61 replies to this topic

[ThetaOrion]

My last game was totally awesome. Thank you guys!

It was me as Tau with SM AI ally, against the Necrons and the Chaos.

I figured if anyone could handle Tau it would be the Necrons. And wow, was I right!

The Necrons wiped me out all except for my last listening post.

I went and hid behind my SM AI ally and started over. The SM AI Ally not only held against Chaos but had made inroads.

I eventually put out a couple of Hammerhead tanks, and helped the SM find and finish off the rest of the Chaos, and then it was me and SM against the Necrons who had taken over half the map on Mountain Trail.

Once we wiped out the Chaos, the SM AI ally went straight to work on the Necrons -- no gathering. Of course, the Necrons sort of came after us as well. But, I have now confirmed for Thud that same map and same code doesn't have the same problem with the SM either. Only the Eldar had that gathering problem -- some '0' missing or one '0' too many on one of the Eldar threat indicators, I would guess.

Anyway, it was 47 minutes or so on Mountain Trail, a come-back-from-behind to win. I don't have very many of those, but it was awesome! The Necron AI totally played me and wiped me out! In that particular game, I lost every encounter against them, except for the last encounter.

That was a good place to end it for now, with that last game. I have work to do that has come in and my vacation is over. But, it was a blast while it lasted! Thank you!

I'll go away now.

But, I wanted to stop in one last time before I go away for awhile, just to say, "Great stuff all around!"

Thank you!

[thudo]

Good to hear.. less MAJOR issues reported is LESS work for us.

[Inquisitor]

We played some 3v3 mp games last night with 3.0. It worked flawlessly and we were thoroughly squashed by the hard AI. I think we might even need to play some games on lower difficulty just to get our confidence back! Or maybe just play on smaller maps, because on big maps it's insane to beat 3 hard computers!

A really good thing about it is that we can now depend on the AI not being passive, so having an AI ally is not as bad as in SS. It was a big problem in SS that the AI sometimes just sat there doing almost nothing in a whole game. That alone made it very hard to pick the right difficulty if we want a challenge, because sometimes it would steamroll us on harder and other times it just sat there.

Well, I just wanted to thank the team on behalf of my friends and myself. Thank you also for getting it done so quickly!

btw, is there somewhere I can read about what the different difficulties settings mean for the Skirmish AI 3.0?

[LarkinVB]

Easy : Strong limited AI code, -40% resource income (not sure)
Standard : Slightly limited AI code, -20% resource income (not sure)
Hard : Full AI code, even resources
Harder : Full AI code, +20% resource income (not sure)
Indsane : Full AI code, +40% resource income (not sure)

Check the AI control panel (shortcut on desktop) for AI restrictions for each level.

[Inquisitor]

Thanks a bunch, Larkin!

(omg we need to improve if we can't beat it on Hard, seeing that we fight on even terms!)

[ThetaOrion]

Oh, after some real life, I decided to reward myself with another AI Mod game. I set the whole thing to random. The randomizer sure knows how to give me match-ups that I can't seem to beat.

Anyway, it set me up as the Eldar with Dark Eldar AI ally against the Orks and the Necrons at the HARD setting on Mountain Trail.

Wow, did I get played. It's the first time with 3.0 that I have seen the Orks go on the offensive rather than protecting their AI ally or turtling up. The Orks were everywhere.

Then I was hooked, like a moth to the flame -- I was losing one game after another after another.

They were saying on Dawn of Strategy that if you want to be humbled as the Eldar, then go up against Chaos, Necrons, or Orks.

The computer had given me Necrons and Orks, and I kept playing that scenario over and over again trying to get the win.

And, those were some very long games 50 minutes at times, on Mountain Trail. If I ever found a way to hold as the Eldar, I automatically lost my Dark Eldar AI ally to the Necron march of death. Or, I was simply overrun by the Orks. About 8 losses in a row, and all day going into it. Like I said, "Moth to the flame."

I had a challenge and a focus now. I wanted to beat that scenario. In some of the games, the Orks would put out a couple of Squiggoth in a row. Now I have seen the 3.0 AI produce all of the uber avatars. Even the Orks can and will get to Tier 4, forty to forty-five minutes into the game on Mountain Trail, if I play as the Eldar against the Orks.

I finally found that a wall of five Dark Reaper squads would make the Orks retreat back into their territory and keep them out of my territory, with periodic FireDragon raids of four or five squads to take out the Ork buildings when the Orks were away defending the Necrons. I also found that in order to get the win, I had to go over to the Dark Eldar, and build a cloaked Webway gate and some turrets and a support portal and some wraithlords to stop the incoming March-of-Death that always wiped the DE off the map. I had to have some turrets between their DE stronghold and the incoming Necrons. It worked once, and my AI ally held, and then my DE AI ally got to Tier 4 also. I even saw the Dais of Destruction under the control of the 3.0 AI do its swipe and wipe thing on the Orks! Cool! At one point I was even going toe-to-toe, my Eldar Avatar taking on a Squiggoth and winning.

