How does the AI perform?

[Minischew]

I have a couple of questions about how the AI functions, whether it be for enemies or for My Castle automatic battles.

Attacking

How does the AI decide which unit to attack? Generally, I found that in Awakening, the AI went for the weaker units. However, when the AI had enough damage output to KO a stronger unit, it would attack him instead. To give a more solid example:

The first time I tried Lunatic, I carelessly forgot to move Lissa out of the enemy's range. Although the enemy could also attack Robin or Chrom, he immediately charged for Lissa. After I reset the game and tried again, it turned out that the enemy had managed to surround my tiny team, and Lissa had nowhere to escape. I thought Lissa would be done for, but the enemies all ganged up on Frederick instead, and KO'ed him with their combined power.

Does this work the same way? Does the AI prioritize killing units, but aim for stronger units rather than weaker units if given a choice? I know this is a really simplistic question, but I'd like to confirm this for my next question:

Does the AI move to attack a unit even if it places them in an unfavorable position? To use another Awakening example:

I once had Miriel in the range of an Pegasus Warrior. However, right behind Miriel and just out of the enemy's range was Virion, ready with his bow in hand. Given that threat, I figured the enemy wouldn't bother attacking Miriel, and simply let her finish up an enemy unit in the same position. However, during the Enemy Phase, the Pegasus Warrior immediately swooped down on Miriel, even though it couldn't actually kill her with one shot. Needless to say, I quickly brought up Virion and shot the Pegasus Warrior down.

Therefore, does the AI still play aggressively, and aim to KO units at any cost? In this case, the Pegasus Warrior gave up her life to damage around 2/3 of Miriel's health. That doesn't seem like a reasonable exchange to me, given that I had Lissa heal Miriel to full health two turns later.

"Rushing"

How does the enemy "rush" in? For instance, if I send a unit into the range of a mage, is it more likely that only the mage will come rushing down to attack my unit or that the entire army situated north will rush down with the mage?

I found that in Awakening, small groups tended to rush down, but big ones generally remained stationary. Is this the case for Fates as well?

Also, is there a limit on how long we can procrastinate from entering an enemy's range? For instance, if I wanted to grind Azura by having her sing over and over again, can I do that for 90+ turns, or will the enemy eventually rush down on me?

Defending

I heard that some of the map objectives have to do with seizing an area. In that case, does the enemy form a diamond around the area and refuse to budge? Or will the AI prioritize offense and attack a unit anyways?

Or will it depend on the situation, in that the enemy will be hesitant to move out of their step in the case of an immediate threat (e.g. a Great Knight is in the position to swoop in to the spot)?

Supporting

I've seen this asked before as well, but how effective is the AI at using aura skills or the rally command? Will it effectively situate units to take full advantage of aura skills? Will its rallies actually have some impact on the battle, or will the enemy simply select the rally command when there is nothing else to do (as it did in Awakening)?

And that's all I can think of for now, but I'd appreciate any other comments about the AI's performance!

Edited July 26, 2015 by Minischew

[Centicerise]

Enemies will no longer suicidally attack units they do no damage to (with exceptions like ninjas with poison/debuffs).

[Maritisa]

Generally the AI goes for the most spiteful decision possible. Hell, if they can't kill anyone, can't damage anyone, and will die no matter who they attack, they'll target the unit who they'll give the least exp to. I don't have specifics on Fates, but I'm pretty sure basic AI should be the same as in Awakening, considering it's the same base engine and all.

EDIT: Ninja'd, apparently they don't do this anymore?

Edited July 26, 2015 by Ritisa

[bearaby]

I'm not an expert by any means, but just some things I've noticed...

In My Castle battles, the AI has a tendency of attacking any buildings that give buffs as long as they're in range. Even if you have a weak character standing right next to them, they have a tendency to ignore them until the buildings in range are destroyed. Also, I find that the units coming from the sides will definitely move, while the units on the bottom may not, until after a few waves of reinforcement.

I'm afraid I haven't been noticing much about which characters they aim for, but I do believe I generally see them try to kill units with lower hp if they can, even if a healer that can't attack is in range. (Take this with a grain of salt. I'm really not certain about this.)

About how the enemy rushes, I think it depends on map. Perhaps groups are set where if one moves forward, all do. I can say though, that I've had cases of both attracting only 1 enemy even when there are multiple standing nearby, and cases when the group moves forward when one does. I THINK turn count doesn't matter with rushing with units that were there at the start of the map, but reinforcements usually will rush.

In seize, there's generally a boss standing on the square to seize and he won't move. The units around him however, will move and attack when you're in range.

I believe the AI only uses rally when there's nothing to do, but will use it before attacking and not after, so it's not entirely dumb.

As for other comments... I feel like the AI doesn't care about moving together at all. If you come from different sides, they'll split up rather than move together for attack stance. And speaking of stance, I've never seen them join into guard stance, other than the ones that start on the map. Also, I do believe that as long as they do damage, they'll attack without any care about whether they'll die. Sometimes units that you don't kill on player phase will retreat to be healed.

