I was off playing some RTS games and noticed something that kind of annoyed me. Generally, an AI is programmed to do the same general thing every game. Sometimes they are programmed to do different things depending on the type of map you are playing. However, when someone makes a special type of map (like say, having most of the resources/metal spots in the middle of the map, or on a different planet), the AI quickly falls short (you go, take the metal rich spot fast and win, the AI doesn't even try to contest it). I was wondering if there was any chance we would be able to give the AI priorities (not just build priorities, but location ones too) on maps that we make, so as to avoid this (like telling them to focus on the metal rich spot). I doubt this would be hard, considering that the game will probably already have AI modding options, but it would definitely be nice. Of course, this is more for player made maps, as randomly generated ones will probably not have things like that.
If the AI can be modded, there could probably be a special AI for the map. But something that works across different AIs is probably better, since there will probably be multiple AI mods. I like your idea.
You mean like the original SupCom AI (not the FA one) had waypoints in the maps which showed them which routes made sense and where to build bases? In theory that should have granted the AI an advantage since it knew where to build. But it didn't work so well after all because it was to easy to outsmart the AI. You just KNEW where it was going to expand to, which routes it would send units along, and you could break the "strategy" of the AI in advance. Such waypoints and goals work for scenario maps which are partly or fully scripted. But it fails in free play as the AI gets even more likely to make bad decisions when the situation changes.
Not exactly, waypoints are too scripted. I mean like adding a general priority, like send an occasional scout to the metal rich place to see if someone is trying to capture it, and stop them if they are. If everyone is starting on a metal poor planet and there is a metal rich one, have the ai prioritize getting to the other planet, but not making that its only goal. I'm talking more about custom priorities of locations and units, not specific paths they should follow.