"Moth to the flame."

Anyway, now I have seen the Orks do well, really well, in 3.0 of the AI Skirmish Mod. The Orks eat elves for breakfast, no question about it.

Now, I have had twelve wins on Mountain Trail and twice as many losses for about three dozen games.

Most of the time, the Orks turtle and hide or go hide behind their AI ally, but not when there be Eldar on the screen.

I'm going to try to force myself not to even play SS today, as the Siren Call is just too much to resist if I find a scenario or match-up that I really want to win.

Good stuff all around! Addictive as as all heck.

[poisty]

A note on orc--due to there relatively crap range dmg using guardians with grenades and the waithtomb lock in place skill will eat them up

[RobertW7928]

Maybe I didn't make myself clear/heard or aren't I privileged to be acknowledged?, in the campaign the hero's rule doesn't apply to your honor guards & the commander for sisters of battle and dark elder could you please FIX IT!, you have it for the other races why not SoB & DE? (add the classes to use the ranking) in addition what about the cut scenes, can u add them to give the full play/feel to campaign? and how about massive battle rule for campaign? or option (I'd prefer to use a wider variety, more units more carnage =] ), I know you might have more pressing matters to attend to, but can you consider what I have reported?

[thudo]

Maybe I didn't make myself clear/heard or aren't I privileged to be acknowledged?, in the campaign the hero's rule doesn't apply to your honor guards & the commander for sisters of battle and dark elder could you please FIX IT!, you have it for the other races why not SoB & DE? (add the classes to use the ranking) in addition what about the cut scenes, can u add them to give the full play/feel to campaign? and how about massive battle rule for campaign? or option (I'd prefer to use a wider variety, more units more carnage =] ), I know you might have more pressing matters to attend to, but can you consider what I have reported?

Yes Rob we can.. that was accidentally omitted.

[RobertW7928]

My apologizes, just that I seem to be taken for granted and when no-one acknowledged my report I grew concerned, anyways I just want this mod to cover all bases and get it going places hope any bit of info helps.

[thudo]

Well its hard to cover everything but we try.

[RobertW7928]

It would be nice if you could use the 'MASSIVE BATTLES' rule for the Campaign More flexibility and well a bigger and better battles =], oh and doesn't the orks pop which is 100 be increased to 150 with the rule on? cause it doesn't seem to change that at all =/ or is that intentional?

[ThetaOrion]

Just wanted to say 'thanks' again!

As usual, you guys took an 'average' game and turned it into my favorite game!

It wouldn't have happened without this AI skirmish Mod.

[Inquisitor]

I propose a new feature. It is simple to do, but it would be a great help to many people, because they can continue their campaign and use their custom paint schemes with the Skirmish AI.

The feature:
A checkbox during installation: "Copy existing profile(s) to Skirmish AI"
If checked, all it does is copy Profile{n}/dxp2/*.* to Profile{n}/dowai/*.*.
It should probably not overwrite existing files without prompting.

I offer my assistance, if you want me to code it.

[ThetaOrion]

I was reporting in here for awhile when 3.0 was released, mostly talking about how nice it all is and talking about the difficult matchups that I have had. A difficult matchup is one where I have to go through six losses in a row before I find a way to win the same combination. I found that if I worked at it long enough, I could win as anything against anything, which led me to believe that the Soulstorm itself is reasonably well-balanced.

And, I'm still of that opinion, but it could be better a times. I know, the guys here only do 'balancing' tricks through the AI itself, and it has been nice that everything has been reasonable from the beginning for the most part in SoulStorm

--

I decided to pop in after all these weeks to say that I finally found a combination, or more accurately, the randomizer finally gave me a combination that I have been unable to beat.

That combo is with me as Space Marines with IG AI ally against Choas and Tau. Been doing HARD setting on Mountain Trail for most of it.

As the Space Marines, I simply can't hold ground or win any of the battles against the Chaos. They out-produce me, outrange me, out-slug me, out-tank me, and soon out-tech me as well.

Meanwhile, after their initial foray into Tau territory, my IG AI ally permanently retreats and never goes back. It's like the IG AI cannot detect the cloaked Tau units -- maybe that's something the AI team here would look into for me someday, just to be sure. Soon the Tau have a dozen tanks and fire warriors and the IG simply evaporate. Meanwhile the Chaos is in my base and all my time goes into simply trying to get my listening posts back, to no avail.