Edited July 26, 2015 by teddybearyt

[iZallen]

For general AI response from all the fire emblem games I played (So this includes the prior games outside of Awakening). Not sure how Fates AI works but should be similar to before. Hopefully smarter.

Priority

- Killing Blows (if the enemy can preform a killing blow, it will.) Luckily, in most of the games i've played, none of them really took Hit rate into consideration.

- Attacking an enemy who cant attack back, and will almost always make sure that the enemy cannot counter attack.

- Positioning for double attacks/Rough support (In Fates they seem to make SOME use of this, more so later on.)

- On higher difficulties, Healers that can use staves will prioritize that instead of attacking (If there is a viable target).

- They will utilize the weapon triangle if they can. (They may ignore it if another weapon can preform a killing blow however.)

- Rushing: This is AI dependent + game/difficulty so..

- Defending: Sort of Difficulty dependent. On higher difficulties they will wait for you to attack them THEN counterattack on their turn. In general though these units will not move unless you enter their attack range.

[CocoaGalaxy]

The game has a rather high priority on "attacking units that can't attack back", there are times where they could have done more damage, but decided to choose the "safe" option instead.

Enemies will still suicidally charge into you even if they do no damage though.

[Bovinian]

I don't think the AI really has any awareness, or cares very much, that moving into a certain position puts them into range of being killed. Delivering killing blows is certainly their highest priority, and they go out of their way to do so. If one of your units can be killed by and is in within range of Enemy A, but Enemy B happens to be in the way, Enemy B will move out of the way even if it means he will be wasting his own action, to allow Enemy A to come in and kill your unit on the same turn.

When the attack is not going to be a killing blow, I'm not sure if they prioritize higher damage output over not being able to be counterattacked or vice versa. Usually an enemy will attack a melee-locked unit at 2 range if possible, but sometimes they go for 1-range even if that allows the counterattack to kill them.

Outside of the weapon triangle, enemies generally don't seem to take hit rate into consideration and prefer the higher damage option even if it has lower hit. They do recognize if your own unit has a breaker skill, and will prioritize circumventing the breaker with a different weapon type (if possible) over maintaining WTA.

[nocturnal YL]

Some enemies do run away if they get hit badly, even without healers nearby. They don't do this until they get hit once first, though.

Also, don't rely on enemies to block other, more lethal enemies. They will move away if it means making space for another enemy that can actually kill.

[Othin]

Enemies will still suicidally charge into you even if they do no damage though.

This seems to vary. I think earlier enemies often will but later ones won't.

The AI makes some effort at setting up Dual Attacks: if an enemy can't reach a character but can get close enough to grant a Dual Attack to another enemy that's going to attack them, they will. This happens even if the character they're attacking is in Guard Stance, making the Dual Attack useless. They also seem to just stick to the basics rather than optimizing overall Dual Attacks from a group of enemies attacking several times in one turn.

[andodel]

Does anyone know if the ai will ever actually use guard stance during a map. Of the gameplay I've watched, they only ever seem to be set to guard stance from the start, but don't shift in and out of it during gameplay.

[Othin]

Does anyone know if the ai will ever actually use guard stance during a map. Of the gameplay I've watched, they only ever seem to be set to guard stance from the start, but don't shift in and out of it during gameplay.

They don't.

[Minischew]

Thanks for all the responses! I have one more question that I suddenly remembered:

Do bosses follow you?

For instance, let's say that you have a Great Knight with 8 Mov, and you attack a boss with 5 Mov. Once it's your Turn again, you realize that your Great Knight's HP is too low, so you pull him out of the boss's attack range to heal him. In that case, will the boss follow the Great Knight, or will he go back to his initial position?

Edited July 27, 2015 by Minischew

[Othin]

Thanks for all the responses! I have one more question that I suddenly remembered:

Do bosses follow you?

For instance, let's say that you have a Great Knight with 8 Mov, and you attack a boss with 5 Mov. Once it's your Turn again, you realize that your Great Knight's HP is too low, so you pull him out of the boss's attack range to heal him. In that case, will the boss follow the Great Knight, or will he go back to his initial position?

As with the past few games, many bosses don't even have a Move stat at all, if they're designed to be stationary. Bosses that are capable of moving will behave pretty much like any other mobile enemy.

[charlesbarkley]

In general:

Hoshido - Enemies bumrush you and suicide into you even if they can't do damage.

Invisible Kingdom - Enemies wait until you get into range, then bumrush you and suicide into you even if they can't do damage.

Nohr - Enemies move in squads, once you move into range of one unit everyone else in the squad will bumrush you even if you're out of range. They won't suicide into you if they can't do damage.

[Minischew]

In general:

Hoshido - Enemies bumrush you and suicide into you even if they can't do damage.

Invisible Kingdom - Enemies wait until you get into range, then bumrush you and suicide into you even if they can't do damage.

Nohr - Enemies move in squads, once you move into range of one unit everyone else in the squad will bumrush you even if you're out of range. They won't suicide into you if they can't do damage.

That's surprising. I would have expected Hoshido's and IK's conditions to have been reversed, seeing as how it's a lot easier to complete a map when enemies don't rush (and Hoshido's known to be the easiest out of the three).