AI Issue..?

Why doesn't the AI defend better? Seems that it is solely focused on offensive operations and does nothing to defend itself or its base. No AA. No point defenses nothing. Makes for some very odd feeling games where AI allies can be eliminated
with a single wandering T1 bomber while mindlessly building a huge army that usually goes no where. The AI used to put up a more balanced fight - many times now the AI won't even build anti-missile defenses which it once routinely did. Can
this be fixed and restore some operational balance to the AI?

@vppreddell If you're playing the base FAF AI, then please link a replay for a game in which you noticed this behaviors to the devs can examine it for further refinement to the AI.

That said, there are AI mods that are undergoing continuous development that may offer a better game for you than the base AI:

• M27 (more for 1v1)
• M28 (more for teamgames)
• RNGAI
• AI-Uveso

Maudlin (author of M27 and M28) also has an extensive blog about them:

• https://forum.faforever.com/topic/5331/m28ai-devlog-v30

This is going to sound like a long winded explanation.

None of the defensive builders have been removed, BUT the economic requirements for the defensive builders have been increased.
The reason for this was due to the AI destroying its economy on every game when it wasn't using large aix multipliers which resulted in a human player being in one phase of the game and the AI being two phases behind.
The other impacting reason is because the economic upgrade triggers have NOT been touched, so the AI has spare economy but it is throwing that economy at mass extractor upgrades rather than balancing its spending. This was supposed to be rectified in a structure manager feature that would better control mass extractor upgrades but this wasn't ready in time for the 3rd iteration so the AI's economy is still out of whack.

What will happen in the future is that we will get the structure manager sorted which will allow AI to better balance its economic distribution, there is a feature for defensive structure placement that is also due to be implemented. Then we will rewrite how the AI builds defenses in general and implement a better focused defensive logic for the turtle AI personality with the other AI having a more efficient reactive defense build logic.

So post the replay link and I'll take a look and see if the reason it isn't doing defenses is purely the above or if there is some other issue that can be fixed.

https://replay.faforever.com/20817690

Here's an example of what I was talking about in the link above. The Ai base was poorly defended and was eventually taken out by a nuclear missile launch. The ai had simply not even attempted to build an anti-missile defense.

Relentless: Thanks for the reply and it sounds as if you're still tweaking the AI characteristics. I look forward to the final refined product.

@mostlostnoob Thanks for reply and the advice. I'll give it a shot.

btw if your going to use the default ai use the adaptive one, the easy and normal one are more for people that have just picked up the game. Perhaps we should update the normal one as well.

Why not just use M27 AI mod?

Not everyone wants to play against an AI that is competitive

@reckless_charger M27 doesn't work for me. I tried both Ms 27 and 28 (on the same map) and got an invisible (to me) ACU at the start or the enemy AI ACU standing stock still not doing any building at all.

@jip I'd like that. The ideal would be an Ai capable of winning against moderately experienced players around 50% of the time.

@vppreddell Does this happen if you change the map and/or disable other sim mods? If so could you send me the replay number for where this happens with M28?

@vppreddell

If you want, you could use the mod AI Wave Survival. This mod is meant to allow for survival on any map, but is highly customizable, and works with any AI. (The included AI, "AI_WaveSurvival", is a dumb AI, builds nothing, and is meant to be used as a place marker for spawn points, but any AI can be used it its place.)

You can set the mod to spawn in defenses at the AI's spawn. There are different tiers of defenses, but that would certainly increase the challenge of attacking the AI's main base.

If you want an AI Game Style, instead of Waves of Units, you can:
-Disable all waves or set to small amounts.
-Set the Wave Style to "AI/Human Controlled." This disables the mods attack scripts. Otherwise the attack scripts force any spawned/built units to attack players. (There is another option, "Human with AI Assist", which can also be used with an AI Player. Only gives spawned units initial attack orders, but doesn't affect any built units. It will force a more aggressive playstyle from different AI's, if used with waves enabled.)
-Disable any of the Retaliation scripts, which trigger powerful responses to artillery and endgame units.

Or use the AI_WaveSurvival AI for waves, and give it AI Allies, which will do their own thing.

Since the mod has a LOT of options, here is a guide to help new players configure. Default settings have Navy waves disabled and are around an 800 rating level in challenge.
https://forum.faforever.com/topic/5563/ai-wave-survival-mod-information

@rama interesting!