Combat AI improvements (1.02)

[DeletedUser]

I really have no idea why people are saying LRs are useless now... Their situations might be different, but I can't help thinking either they had a couple bad fights and just gave up on them completely or they would rather cakewalk through the entire neighborhood by exploiting weaknesses in the AI and never taking any damage. There are some clear exploits that I have noticed under this AI that make LRs extremely effective against any defenses that have LRs or SRs in them. Do they want LRs to be effective against all defenses? Is this fun? It is not very realistic to think everyone should be able to take down whole neighborhood without any cooldown time. That should only happen if you are way ahead of everyone else in the neighborhood.

 

[DeletedUser7719]

Most of us are saying LR are useless because of any stealth unit and other long range, but from LMA and below, they do have the use that they should have

 

[DeletedUser]

It is a gamble whether there will even be any trees in range of the stealth units or any trees at all. No one is saying you have to use all LRs either. This kind of hyperbole just makes it hard to take these specific complaints seriously. LRs were overpowered before and the AI now acts more like a person would, so I still don't see what there is to be upset about. If you are going up against all jaegers or rangers, you shouldn't have been using all LRs to begin with, even before the update.

 

[DeletedUser10694]

Two things: According to our recent survey that's about 10% of the people who play FoE - looking at the threads AND the survey we have an overwhelmingly huge number who request improved AI. Second, the AI is an AI. Which means, as I mentioned elsewhere, it will always remain exploitable. Sure, it's a new AI and yes, it's not as easy to find the exploits as before (when they were served on a silver platter). But hey, isn't finding and exploiting the weakness exactly what strategy players want? .......................

Regards,

Anwar

The AI is a great improvement, yes it has some interesting quirks, but that isn't the issue. There isn't much to exploit unless your in Colonial/Industrial with units that can hide. The problem is the damage you get now for even playing lower aged players is too much too often, even when you play strategically. After around 10 to 15 games you have nothing worth fighting with, and that's with multiples of same army types. not some silly 1 of each setup. I had 14 armory buildings from HMA to Colonial. well half way through colonial and even that wasn't enough after 10 or more games. The killer now is having that much damage and still 4hr repair times. I accept for Colonial and higher players with 100+% bonuses that it makes little difference and they can still play 50 games a day even if it takes a wee but longer. But most don't have that level of age and bonuses, and for them it has become more or less not worth playing. I used to earn most of my points that kept me ahead by playing higher aged units tactically, but now with the new AI I would loose so much doing so it isn't worth even trying. At the end of the day, time will tell. I'm watching with interest to see how it goes next week in terms of activity. But personally I think the much improved AI has killed it for all but the types of players I mention above. I'm sure you folks will be monitoring it in the background, but for me at the moment, I have lost all interest. I will do sector maps until something changes to balance it out more and make it possible to play 40+ battles a day against a good AI where strategy wins.

 

[DeletedUser]

I am a little confused Misty, you still have HMA military buildings and you are halfway through colonial? One obvious way to get more battles out of your troops is to upgrade the HMA buildings. I really don't understand how you could only get 10 battles out of 14 military buildings either. That is a pool of 56 troops (4x14), and that should really last more than 10 battles. Are you just starting with top of neighborhood that has huge bonuses and losing almost every unit every time? People with bonuses always had an advantage. Considering this update has been out for barely more than a day, I am surprised that everyone is throwing their hands up in despair before they could really have tried to devise new strategies. You made it from bronze to halfway through CA against the same AI, and I am sure trial and error was involved getting to the comfortable point in battle strategy that you were at before this update. Giving this, by your own admission, much improved AI 24 hours hardly seems reasonable.

I am also having trouble understanding another part of your complaint. Can you give an example of the excessive damage you received from fighting lower aged players? I obviously don't know what you are specifically talking about, but it could be an issue of strategy or unit choice

 

[DeletedUser8793]

PS: The screenshot above is from the beta server. Many people go there just to check things out, not play actively. My neighbourhood on BETA also has 69 players - NONE of those are even in industrial age.

