (in milliseconds)if the ai exceeds this time its turn is ended
AI_TOTAL_TIME_SLICE 3000 # (in milliseconds) if the total time in time in the ai player exceeds this its turn is ended

i've changed them to 75, 1250 and 13000 and it seems to have some effect.

marc420 · December 2, 2000, 10:38

Thanks!

I saw those settings yesterday while browsing through const.txt, and I wondered if that would help.

I had an old, old chess program where you controlled the difficulty of the AI by controlling how much time the AI had to search for the best move. If you give it more time, it can run through more possibilities, and thus (hopefully) play smarter.

marc

WesW · December 2, 2000, 17:43

Here is what we did in the Med mod 4. This is from the Miscellaneous readme:

"AI_GOAL_TIME_SLICE 125 # time in milliseconds for an AI frame
AI_MAX_TIME_SLICE 1250 # (in milliseconds)if the ai exceeds this time its turn is ended
AI_TOTAL_TIME_SLICE 15000 # (in milliseconds) if the total time in time in the ai player exceeds this its turn is ended.
(These were all increased by a factor of 5)

Note: For those of you with older computers (generally under 300MHz), I would suggest that you increase the timeslice settings by an additional factor of five (for a total factor of ten), as these changes have been seen to have very significant effects on AI performance for those machines."

colorme · December 3, 2000, 17:51

Mark,

Did you see a substantial increase in AI intelligence by increasing the AI time slice? I have a P3 450 MHz

December 3, 2000, 18:45

i did see a significant difference in the war part: much more attacks, with use of stacks(although he did some idiotic things too, like sending 1 catapult alone to attack a city), better defence(always has some bombarding unit), use of slavers(which he did anyway though)

in the diplomat part there was not much of a change: no sending of diplomats, basically waiting for to create an embassy and be "nice", etc

i would definately recommend you increasing those numbers though. it's worth a try

Kautilya · December 3, 2000, 19:57

Thanks for the tip.
Although if you increase it ten times does this mean that the computer will take exactly ten times for each move? My computer is a P2 300 so it's already quite slow in the latter stages.

Azmel2 · December 12, 2000, 17:40

quote:

Originally posted by MarkG on 12-03-2000 05:45 PM
i did see a significant difference in the war part: much more attacks, with use of stacks(although he did some idiotic things too, like sending 1 catapult alone to attack a city), better defence(always has some bombarding unit), use of slavers(which he did anyway though)

in the diplomat part there was not much of a change: no sending of diplomats, basically waiting for to create an embassy and be "nice", etc

i would definately recommend you increasing those numbers though. it's worth a try

I'm sorry to say that those values in const.txt won't have any effect on the ctp2 AI. The only way to get the AI to spend more time thinking is to play on the hardest difficulty level. I probably should have made this a parameter, but I didn't get the chance.

-- Richard

pchang · December 12, 2000, 17:53

quote:

Originally posted by Azmel2 on 12-12-2000 04:40 PM
I'm sorry to say that those values in const.txt won't have any effect on the ctp2 AI. The only way to get the AI to spend more time thinking is to play on the hardest difficulty level. I probably should have made this a parameter, but I didn't get the chance.

-- Richard

ARGGGHHHHH!!!!!!

Does this mean it didn't do anything in CTP1 either?

December 12, 2000, 19:31

quote:

Originally posted by Azmel2 on 12-12-2000 04:40 PM
I'm sorry to say that those values in const.txt won't have any effect on the ctp2 AI. The only way to get the AI to spend more time thinking is to play on the hardest difficulty level. I probably should have made this a parameter, but I didn't get the chance.

dear god, i must have been dreaming...
i'm telling you, it was smarter!

pchang · December 13, 2000, 14:48

This thread would seem to indicate that the AI would perform much better on a 1GHZ Athlon than a 33MHZ Celeron.

MrFun · December 13, 2000, 14:58

Hey Mark - does increasing the AI's time to make decisions enable it to transport a substantial attacking army overseas?

December 14, 2000, 01:55

quote:

Originally posted by MrFun on 12-13-2000 01:58 PM
Hey Mark - does increasing the AI's time to make decisions enable it to transport a substantial attacking army overseas?

i havent played a game with that setting(e.g. i didnt have lots of sea)

marc420 · December 14, 2000, 21:58

Hmm, like MarkG, I must have been dreaming. I'd have sworn it was playing better. I even got lazy and left my capital weakly guarded and it came over and took it from me. Yes, I actually saw the AI launch an attack.

