Panzerblitz1 wrote:Did you try the mod in easy? or normal? now with the new ai the general levels are higher than previously, please try in Easy and Normal, waiting your feedback.
I do not want to come off as a complainer, as I love the mod and I appreciate everything you guys do to keep this game alive. However, I have now played many games against the new AI on all difficulties, except easy, and I find that the new AI with the increased resources has lost something.
I am not sure what you are going for with the change as I believed the whole point of adding the new AI with 4.9.6 was to add a more intelligent AI that offered more of a PvP type experience by having to deal with smart moves on the part of the AI, like flanking, combined assaults, using emplacements, etc. Maybe I am missing the mark and what you were trying to do is just make the AI harder to deal with, which would explain giving them a resource adjustment. I personally prefer the former over the latter.
Basically, since patch IV I have noticed the following on a pretty consistent basis: the normal AI now spams early tanks and streams them at you quickly, in a similar fashion to the 4.9.5 Expert AI. They appear to be less concerned with flanking or combined assaults and rarely ever use abilities or call-ins.
The new hard AI seems to prefer to build a lot of half tracks and infantry that is sends at you, mostly head on, and it holds heavier units, like tigers, in the base or lingering around the map. It doesn't seem to want to send them out to fight. It will use abilities on occasion and perform some combined assaults, but usually, it just tries to overwhelm with numbers.
The Expert AI builds so fast that it is impossible to keep up with and I have yet to defend against it on any map that does not have a choke point. They build everything and use abilities often; however, an example of them having far too many resources is a game I recently played against it where I was losing badly, and to ensure I could not come back, the Expert AI built a flack 88 and/or an AA gun at every resource point. I was barely getting a tank depot down when I started running into that. Crazy fast and not very fun.
To me, none of these scenarios are as enjoyable as the AI was with the introduction of the 4.9.6 beta. It is kind of like playing hoard mode or operations, where you are fighting start to finish and trying to stave off the assault. Moreover, it almost seems like adding all of theses resources made the AI lose its "intelligence" that it gained with the 4.9.6 beta version 1. It barely retreats now, because it really does not have to as it outnumbers you 4 to 1, and it no longer sets up its attacks (intelligently) as it has so many resources it can just keep throwing troops and vehicles at you.
The great thing with the 4.9.6 AI (was) the fact that it would flank you, avoid areas where you had a good defense, where it would lose troops, and it would counter you with mortars or rockets when it was able to. Plus, it would move tanks with infantry support and only attack when it had a chance of winning the fight. It no longer does this. It simply overwhelms you with numbers and keeps pumping the units out until they either surround your base, or if you kill enough of them, they just stop building units and wait for you to destroy their base, not sure why. Perhaps the 4.9.6 AI was not designed to have such an advantage in resources, as it negates the need to be intelligent with its attacks because they can replace anything they lose. I'm guess here.
Also, I have a Youtube channel (VinnySOB) where I post videos of COH BK Mod gameplay. I have several videos posted showcasing the original 4.9.6 AI, and I specifically show how it seemed to be thinking when it attacks, and it did not involve spamming units to be effective. In fact, I kick the crap out of the new AI (normal and Hard) where I was actually having a difficult time with the previous AI's intelligent attacks and flanking, even on Normal setting. Granted, the new expert AI is far more deadly, but again, it is like hoard mode and I am not enjoying playing against it as being tricked or surprised by the AI sneaking around me or massing an army in the fog of war and pushing at me all at once is far more satisfying than just fending off a constant wave of units. Perhaps the individual who designed the new AI would have more incite into why the AI behaves differently when given unlimited resources.
Lastly, some of the AI behavior appears to be map specific. On a map where things can get congested for vehicles, it usually just stops building them and they sit in a heap or linger in the base. If it is a wide open map, you can expect a river of tanks quickly and constantly. Anyway, this has been my experience with the new high resource AI. I assume I am not alone in my analysis, but I have only seen one other post regarding the new AI, so maybe it is just me. At present, I would prefer if you revert the AI back to the original 4.9.6. It was damn near perfect.
