Wall Breakers AI

[Cyeedar]

That is totally untrue.
It happens all the time they blow up empty compartments or walls that stand alone..
I have to bring 15 or 16 wb's to make them anywhere near useful..



Wrong too. Quite often I drop them right in front of a junction and they blow up the wall right next to it, opening thus one compartment only instead of multiple..

Yes WB AI is messed up, you would drop them nearest to a T hoping that would open up TWO compartments and it would run a 1-2 squares away and break only a section of wall instead of the T where you dropped them.

Change WBs to move in a straight line to the from where you dropped em.

[Superfinch30]

Ok ok. They are not perfect. As for lowering expectations, you have to remember that wbs AI is surely the most difficult to code. I'm not saying that all the money and top programmers aren't willing or capable of finding a better way, just there will be an inevitable downside to any changes.

We have seen at least 3 versions of wb AI over time, and this is the best of them.

They don't get defeated by wall spikes, that has to be a plus. Suppose it depends how long most of the people complaining here have been playing, you wouldn't want that version back.

They tried another way......it failed miserably and it was reverted. Fair nuff, back to the drawing board.

Look at queen AI. She is stupid! Hits walls all the time!
Now: She is stupid! Avoids walls all the time and gets lost outside!

Spam lavaloon OP! Keep getting 3 starred by low skill strat!
Heroes chase skeletons from traps across the map!
Cue aggro radius reduction
Pups won't target Queen! Heroes ignore CC troops!

With me yet?

It's not that the AI can't be re-written, and might achieve some of the things you are complaining about. Just that it will very likely have some other major drawback as a consequence. AI is exactly that, it's not intelligence, it's a programmed set of behaviours.

Completely change those behaviours to correct 1 of them, is very likely to severely affect another, can't just add one trait for improvement while keeping some of the others.

Common sense peeps.

Just as a side note, everyone that plays any kind of sports sims should know that AI is never perfect. These are titles with huge budgets, a full year to work on each new version, and a reasonably perfunctory previous model on which to build.

It is always the same story there (I'll pick FIFA as my example as I played it through about 10 annual versions).

There is always at least 1 cheap way to score, through a defender or goalkeeper AI fail. Over time, they have reduced the number of these methods, but there is always one.
So they re-write the AI, fix that loophole, and as a direct consequence, another opens.

Within a couple of months, everyone playing competitively is trying to exploit that loophole in attack, or setting their whole defence around attempting to prevent it.

[tellingthetruth]

When I place wbs just in front of a wall corner, why do they run past that corner to go to the middle of that row of walls while obviously getting shot on the way there?

But to be fair to the wallbreakers, the whole troops' "AI" is messed up.

And if a particular "AI" fail is intended behavior, then it's just poor game design.

[Superfinch30]

When I place wbs just in front of a wall corner, why do they run past that corner to go to the middle of that row of walls while obviously getting shot on the way there?

But to be fair to the wallbreakers, the whole troops' "AI" is messed up.

And if a particular "AI" fail is intended behavior, then it's just poor game design.

I'm intruiged by that. I'm assuming you mean the middle piece of a completely untouched wall, that no troop has already touched and damaged?

I do see them run around a corner to get to a T junction sometimes, but that, no. If they run away from a corner to get to a middle section can pretty safely say it's almost always that it has already been damaged.

I wouldn't mind them trialling removing the 'troops work together to take down walls/already damaged sections' from wb AI, as that could well be a single trait that could be isolated and removed without a complete re-write.

Still might cause some madness were that not to factor into their targeting equations, but might be interesting to see result.

[Awness]

I only use Wbs to destroy the first layers, never for the second.

[jonthepirate]

I typically only use them for the first layer. Last night after the maintenance break, I feel like the wall breakers were a little more predictable and went more straight in and took less long walks. Maybe it's all in my head...