Some questions about the AI

Hi at everyone from the K&B team.
I first read about this mod about 2 or 3 years ago but to be completely honest I didn't thought it would get finished. There wasn't much activity and I thought something like "no way they gonna do a 14 civ total conversion".
I just recently returned to AOE3 and was happy to see that you actually did it(or are about to do it) and that it's practically certain that at least the prologue will get released. And it looks absolutely great and very professional.
Now my questions:
Will there be a (working) AI? I know thats extremely difficult as many game mechanics are changed but without an AI many people wouldn't play it. I don't know if K&B will work online but I will certainly try to play it.
The second question is about the old civs. Unlike most other mods (e.g. NE or WotTA) the new civs are set in a completely different time and have different game mechanics compared to the normal civs so it would be inappropriate to play against them. So will the prologue just replace 5 old civs and leave the rest of them or will there just be those 5 available at all? I think the latter would be better especially for Singleplayer (Multiplayer wouldn't be that much of a problem) even though this would mean a max of 5 players per game (again just in SP ofc). Basically everyone could also decide this on its own as it really isn't difficult to change this.

PS: I even thought about helping a bit with the mod but I think there isn't much I could do. I have some basic modding experience but I never tried to do a mod or even a new unit myself.

Technically both the chinese and the aztecs civs are in the timeline of the mod as they are, yet they'd be too out of place fighting against euro and middles east civs.

I don't know that much about history so I didn't think that the game was so historically inaccurate(I knew that it was just not that much). But as you said they don't really fit the mod. Maybe the Chinese as the Mongols are planned for later versions.

Welcome to our forums! I'll try to answer your questions as well as I can.

Will there be a (working) AI? I know thats extremely difficult as many game mechanics are changed but without an AI many people wouldn't play it. I don't know if K&B will work online but I will certainly try to play it.

Yes, there will be. The Dude is our AI Scripter, alongside his other jobs at RM Scripting and Coding, and he's working on an AI for K&B. I can't tell you how much different this AI will be from the default AI in terms of how it chooses to use our civs, as the AI development is in its very early stages. What I can tell you is that we will try to have the AI making more extensive use of Walls, and we will endeavour to make sure it also uses our elaborate siege system, so that it doesn't just stick with Ballistas and Bombards, but also uses Siege Towers and Rams, for example. Many more things concerning the AI are also being considered, but we do wish to keep some secrets.

Unlike most other mods (e.g. NE or WotTA) the new civs are set in a completely different time and have different game mechanics compared to the normal civs so it would be inappropriate to play against them. So will the prologue just replace 5 old civs and leave the rest of them or will there just be those 5 available at all?

We'll stick with the five civs. Technically we could leave the Aztecs and Chinese (and the Japanese, while we're at it), but we will be reusing a lot of gameplay mechanics of those civs, so they won't necessarily work anymore. WotTA goes to great lenghts to mod certain features of the game but still keep them intact for old civs (their Post Office is just a renamed Consulate for instance, and the Consulate still works), but we won't do that, as it's just extra work and we'll be ditching the original civs anyway.

Maybe the Chinese as the Mongols are planned for later versions.

Yes, though only the Mongols will be a main civ. The Chinese (one of the appropriate dynasties) will be a subciv on Asian (Steppes, mainly) maps.


peugeot407

The AI sounds very promising and I hope you'll even get them to build walls properly because as far as I know thats close to impossible. Their lack of wall building was one of the things that made me build no walls too which gave me some trouble when first playing online. It also significantly lowers their defensive capabilities. I just hope they won't have the flaws the AOE2 AI had in terms of wall building like cutting down trees and leaving holes in their wall that wouldn't get closed or rebuilding destroyed gates with normal wall pieces (that might not be a problem because gates are handled differently in AOE3).
Will the AI be included in the Prologue? You said that the development isn't very advanced and from what I've read the prologue will be out very soon.

I plan to make the AI much more aggressive, but also defend if it needed too. The AI will be included in Prologue, as well, Skirmish is our main game mode, ignoring a major chuck of it will be stupid.

Ok thats good to hear. Some of the random map descriptions sounded like they were made for MP so I was a bit worried. Will the AI be able to use all the features these maps offer (like gathering resources from small islands or building bases there)?

Well, obviously that is our goal, AI should be able to play in any map. And, maps are made with terms of their own, not with terms of AI.

AOE_Fan wrote:Well, obviously that is our goal, AI should be able to play in any map.

Of course but in the main game the AI often didn't use features that some maps offered like migrating to small islands. If you do this when playing against them you nearly always win because they don't even attack you there most of the time. Your maps look very interesting so it would be a shame if the AI wouldn't be able to play them properly. Especially Dalmatia (the one with all the small islands) looks like it offers great strategic possibilities and I hope the AI will be able to use them.
By the way are there any news for a release date of the prologue? All I could find were some 2 or 3 month old posts saying it comes out in November/December 2011 so is there a new date?

That was a bit optimistic... And no, there's no new date, we'd just disappoint you if it does come out later than the date.


peugeot407

I didn't mean an exact date just a rough approximation, like "next months" or "in March".

In 2012 definitely. My personal guess (not official at all) would be sometime in summer...

Well, two civs are finished. That is the clue.

AOE_Fan wrote:In 2012 definitely. My personal guess (not official at all) would be sometime in summer...

My summer or your summer?

Our entire team lives on the Northern Hemisphere...


peugeot407

Except Spango and Pepp, Sir?

You are just imaginary people!

Our entire team lives on the Northern Hemisphere or so close to the equator that summers and winters all look the same anyway.


peugeot407

PS: I truly didn't know Bangkok was Southern Hemisphere...

Eh... let me see, I'm in Nederland Indie and at least it is counted among the lands of the Netherlands, some years ago...