Reporting in, Commanders!
Thank you to everyone that has pre-ordered The Great War: Western Front and has been enjoying early access. We trust that your strategic experience as Theatre and Field Commander is growing as you begin your campaigns. Your feedback is invaluable to us, especially for planning future adjustments. In this post, we will outline the feedback that has been raised and our plans to address it. Some of the changes will arrive in a small update within the coming days while others will come in a larger update scheduled for April.
During early access, AI difficulty has risen to the top of the discussion. This topic can be broken down into several points which together give the impression that the AI has an unfair advantage. The intended design is to have an AI which poses a challenge that scales with difficulty settings, but only by using the same options as the player. To ensure this comes across at release, we will address each point individually:
Seemingly Endless Resources
Some of you have reported that the AI appears to have far more Supply than it should during battle. This is indicated by heavy troop reinforcements, a high number of emplacements, and relentless artillery bombardment. We can confirm that the AI is required to manage Supply in the same way players are. However, we are closely examining how efficient the AI is at distributing and managing Supply and adjusting this efficiency to ensure it scales to difficulty.
AI Visibility Through the Fog of War
AI visibility through the Fog of War is designed to be limited for the AI as it is for players. This means that any actions such as artillery fire must pass a “visibility check”. However, the AI often places observation balloons aggressively, granting a long range of vision. While destroying these balloons will limit this vision to infantry, the AI will remember seen information. To ensure that the AI’s visibility does not extend too far, we will examine the range provided by its observation balloons. This includes addressing cases where the AI’s vision is unaffected by weather conditions, which is under investigation.
Use of Artillery
As mentioned above, the way the AI currently uses artillery is likely linked to its efficient management and use of Supply combined with additional range of vision. In addition to the two changes mentioned above, we will take a closer look at the AI use of artillery, to ensure it is used and spread in a way that matches expectations. Any resulting changes will be designed to make the precision and targeting of AI artillery to feel more human and authentic.
The update which is expected in the next few days will improve the AI experience in each of the above areas. The April update will then build upon these AI improvements and include other fixes to cover additional feedback. Thank you again for your feedback and suggestions. We trust you are as excited as we are for tomorrow’s full release! Good luck out there on the front, Commanders.
The Frontier Foundry and Petroglyph Teams