General ideas to improve GC Ai

[Skitso]

I tried to find a thread about little improvements the community has come up for the games ground combat ai, but couldn't find any. So if you find out anything that could improve ai, post it here. Let's make G-J's life easy! (or hard, whatever)

I'll go first:

When an alien unit dies in a spot that AI thinks is a good cover, other nearby aliens tend to move to that same position and take cover. If I happen to have a good line of fire in that sqaure, this often leads to a pile of bodies in same spot. So I think a dead unit should signal the AI that this isn't a safe spot for other units, so they would move somewhere else, even though this seems the safest place.

[Mooton]

Aliens should be capable of using the same door play strategy the player does.

Aliens should also occasionally check outside the UFO if a few quiet turns go by to catch a player setting up. As it is you have infinity turns to set up the mad door play strat and there's no consequence to it making it a forced choice.

[Ryodan]

Aliens should be capable of using the same door play strategy the player does.

Aliens should also occasionally check outside the UFO if a few quiet turns go by to catch a player setting up. As it is you have infinity turns to set up the mad door play strat and there's no consequence to it making it a forced choice.

I think the intention was that the non-combatant aliens were essentially hiding in the ship hoping the few combatant aliens could defend it. They also made it to where some aliens have to stay inside to avoid the possibility of them all leaving and you walking in and defending it for 5 turns for the win. I dislike the way door opening is currently because it's almost always the exact same, open door-shoot-close door-end turn, strategy.

It would add a lot if the non-com aliens would open the door and look out and shoot then close the door occasionally. Just so you are forced to stay alert currently I don't mind sending units to stand at the door as they clear the section of map I gave them. And I have no concern about cover or left over tu's near the door because its risk free. stand out in the open swap shields to new guys if the shield guys got hit at all, get new shields out of bags so on so forth with zero worry before we open the door.

I would like to occasionally see the combatant aliens defend the ship instead of going out from it, maybe have them set up outside in a perimeter around the ship and support each other like they were waiting for a rescue and trying to hold out. Maybe occasionally find the entire group moving together to try an escape non combatants escorted by the combatant aliens, could do alternate crash site mission types (catch the escaping aliens as a optional objective) I've already grown tired of the routine ufo missions.

[RotGtIE]

One thing I've noticed about the AI is that it sometimes makes VERY aggressive moves if there is an opening that will allow them to make a kill, even if it is suicidal. I've had aliens run through my own smokescreens to stand directly next to one of my soldiers and dump a burst of plasma into them at point blank range. It's a little suspicious how they beeline straight for their targets when doing that.

I strongly agree with the sentiments in this thread about aliens proactively defending their ship. I should think scattered aliens would want to rally and make their way to defensive positions in an effort to keep my soldiers away. Sometimes they make clever flanking maneuvers that I have to scramble to respond to, but most of the time they hunker down behind cover and take potshots until I roll over them one-by-one with superior numbers.

[tscho]

The AI should consider a Soldier with the shield like a unit with cover and attack that uncovered unit some meter more far away. sometimes to easy to save that "important guy" with a rookie with an shield running slightly nearer to the enemy.

Edited December 20, 2013 by tscho

[Sleet01]

Sorry to necro the thread, but I figure it's better than starting a new one on the same topic.

1) If a civilian enters a Xenonaut transport while running around screaming, s/he should stay there unless an alien follows him or her inside. Weight the interior squares at 110% or something.

2) Similarly, weight the squares *outside* of Xenonaut LOS higher than squares within their 90-degree visibility. Even scared-poopless civvies should be smart enough to not run between Xenonauts and aliens.

3) Add the ability for a Xenonaut to give a civvy a single order if the Xenonaut is in an adjacent panel and has sufficient TUs (say 15 or so). Make it possible to heard panicked civilians away from danger at the cost of reduced actions that turn. The affected civvy can become a player-controlled unit and be given either a single movement order - e.g. "go as far towards the marked square as you can" - or a single fire order for that turn.

This could make for some interesting mission variations - get all the civvies out of a crash zone for extra cash, or round up all the local law enforcement to protect the landing craft - and would sure be nice for keeping dumb farmers out of my fire zones.

[Skitso]

There's a new, official AI improvements sticky thread. Your ideas are good, just post them >here<.

[Sleet01]

Derp >_< Thanks!