Q&A: Wall Breaker AI and how it works

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Originally Posted by RagEho

Hi Marika - I have a specific example I came across which I think needs some explaining.


I had six WBs to use on the base below. I deployed all six from location WB at different times throughout the battle.

The first 4 were successful - penetrating through all layers WWWWWWWWW
My army was happily destroying this village but became bunched up at location 'pppppppppp'

So I sent in my final two WB's to take out section 'pppppppppp' figuring the WB's would want to liberate 'Cannon2' (being the only building/turret trapped by walls...) and head for either 'pppppppppp' or 'ccccccccc' (as the shortest distance to 'ccccccccc' would be going through 'pppppppppp').


***However. both WB's headed straight for section Z!!!!!


I'm a bit confused as 'Cannon2' was the only building/turret trapped. What happened here? This is a very straight forward example where the AI did not act as expected.
I am a fan of the new AI - But the former AI would have gone straight through...


Sorry for the picture. I constructed it in comment but would not fit...


Attachment 4367

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That's an excellent picture, thank you for bringing this up!! I edited the original Q&A post, because the Wall Breakers have a range, it's 1/2 village. That's why the last ones didn't run to the other side of the village :)

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Originally Posted by Junliang

Here is a video to prove the above statement false.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9CxoOQ3WWc

There is no specific "shape" as of how the new WB will run.
Notice how the wall breaker did an awesome U turn in the vid haha.

They will simply pre-target the nearest and the shortest path of walls of a compartment that encloses a building/turret.

Then again, the above FAQ is meant to be generalized.
So yeah, if the community understands them, then so be it.

Good job stepping up and creating an FAQ as a Supercell Staff btw, its certainly different if this FAQ was posted by a community member.

I would like to hope that majority of the players understand the wall breaker AI, but then again, after the wall breaker AI is understood, defending will really be HELL.. haha..

Oh well, there is always the bell curve. :p

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You're right, it was too general!! There are other rules too and I edited the original post :) I added an entry about decoys (WBs will avoid them). This FAQ is just a start, and never complete, but I felt like we needed it (me included) :D

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Originally Posted by Hannibal

Yeah it's interesting. There must be a length at which the AI decides that a funnel plan represents too long a path. Or something along the lines of: if it can't find a path to a boxed building within "X" squares it blows a hole to get there. I think we've all seen the videos of wallbreakers running around long projections to get at bases, but it must only work within a relatively short optimal path length, say under 15 squares or something. A friend who ran the "floating maze" plan I was playing with last night says that wallbreakers definitely blew a hole in the corner when he was attacked.

So...

Egg Crate Designs: Dead
Funnel/Maze Designs: Dead
Strip/Spike Designs: Dead
Grid Designs: We have a winner!

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Excellent comments!!! And you're right about the maximum distance! I edited the original Q&A :)

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Originally Posted by LikkeABoss

Wow. That was very well thought out. My understanding of Wall Breakers is simple as: deploy next to wall you don't likke. Proceed to watch WBs succeed or fail. Repeat as needed.

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I really like your approach :)

There is one major flaw with the new wall breaker! You need to fix that part of the algorithm
Build your clan by doing the following.

1)Build a perimeter wall the bigger you can.
2)Build an inside perimeter that contains all your resources, leave at least 2 rows (2*3 space) between the external perimeter wall and the inside one

If you build you clan that way the algorithm will do the following as describe.
1) find the nearest building (at that point you are outside the wall on the start of your attack)
2) as a wall is in the way the wall breaker will try to blow that up
3) Now the algoritm say that it will look for the next nearest building surrounded by walls (This is where it go all pear shape) The next closest building is inside the surrounding wall and the resources are too far away from the WB then they will continue to break the walls of the surrounding perimeter and never go the wall that protect the resources.

Now Wall breaker become less than usefull and go back to be even stupidier that they used to be.

This is a real problem and now that the secret is our please try this configuration and you'll see what I mean

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Originally Posted by Gimme

So the "fewest walls in between" is definitely a factor I take it.

Basically...

1. It will look for the nearest building/turret that is trapped by walls
2. It will choose the shortest path towards that building and blow up walls that are in its way

is not true, or half true. Other factors must be considered then.

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You're right, that is a very simplified version of how they work! You could call it the main principle, and there are are factors too :)

It'll avoid decoys (spikes, decoy walls), its smartness has a maximum reach (1/2 village), only 30 can act smart at the same time and it can be very smart (like in the video you posted). Being such simple creatures, Wall Breakers have surprisingly many layers. Like onions ;)

This thread covers the new AI very well, thank you all for helping others master the new Wall Breakers!!!! :D

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Originally Posted by elmuchacho

There is one major flaw with the new wall breaker! You need to fix that part of the algorithm
Build your clan by doing the following.

1)Build a perimeter wall the bigger you can.
2)Build an inside perimeter that contains all your resources, leave at least 2 rows (2*3 space) between the external perimeter wall and the inside one

If you build you clan that way the algorithm will do the following as describe.
1) find the nearest building (at that point you are outside the wall on the start of your attack)
2) as a wall is in the way the wall breaker will try to blow that up
3) Now the algoritm say that it will look for the next nearest building surrounded by walls (This is where it go all pear shape) The next closest building is inside the surrounding wall and the resources are too far away from the WB then they will continue to break the walls of the surrounding perimeter and never go the wall that protect the resources.

Now Wall breaker become less than usefull and go back to be even stupidier that they used to be.

This is a real problem and now that the secret is our please try this configuration and you'll see what I mean

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Can you post a screenshot?

This answers my un answered question.
http://i.imgur.com/HlTbWVI.jpg
Wbs spawned at the blue circle would go to the green cirlce then theyellowcircle. Them they will target the mortar area.

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Originally Posted by elmuchacho

There is one major flaw with the new wall breaker! You need to fix that part of the algorithm
Build your clan by doing the following.

1)Build a perimeter wall the bigger you can.
2)Build an inside perimeter that contains all your resources, leave at least 2 rows (2*3 space) between the external perimeter wall and the inside one

If you build you clan that way the algorithm will do the following as describe.
1) find the nearest building (at that point you are outside the wall on the start of your attack)
2) as a wall is in the way the wall breaker will try to blow that up
3) Now the algoritm say that it will look for the next nearest building surrounded by walls (This is where it go all pear shape) The next closest building is inside the surrounding wall and the resources are too far away from the WB then they will continue to break the walls of the surrounding perimeter and never go the wall that protect the resources.

Now Wall breaker become less than usefull and go back to be even stupidier that they used to be.

This is a real problem and now that the secret is our please try this configuration and you'll see what I mean

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I came across this issue with this guy today. Mine is:

wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
w Buiding---------------------- w
w ------wwwwwwwwwwwww----w
w------ w buidling----------w---w
w ------w buidling----------w---w
w-------w buidling----------w---w
w-------w buidling----------w---w
w--------wwww bbbb wwwwww w
w building-----------------------w
wwwwww cc aaaa dd wwwwwwww

the first 2 blowed "a" alright, then I deployed 2 more to blow "b" it just blow "c" and then 2 more it blow "d"...

Please take a look.

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Originally Posted by Fakhouri

This answers my un answered question.
http://i.imgur.com/HlTbWVI.jpg
Wbs spawned at the blue circle would go to the green cirlce then theyellowcircle. Them they will target the mortar area.

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what are they doing if you send several wallbreaker instead of just 2?