Skirmish Opponents Brainstorming

[Sir Windows 71]

Greeting fair lords and ladies,

upcoming SH4 is going to feature a skirmish mode vs AI opponents. According to Firefly the game will launch with eight such opponents. I thought it’d be fun to share ideas, dreams or concepts on how these opponents could behave.

My hope is that the opponents will behave more like SH2 lords. Since SH4 will feature ranks again, it’d be great if the AI opponents‘ castles and economy reflected their rise up the ranks. In SH2 even weaker opponents such as Edwin, Lady Seren or Sir Grey used all kinds of buildings/towers which were unlocked at higher ranks. Another hope of mine is that for the first time the AI will be able to use the stables properly and mount knights on horses.

What’re your hopes, thoughts or expectations for the skirmish AI.

[Asophix 158]

Well, most likely the AI players will follow suit. If the AI from Warlords is gonna be ported/reimplemented in SH4, there will be a lot of fun to be had for sure!

In general, I expect them to work much like their recent incarnations. I really wish we were able to communicate with them again - the sound files are there for this purpose -, depending on a "mood" variable that makes the AI more or less inclined to obey our commands.

I also hope that the unit and siege AI will be a lot more intelligent, already evidenced by the fact that the military mission invasions' catapults will take time to attack targets on the ground.

[Sir Windows 71]

Communicating with the AI would be great. Hearing the original rat, pig and snake reacting to your requests should be pretty funny.

With the four dukes coming back, I wonder how Firefly will depict them in skirmish. The rat is obviously going to be the weakest opponent, so I don't expect many surprises there and an army mainly made up of armed peasants, men at arms, archers and catapults. Pig and wolf also have some very well established personalities over the games. Although the pig could probably use a bit more unit variety this time. Longbows might be a good fit since they're bald just like the macemen. I wonder if he's going to use pikemen this time around again like in the original SH. The specialists you've data mined are also quite interesting. If they're going to be present at launch I could see the snake using them intensively. It would fit with his military doctrine from SHC. Mixing European and mercenary troops. So aside from men at arms and archers, maybe the snake is going to come at the player with Vikings, saboteurs and hobilars as well. I'm assuming the Viking is going to be very similar to the SH2 berserker or SHL Saxon warrior. No idea if Sir Longarm will retain his knights focus. I could see him turning into the men at arms & swordsmen lord akin to Sir William or Lancelot from SH2/SHL.

Given how we have two units related to the Norse with the Vikings and shield maidens I've got to wonder if one of the new characters will be a Viking. Basically an Olaf like character with a wooden castle and primarily using Norse specialists. It would be an interesting idea for sure, given how extensive wooden fortifications are in SH4.

[Asophix 158]

1 hour ago, Sir Windows said:

Communicating with the AI would be great. Hearing the original rat, pig and snake reacting to your requests should be pretty funny.

Since Rat already has his lines fully added, I can only assume that the other lords will follow suit. 🙂 Even in Crusader 2 these guys were serviceable, if corny (SHC2 Pig is just low effort).

My takes on the original gang:

• Rat will field the lowliest units as usual, backed with catapults. It would be fun if he mixed both kinds of bowmen.
• Snake will like a balanced mix of Archers, Pikemen and Crossbowmen, with the occasional mercenary like those light scouts.
• Pig should be critting Longbowmen, with a higher emphasis on Macemen and Pikemen. If Vikings are like Berserkers, then he'll field them too.
• Wolf should be all bells and whistles and a large variety of siege equpment. Captains, Swordsmen, Crossbowmen, Pikemen, Longbowmen.
• Sir Longarm should be a balanced mix, with a Captain or two mixed in. I can also imagine him fielding Monks.

1 hour ago, Sir Windows said:

Basically an Olaf like character with a wooden castle and primarily using Norse specialists.

A similar shtick for a character could be used, in fact I wouldn't mind if all had some sort of niche or heavy bias. If we can edit the castles or the AI personalities in the future, then I would really like one like that.

[Sir Windows 71]

It would be interesting if each lord had a wooden and stone castle design, which they would both use during a match. Stone walls only become available at a later rank iirc. So each lord would first construct a wooden castle and then replace the wooden walls & towers with stone ones as the game progresses.

I'm not sure if this would be possible or really worth though. 😅