My IG AI ally never holds against the Tau, not once yet; and I as SM have never been able to hold against Chaos either. Some games I go down faster than others, but I always go down. And, the half a dozen tricks that I always employ to get the win don't seem to work for me either. I think I have tried everything that normally works for me, and the best it does for me is to keep me on the map for a few minutes longer before I start losing on all sides. Even when I go in there and take out the Tau Tier 4 stuff, the IG AI ally stays turtled up and never moves. The IG AI ally just never have enough past the opening minutes to make them want to move against the Tau. Going and camping on the Chaos relic hasn't helped me either, because while I camp there and hold that spot, my IG AI ally dies, and soon the Tau even have enough to share with the Chaos while also simultaneously taking down the IG.

I suppose I'm down to my very last trick with this combo here -- keep trying the scenario over and over again until the Tau and Chaos both get their very worst build order and my IG AI ally gets its best build order. Then maybe the IG will go on the offensive and take and hold ground. But, that's just a dream. I don't know if there are any bad build orders for the Tau or Chaos. Of course, I have never been any good as the Space Marines -- there is something there I'm missing. But, I can't even keep my troops alive while retreating, so it also makes it hard to tier up as fast as I need to. The SM Commander isn't as strong and invincible as he used to be, either.

Anyway, I usually remembered to come back and report whenever I had finally won a difficult combination; so, I thought it be fitting to come and report yet again, now that I believe I have finally found a combo that I can't win.

[ThetaOrion]

Ah, finally!

I don't know how many days, off and on, I have been trying to get a win as SM with IG AI ally against Chaos and Tau, but I finally got my win! It seems like I have been trying every now and then for about a week now.

My win was as I predicted it would be.

I got one lucky time there where my IG AI ally did a rush right into the Tau base and held there for the rest of the game harassing the whole time and just barely holding on but almost losing ground there in the Tau base. But, the IG successfully denied the Tau their Relic, which was really cool for a change. It was the only time I ever saw that happen, where the IG actually held against the Tau and denied the Tau their Relic.

Meanwhile, I didn't get a Chaos rush into my base in that particular game also, because the Chaos were over helping to keep the Tau alive. So, I was able to LP3 all my SM listening posts and then go up and camp on the Chaos Relic and hold that as well. It was the first and only game that the Chaos weren't in my SM base as I was entering T2. That whole game just simply played differently than all the others, and I even got a slow start while trying to mix things up.

It took awhile, but I eventually had enough that I could go help wipe out the Tau and also continue to hold the Chaos Relic. Once the Tau were gone, then it was just a matter of time. The the IG put out a BaneBlade and really started to roll. By then, I was starting to get Terminators to deep strike into places.

The SM and the Eldar have proven to be the worst and the weakest AI allies on average during most of the games, so I don't feel too bad that I don't play the SM all that much better than the AI does. But, it does seem that if I play as the Eldar or play as the SM, that's the times when I'm most likely to lose, also. It's pretty much right in line with what the Skirmish AI ally goes through. But, the Eldar and SM seem to be adequately brutal if they are the AI enemy. Definitely as the AI enemy, the AI plays the SM and Eldar better than I do!

So, once again, I have broken yet another losing streak and found a way to get lucky and beat the unbeatable. Still my favorite mod and favorite game - before and after each losing streak. But, it's nice to finally get a win with a difficult scenario. If nothing, I'm persistent.

[Stonestar]

Thanks for this great mod people, me and my friends have been happily pwning insanes. A friend of mine can take down two insane's, but then again he's better than any player I've seen so far. Good work, once more, and can't wait for a next improved version of this thing.

[Tulip]

Hello, i stumbled across this mod after looking in google.... i was just typing in "Skirmish mode pc player is terrible" then it clickd to type in AI is terrible and that workd and came to this website.

I just wanted to say awesome job on the mod i have been a fan of Warhammer for many years i had a space marines set when i was about 15 but i gave it up fairly quickly im now 22 and love the dawn of war series but my copy is from a mate and i dont have real cd key's s oi can only play over lan or skirmish/campaign and the AI has always been terrible.... my most concern was that they never put up a decent fight after the initial rush never built tanks or relic units ect.

But i have been enjoying your mod had many decent fights and just wanted to register to say thanks for the mod (ive never been to this website before).

One thing i have noticed is that eldar as a pc seem terrible and orks dont seem to be as strong as the other races? chaos are really strong when playd by the ai.

thanks for a awesome job!

[duende29]

Hi, I'm from Venezuela, and apprently Ei8ht.net has blocked, or my ISP blocking all our IPs (not only mine). Could someone possibly host this mod somewhere else not on Ei8ht.net? I've heard great things about the improved AI and I want to try it but I can't because Ei8ht.net is the only place where you can download and I'm blocked from it.

[thudo]

Is it not on dowfiles.com ? Should be.