The Official AI Topic.

[Interceptor]

Small note for Ch9: the second group aggros when in range of a Wyvern, but also if you are in range of the Soldier. You can safely stand at the max range of the mage next to the fort.

[1% critted]

Small note for Ch9: the second group aggros when in range of a Wyvern, but also if you are in range of the Soldier. You can safely stand at the max range of the mage next to the fort.

Updated and credited. Thanks!

Also, on one of my tries of ch.19 on my friend's house(he is too slow finishing this game!), Avatar had low health from being Luna attacked by a dark knight. Another dark knight could attack her from two range, but he had counter and decided to 1 range. Just adding another example when I was 1-ranged by counter.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Updated the OP. I'll need someone to tell me when the chapter 16 units move, since I play that chapter in such an aggresive way every time that I have no Idea how they move. All I know is that they are aggrod when in range.

I think most non-Thieves are individual aggro. The entire map aggroes once the last of the reinforcements show up, though.

[1% critted]

Awesome, thanks.

[Interceptor]

Bumping this topic to pick everyone's brains. I'm currently on Ch20 in my Lunatic+ playlog, and I want to make some headway on the Counter thing, i.e. figure out just how reliable a particular strategy might be. Here's the situation:

[spoiler=Come at me, bro.]

Sorcerer Laurent (rocking Nosferatu, with Bow Knight Lucina as his partner) is about to get attacked by twelve guys plus Cervantes. The breakdown of enemies is as follows:

• Four Sages, with various tomes
• Two Snipers, with Silver Bows
• Two Warriors, with Silver Axes and Silver Bows
• Two Heroes, with Silver Swords
• Two Generals, one with a Spear and one with a Tomahawk
• Cervantes, with a Tomahawk and a bad-ass mustachio

Given Laurent's current position, all of the 1-2 range guys could attack him at 1-range if they preferred. The Heroes are guaranteed to attack at 1-range since that's their only option, but everyone else has a choice. Roughly four of the enemies will have Counter at any given time, but obviously it can be more.

In practice, hardly any of the enemies will choose to attack him at 1-range. Sometimes the Warriors will attack at 1-range (technically they have 1 higher MT with their Axes, and 5 worse HIT), but they seem to prefer their Bows unless they have Hawkeye. FWIW, Laurent has 85 combat avoid (+10 from his support), with an extra +5 possible from Lucina if I were to squeeze Charm onto her. The Warriors have 138 HIT with their Axes.

I'd say that Hex had something to do with it, but honestly Laurent is at 149 HIT without his support bonus, and even the Heroes only have 57 Avoid (in other words, he is 100% against everyone regardless because of Anathema).

Any thoughts?

EDIT: this is an easy test to run, naturally, because it happens on Turn 1. I've done it about a dozen times now, and only ate two deaths. One of them was avoidable with stat boosters. Both were Counter-related in one respect or another. In none of these am I opening by killing a Hero or Warrior (which is easily possible) to remove a Counter beforehand.

Edited August 4, 2013 by Interceptor

[1% critted]

The opposite happens in my case in that same chapter. Where the Warriors chose to attack my avatar with axes instead of bows.

[darkkfan]

Well, apparently (based on what 1% critted said) the AI isn't consistent with this sort of thing, so it places different weights on 5 hit depending on specific hit rate values, but I still think it would be reliable in this case. It doesn't seem to make much of a difference here since the chance of enough warriors spawning with Hawkeye and Counter for Laurent to die is negligible, so IMHO I would consider it about as reliable as it gets.

Edited August 6, 2013 by Walhart

[Interceptor]

I've run this scenario about 25 times now, and the results are always the same: the Warriors will NEVER attack at 1-range unless they have Hawkeye, and the other units with a 1-range option will always attack at 2-range if possible (even when they have Counter). I even removed Hex for the last 10 runs, even though it doesn't make a difference with Laurent's hit rates, just in case the AI accounts for it anyway.

I don't know what the cut-off for HIT rate vs. damage is (and there must be one, if 1% critted gets Axed in the face), but if there is a random element to it, I can't see it in my file. Laurent can handle two Counters as long as everyone and their mother doesn't have Aegis+ (he has high HP and doesn't hit hard with Nosferatu), so it's easy to push the reliability of this strat up to near 100%. Even in the nightmare scenario with two Hawkeye/Counter Warriors and Counter on both of the Heroes, Laurent can kill one on Player Phase, and I can kill another one with a different unit (Rescuing them out of range afterwards).

There were never any runs where a Counter would have finished off Laurent, so I didn't test that part of it. Whenever he died, it was because of taking too much damage from Counter beforehand (and/or healing too little), and the enemy just finished him off with someone who wouldn't miss with a regular attack.

Well, maybe this has expanded our understanding of AI by 0.001%.

[1% critted]

It probably has to do with my stats V.S. yours. Depending on the defense and hit rate I'd assume they would use a different weapon.

Also I have a new find: AI takes vantage into account. If it can kill an unit but Vantage will proc, they will attack the unit last. It doesn't change their whole behavior since it will probably still kill unless you get a crit or something of the sort, but worth noting.

[Interceptor]

Weirdly, I can't replicate the behavior with the Axes. I threw Gregor out there, no Pair-up partner, equipped with a 1-2 range weapon, and stripped of both Avoid +10 and Patience. Both of the Warriors have 94% listed HIT on him with Axes at this point. But unless they have Hawkeye, they still preferred to attack with their bows.

It's kind of baffling. Gregor is basically guaranteed to die on Enemy Phase, so maybe the near-100% hit chance and the irrelevancy of the extra +1 mt had something to do with it.

[darkkfan]

Weirdly, I can't replicate the behavior with the Axes. I threw Gregor out there, no Pair-up partner, equipped with a 1-2 range weapon, and stripped of both Avoid +10 and Patience. Both of the Warriors have 94% listed HIT on him with Axes at this point. But unless they have Hawkeye, they still preferred to attack with their bows.

It's kind of baffling. Gregor is basically guaranteed to die on Enemy Phase, so maybe the near-100% hit chance and the irrelevancy of the extra +1 mt had something to do with it.

Hmm... that's weird. I'm trying to think of some way to test this without trying every def and hit combination, but I haven't thought of anything so I'm afraid it'll be difficult to test conclusively.

Edited August 6, 2013 by Walhart

[1% critted]

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