From: "Roger Avedon" Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic Subject: AoE UnitAI mini-FAQ Date: Thu, 9 Oct 1997 12:06:08 -0700 Gleaned from Dave Pottinger's posts and e-mail. Kudos and thanks to DCP for making time and effort to try to answer these questions both in private and public forums. ************************ Q: Why do my siege weapons fire into melee so readily, injuring my own troops? A: [DCP] > Siege weapons aren't supposed to be battlefield weapons. The design > decision was to make them hurt your own forces for a two reasons: realism > and to force you to manage them more because they can be so devastating > (i.e. to have that much power available, you have to pay a price). [Aside: The source of this issue may be the behavior of "siege weapons" in WarCraft2, which are definitely intended for combat...] **************************** Q: Why are my archers so stupid as to not maintain distance from attacking infantry? A: [DCP] > In mass numbers, archers slaughter > everything on the board. As a result (or cause, depending on your > viewpoint; the game's been through enough iterations on this topic > that you can't accurately say one issue always drove another), they > need to be harder to manage in order to balance that (for much of the > same logic as a catapult hurting your own guys due to its power). > When we tried out the more intelligent archers, archers really took > over and the designers chose to fix it by making the archers not keep > their range. [Aside: One concludes, then, that the desirable behavior exhibited by enemy archers is not _unitAI_, but rather deliberate decisions made by the overall computer AI.] *************************************** Q: Why are my other military units too stupid to aid fellow units being attacked? A: [DCP] >> The game's design definitely favors >> attacking units so that the game comes to an end and doesn't stalemate >> with two overly defensive armies. Having units be "slow" to react >> plays into this by helping the attacking units have the advantage. ******************************************** Q: Why does pathfinding suck? A: [Not an answer, but, by way of mitigation, note that shift-right click allows you to set way points...] *************************************** If anyone wants to add to this FAQ, let me know. I'll be happy to maintain it for as long as it doesn't take over my life. -- Roger