Same server same amount of neighbors but in my neighborhood are ~20 player in IA.

before Update:

after update:

 

[DeletedUser]

pioh, what are you trying to point out? You fought a hundred less battles in second pic. Are you saying you were forced to fight 100 less battles? How long has new AI been out on test server?

 

[DeletedUser8793]

before this update I have a fight and I can win the tower with 30.000... points. We fight all the time the last min. before end of PvP and see who win this battle. And at this time? I can paused PvP two days...

since 23.05.2013 is 1.02 on Testserver

 

[DeletedUser]

before this update I have a fight and I can win the tower with 30.000... points. We fight all the time the last min. before end of PvP and see who win this battle. And at this time? I can paused PvP two days...

since 23.05.2013 is 1.02 on Testserver

And therefore ?

 

[DeletedUser8793]

I think u have fun with battles? Is this a battle more?

 

[DeletedUser10694]

I am a little confused Misty, you still have HMA military buildings and you are halfway through colonial? .....................
I am also having trouble understanding another part of your complaint. Can you give an example of the excessive damage you received from fighting lower aged players? I obviously don't know what you are specifically talking about, but it could be an issue of strategy or unit choice

Sorry I missed this. I like to play 2 towers, at the moment HMA and LMA since I am only part way through colonial. That's why I have a mix of both ages of buildings .... One example from early yesterday of loosing and getting more damage, was I play my 8 trebs against 4 spears and 4 slingers. sighs at the bit that's coming next The defense only had 8% defense bonus from the watchfires. I think the 4 spears and 4 slingers moved first, spears in forests or bushes except 1. My 8 trebs took out 3.9 spears , damn the last spear had one red square left. The second round from the ai resulted in 1 spear half damaging one treb, two of the four slingers moved further than they usually did 1st time around and when it came to there 2nd time two took out one treb. Then i destroyed the rest afterwards. So at the end of that game i lost 1 treb and 1 was 2/3rds damaged & i have 35% bonuses. Every time i have played that same person before who never changes defense, I have not suffered one infantry item damaged. So that is one example that comes to mind. Hope that helped. But the story is similar for other battles. Before I woulod get no damage, now i end up with some. So after several games I have little left that is useful. The solution to this is for me to stop playing two towers and just concentrate on one age armoury and use that against everyone. But I enjoyed doing two towers and the extra games it games and competition it gave me.

 

[DeletedUser]

I think u have fun with battles? Is this a battle more?

Yes, I'm having a lot more fun.

 

[DeletedUser8793]

for me it's not funny If I'm in lead with more than... 400.000 points after 3 days...

 

[DeletedUser]

Misty,

It should be pretty easy to avoid any damage in that situation. Just move trebs to corners and take out slingers in front first then get spears in front. Did you just use autobattle?

If you are able to go through almost all battles without taking damage, I think that is a sign of an AI that is way too easy. We should be taking damage in battles as often as possible. The best I can figure, people are complaining that the AI is doing stuff a person would b/c no unit values have been changed at all. There is nothing unfair going on here, and the AI could definitely be a lot harder than it is right now.

 

[DeletedUser17220]

Sorry I missed this. I like to play 2 towers, at the moment HMA and LMA since I am only part way through colonial. That's why I have a mix of both ages of buildings .... One example from early yesterday of loosing and getting more damage, was I play my 8 trebs against 4 spears and 4 slingers. sighs at the bit that's coming next The defense only had 8% defense bonus from the watchfires. I think the 4 spears and 4 slingers moved first, spears in forests or bushes except 1. My 8 trebs took out 3.9 spears , damn the last spear had one red square left. The second round from the ai resulted in 1 spear half damaging one treb, two of the four slingers moved further than they usually did 1st time around and when it came to there 2nd time two took out one treb. Then i destroyed the rest afterwards. So at the end of that game i lost 1 treb and 1 was 2/3rds damaged & i have 35% bonuses. Every time i have played that same person before who never changes defense, I have not suffered one infantry item damaged. So that is one example that comes to mind. Hope that helped. But the story is similar for other battles. Before I woulod get no damage, now i end up with some. So after several games I have little left that is useful. The solution to this is for me to stop playing two towers and just concentrate on one age armoury and use that against everyone. But I enjoyed doing two towers and the extra games it games and competition it gave me.

