AI Rework - Beta Progress and Update #4

The open beta is now approaching the point where the majority of the planned features have been implemented and are ready for testing.

Beta 5 introduces several important improvements to the AI.

Smarter Defensive Planning

First, the AI is now more deliberate in how it builds and deploys its defenses - both anti-air and anti-missile systems. It attempts to produce and position these assets more strategically, while also supporting them through appropriate research and auxiliary units such as over-the-horizon radars and satellites.

This becomes especially important in the late game, when players begin to deploy nuclear arsenals and more advanced delivery systems.

Alternative Naval-Focused AI Strategy

The second major addition in Beta 5 is a new alternative AI strategy. While the original strategy focused primarily on land-based ICBMs, the new one emphasizes naval forces and SSBNs. This significantly changes how different factions behave, making their research priorities and military builds less predictable.

Improved Army Paradrop System

There have also been a number of smaller improvements and fixes. Aside from stability updates, one of the most important changes is a complete rework of the paradrop system.

In previous versions, paradrops behaved differently for AI and human players. The AI could drop units directly into another faction’s occupation zone, while human players were prevented from doing so. This could also lead to frustrating situations where drops would silently fail if the occupying units were hidden from the player.

This system has now been unified and works the same way for both AI and human players.

When a unit is ordered to drop inside an occupied zone, the drop is no longer denied outright. Instead, the game calculates the closest valid drop point - one that does not interfere with existing occupation timers. For example, if an enemy unit is occupying a city, your unit will not be allowed to drop closer to that city than the farthest existing occupier, preventing players from resetting occupation timers through paradrops.

The goal of this change is to remove confusion and frustration when air transports do not drop units exactly where ordered.

Multi-Faction Occupation Changes

Another update affects how multi-faction occupation works.

When multiple factions are attempting to occupy the same region, the number of cities under control is now the primary factor. A faction that controls all cities in a region will always secure that region, even if another faction has more army units present.

Stability Improvements

Thanks to the saved games and reports many of you submitted, I was able to track down and fix several difficult-to-reproduce issues that caused crashes and freezes in both single-player and multiplayer.

Your saved games demonstrating problems are incredibly valuable - thank you for continuing to share them.

Known Issues and Current Limitations

While Beta 5 is closer to the final version than ever, there are still some remaining limitations:

• There are currently only two distinct AI strategies.

• The AI is still not very effective at anti-satellite warfare.

• The Campaign has not yet been fully revised to match the new AI behavior.

What’s Next

The next update will focus on expanding the variety of AI strategies and reviewing the campaign missions to ensure that AI behavior matches the intended gameplay experience.

Another priority will be more extensive testing of the diplomacy system, particularly alliance behavior.

There is also a larger question regarding overall game difficulty. The AI improvements have noticeably increased the challenge level, especially on lower difficulty settings. This raises the question:

• Is Normal difficulty actually normal?

• Is Easy mode easy enough?

It may make sense to adjust AI aggressiveness on lower difficulty levels to provide a more relaxed experience - fewer two-front wars and less pressure to immediately build a strong conventional army just to survive. I’d really like to hear your thoughts on this.

Once again, thank you for your continued support!

Changelog:

1.1.2 beta 5

• Fixed some boarding/unboarding issues for the AI

• Warplans don't cancel follow orders anymore when cancelled

• Fixed the problem with warplans resetting Range Limit when cancelling edit

• Fixed the problem with warplans not saving Range Limit

• Fixed a crash related to the async AI plan management

• Fixed a crash related to the async AI handling during region transfer

• Fixed the game freezing when AI starts deploying units

• Fixed the problem with the saves MP games not able to reconnect

• Fixed the problem with incorrect unit costs when distributing points

• Fixed the crash when renaming units with long names in non-English localization

• AI is now placing AA and ABM defences more strategically

• Added one alternative AI strategy

• It is now allowed to drop your units inside the "occupation radius" of other units, however the drop position is auto-adjusted to not cancel the existing occupation timer