So question: Do these settings do anything? And if so, what do they do? I'm curious, so I'd like to know if you can tell us anything without giving away any Activision secrets about AI programming.

Rebel Rick · December 14, 2000, 22:21

Off course there is an effect... i don't know why these people lie about that.

i saw the AI build 2-3 stacks of 12 units, attack-ranged, penetrate my front lines (not guarded), search for the "prettiest" cities, and launch attacks (i just was prepared inside the cities, if not i would have lost them easily)...

plus, they defend better... all that and more after the changes...

ChaosSpeeder · December 20, 2000, 07:45

Hi,

quote:

Originally posted by Rebel Rick on 12-14-2000 09:21 PM
plus, they defend better... all that and more after the changes...

what are the other changes?

bye, Andre

Dyzee400 · December 24, 2000, 14:50

Anyone find out if this really does anything?

Bed23 · January 5, 2001, 01:33

i played 2 weeks on a p100 (near a hundred hours)

i played on a medium map at medium difficulty with 3 or 4 AIs
near the end of the game(i was making the gaia controler) each turn was around 1 or 2 mins so i dont think this values are used in ctp2 sorry guys

that would have been great

Alisia · January 5, 2001, 14:37

I think you need to be informed about something... Not sure, but I think you got something a bit wrong...

The time setting is the time it takes per unit and base to decide what to do. Increate the individual time, and it will look longer (or further away, if it is a unit) for a good move. The last slider is the total time it may take.

So, the more units an AI has, the longer a turn takes for him, that is also why the AI is slower at the end of the game (duh

). Trick is, when you dont increase the last number enough, the computer might "skip" units and cities because it is out of time. Increasing the first two settings too much will increase the time it takes for each "unit" too much, and you will have to wait about 10 minutes for every AI player

Alpha Wolf · January 5, 2001, 15:22

I take back every "she's just a whiny girl thought that I had". Alisia, you seem to have a better grasp of how this game works than the average player. Any tips on inproving the diplomacy part? About the only thing I've looked into that so far is the no trepassing aspect. If you make that agreement, the AI will immediate fortify because its the moving that causes the breach of agreement not the actual presence of the unit.

------------------
History is written by the victor.

joe77 · January 5, 2001, 20:38

I am one of those folks who went and changed the Powerbonus and the alloted time per turn for the ai...and I beleive it those changes made a significant differnce in the aggressiveness of the ai...the computer still only survives my wrath on impossible level because it cheats like Sean Connery on Celeb Jeopardy but its way more interested in looting my cities and pilaging my women and children than ever before...the next step IMHO is to teach it to make grand sweeping offensive as right now all it does is peck away at the edges of my empire.

So erm Viva la Revolution and whatever

-Joe

Slax · January 6, 2001, 14:12

Joe77, I think you will find in these threads (including this one) that these values are unused by CTP 2.

[This message has been edited by Slax (edited January 06, 2001).]

joe77 · January 11, 2001, 06:41

heh well I feel like those changes did something...too bad for you if you didnt even try it cause some goofball said not too ..Azreal or whatever wrote the bad AI in the first place or what something to do with activision putting out this boo-boo...why should I listen to someone who put his name..so to speak...on an unfinish product...

and your canadian...I've played enough hockey in your country and listen to enough of your talk radio to know not to listen to anything you say..fast ferries my buttt-hole haha half your country plus alberta wants to break off...you guys are all messed up ...but the sushi is great in vancouver so I forgive you

Slax · January 11, 2001, 09:06

Good luck fixing the game Joe77. Hope you get help.

joe77 · January 12, 2001, 20:50

I'm sorry Slax that was a little harsh..my bad please dont be mad

Changmai Beagle · January 20, 2001, 11:23

Has anyone been able to determine if this change does anything?
P.S. Joe77, just think - if the Hudson's Bay Co. had done a bit better job you'd be Canadian.

kormer · January 20, 2001, 15:10

I tested it on palpatines super-large world map. It was about the industrial revolution, and the whole world was filled up. It took about 15 minutes per turn with and without the changes on a 700mhz computer.