if all 4 spearmen can reach your trebs and attack you in the second turn then you are a bit of unlucky. however if they can't, you should move your trebs to the corner, only kill the 1 or 2 spear that can still reach you, and focus the rest of firepower on the slingers first. that should be able to increase the odds to perform an injury-free battle

 

[DeletedUser]

for me it's not funny If I'm in lead with more than... 400.000 points after 3 days...

You're complaining that it's too easy?

 

[DeletedUser10694]

Misty,

It should be pretty easy to avoid any damage in that situation. Just move trebs to corners and take out slingers in front first then get spears in front. Did you just use autobattle?

If you are able to go through almost all battles without taking damage, I think that is a sign of an AI that is way too easy. We should be taking damage in battles as often as possible. The best I can figure, people are complaining that the AI is doing stuff a person would b/c no unit values have been changed at all. There is nothing unfair going on here, and the AI could definitely be a lot harder than it is right now.

The AI is excellent, i have no problems with it at all. But with the big improvements I am getting too much damage too often to make it worth playing 2 towers. If i had gone for the puny slingers 1st, then with the extended movement the spears now make, plus better use of terrain so less damage when i attack them, I would have no doubt lost the same from them getting to me sooner than before. I can live with that, as you say, before less damage with old AI, but the only way I can live with it is by playing much less games now than I used to due to being damaged more often by better AI. And my only fun in this game is doing lots of battles, many against higher aged units to earn the extra points needed to win. If i do that now I will suffer bigger losses and damage, so its really killed it for me due to the very long repair times. I was hopping for a good AI like we have now, but still be able to play many battles a day to maintain my interest and fun. But I cant see how I can do that anymore unless I have a minimum of all colonial troops and many many of them with bonuses of at least 100% or higher. What has really killed it for me, is not being able to play lots of battles each day. The reason now is because of the very very "long" repair times. It's just so boring now its pointless. Well for me that is. And to be honest, I don't see hardly any activity in the two towers I played now. So I'm just bored stiff. Maybe once I have reached end of colonial and fully equipped with masses of everything, I will find the enthusiasm to try again and manage to still play 50 games plus a day, which is all that kept me interested to now. I'm biding my time and will have another go soon. But for now the new better AI with the still very long repair times has killed my enthusiasm and interest. But as has been said, its very early days so give it a chance and see how other get on.

 

[DeletedUser]

You can hover over them to see what their range is. There really is no reason to get damaged at all in that scenario if you are checking which units can attack you (and killing them first) and moving out of range of the rest.

If there is a lot less activity, then it shouldn't change your ability to compete in 2 towers.

Expecting to be able to use 8 LRs and never take any damage pretty much means you don't want the AI to be better. I don't know how you can want harder AI, but also expect never to get hurt. You don't have to wait 4 hours unless the unit is killed btw. If you have enough buildings and are careful with your strategy, there is no reason you could not attack as many times in one day as you did before. You just need more buildings and planning. Some neighborhoods only allowed people to compete for one tower if they were going for first before the update. That last part is just luck I guess. I was able to win top 3 towers for several weeks in my nhood but that has definitely changed

 

[DeletedUser13805]

does anyone else notice a lot less attacks today ? i bet the devs will soon change things as from what i hear from a lot of players is the game is now to hard for them.
they lose to many units, they have to wait 4 hours for a replacement, it makes it more time consuming, i know a few who have given up battling now as they can not compete.
if my feeling on this is right i wouldnt mind betting the devs will change things quite soon as today it was like a ghost town for battles and that will mean people will leave. i hope i am wrong

 

[DeletedUser]

If it's more time consuming then there will be less complains about too small hoods


Personally, I find the new AI system much more fun and interesting to play with.