Greetings, medievalists!
It’s no secret that enemies in our game are not the brightest bunch. However, the reason for their lack of intelligence may surprise you. It’s because each enemy was an “individual” thinker, and once spawned, they would all think the same and have the same goal, thus causing overlapping and standing in place in certain sections.
We’ll improve that logic with the Commander AI. Commander AI is an AI process that will access your map, try to pathfind to a specific goal, and if it encounters an obstacle on that path (ie doors, walls, gates) it will assign different orders based on the obstacle.
Once an enemy spawns, they’ll follow those goals unless they are attacked directly. Direct attack would turn them into individuals again and would stay that way until your settlers defeat them or you retreat.
But let's get back to Commander AI. Lets say that it encounters a wall on the path to its goal. Depending on the settlement's composition, sometimes it can decide that going through a wall is better than looking for a gate/door. Depending on the size and type of the raid members, it will order different things. Either it will order them to attack the wall or to build a ladder to climb the wall. While one raider builds ladders, the others will protect them.
What if AI decides that the best path to your settlement is throughout a mountain? Well, in that case raiders will take their pickaxes and start digging through it.
But what if the best path is through your closed gate? Raiders will want to destroy it, but how they’ll do it will depend on what the raider’s group has. In the majority of cases they’ll send their strongest unit to destroy it while others protect it. Alternatively, they’ll adapt based on their availability and options. They might even use siege weapons.
As you can see, depending on the raiding group, but also their position and your settlement composition, attacks on your settlement may turn out to be much more interesting.
But don’t worry, you’ll have time to properly prepare yourself - you’ll be finally able to create siege weapons on your side. But more on that in the next Medieval Monday Talk. While you wait, do let us know what you think of the new AI changes. Are you a fan of directly attacking enemies, or you like to turtle yourself and trap them in an effective killbox? In any case…
Stay medieval!