Lately, I've been trying to modify this so that it plays better on maps such
as Garden 3, but these changes only make it play worse on open maps.
Would anybody mind observing its behaviour on Garden 3 on the most
recent commit? And compare that to how it behaves on Big pond, most
recent commit.
For Garden 3, it is better, but not good enough. Nicowar prevously refused to build a swimming pool and racetrack in the area where you start off because there wasn't enough space, and thus in order to build one, had to travel far. By the time it was made, and training warriors, I was already dieing (as you probably already know). Now with the latest commit, it has built both within a good range because it doesn't worry about lots of spacing (still require some but not a lot) but it died because of an overwhelming castor force :( So some work still needs to be done. :(
For Big Pond, it did very well. It won. No suprise as its a bigger map than the others. It used more spacing than Garden 3 did.
Its very hard to get a middle ground, unlike Castor, who seems to do
this quite effectivly.
It seems Castor plays a better conservative game than Nicowar, a much
better conservative game,
I hope for some feedback, as much as possible, about how to get it to play
These things you will know already, but theres no harm in pointing them out again. Nicowar obvioulsy has larger maps conquored (with fruit) so no point disuccsing them. I compared the 2 AI's when running on small maps, and theres 4 main differences I could find.
Building Spacing: Castor doesn't worry about making buildings that can't be upgraded, such as inns. This means it builds heaps next to each other and thus saves more space. So far, I have not yet seen a building placed by Nicowar that has been obstrcuted by something around it preventing an upgrade later. Also, Nicowar leaves lots of space around buildings. Not a single buildings white outline touches another buildings. While this allows units to move a lot more freely, it takes up more space, which could be used for more important things.
~ Suggestion ~
Dont be fussy about spacing when nicowar can't find enough room. Build them where you can.
Defence Tower Usage: Defence is another major thing. Nicowar would do a lot better if it had some type of programming telling it to build towers if it has limited space, so that they have more defence then they would with only warriors. Smaller maps would have weak, low level warriors as barracks would be scarse. Towers are small and powerful. They need to be implemented.
~ Suggestion ~
Copy castors tower placement code if you need too, just change to have
them build when barracks placement returns not enough space to build
one, so it compensates for lack of warrior strength.
Expansion: Another feature Nicowar includes that, while great on big maps, could present problems on smaller ones. It likes to expand to new lcoations all the time, which means it has to send it units out to build. Thats means that more units are being used for jobs other than whats needed.
~ Suggestion ~
Workers should stay close to base, working on upgrading the barracks to level 3
(to hold lots of globs) and making warriors, otherwise, if they dont,
the forces of castor will be too much. 1 level 3 glob can take out
what? 4 level 1 globs?
Conversion: Your probably thinking, conversions are good. It helps make the army larger (or not, I dont know how you think). However, what if fruit is a fair bit away. A worker would have to travel to get the fruit and just like expansion, thats 1 less worker builing around the main base where the most workers are needed.
~ Suggestion ~A check needs to be put in place saying that if fruit is more than say
20 sqaures away, forget about going to retrive it. That way you have
more workers working on whats needed back at the swarm and surrounding
buildings.
Castor plays very well on limited amounts of food or wood
Would the fact that Nicowar uses conversion have anything to do with why it does play well with limited amounts? Does converting units cost wheat/fruit or is it just there for show?