Re: New ai available

[Stan Shebs <shebs at cygnus dot com>]

   Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1999 00:36:03 +0100
   From: Hans Ronne <hronne@pp.sbbs.se>

   I think the best way to control aggressiveness would be through
   u_ai_tactical_range, which triggers the knee-jerk attack reaction. Right
   now the iplayer uses the same default for all units as the mplayer, which
   is 4 cells. With an trigger range of perhaps 2 cells, at least for most
   unit types, it would become more docile. Perhaps one could even have a
   popup menu that sets this range for each ai player and thus decides how
   aggressive it should be.

That sounds like the right approach.  You'd want to be able to have, say,
the Germanni be very touchy and go on the rampage any time the Romans are
anywhere in the area, while the Gauls could be docile until the Romans
are adjacent to the town.

   Come to think of it, this behaviour is really too predictable. You should
   not be able to always avoid attack from an ai by staying exactly 5 (or 3)
   cells away from its units. It would be better if some random dice number
   also factored into the attack range.

That's a good idea - in fact, if you make the range value be a dice spec,
then you provide control over both base value and random variation.

								Stan