Making the AI Scarier

Came across this section:
h ttps://starcraft2coop.com/resources/ailogic

On the starcraft2coop site. Interesting how the AI behaves. It’s always fun to see when enemy Sentries wall off a circle around Stukov’s Infested, or HTs mass storming as soon as they see at least 3 units. Strange how Brood Queens only use the Spawn Broodlings on Siege Tanks only.

Hypothetically, what if, on Brutal or Brutal+, the AI got programmed to be more devastating?

For example, what if HTs were given Feedback on higher difficulties? Kerrigan solo players would be very devastated. Energy based armies would certainly suffer if the enemy composition had HTs marked. What if HTs could place storms more tactfully, where they’re more spread out?

What if Battlecruiser Yamato Cannons prioritized hero units first? What if Viper Blinding Clouds prioritized hero units? What if Science Vessel Irradiate prioritized hero units?

What if DTs could blink to strike ground detectors or prioritize key units, such as Havocs? What if cloaked compositions targeted detectors first?

What if enemies could actually target Carriers and Brood Lords properly?

Interesting to think about, but difficult to implement I would imagine, so this is all just theory. How would you buff Amon’s army as his army advisor?

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That’s what Brutal+ should have been.

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“Clearly, slapping on more mutators will give players the challenge they wanted!”

…\s just in case

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I think there’s enough people playing sc2 for both a Brutal+ and a “Nightmare” difficulty to exist.

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There has been one overhaul of enemy upgrades and available abilities.

Things like Feedback, enemies targeting detector, or enemy battlecruiers one-shoting your hero units aren’t used because it just wouldn’t be fun to play against.

What if HTs could place storms more tactfully,…

The algorithm is already decent.

What if Science Vessel Irradiate prioritized hero units

That would be buff to Kerrigan for example.

What if enemies could actually target Carriers and Brood Lords properly?

We had that before. It was actually a buff to mass Carrier as you didn’t lose Interceptors as much. It was also a nerf to adding Carriers into mixed compositions as Interceptors didn’t tank anything.

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It’s not so much scary as annoying if some of these were actually implemented.

Hero-centric commanders would get walled from doing quite a lot by trying to avoid getting 1-shotted. It’d just delay everything in a fast paced mission.

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I have some ideas I want to try, but I can’t work out how to locate and open, say, Temple of the Past in the editor to experiment on a few things (anyone got any tips here, I’d be most grateful).

One idea I had, besides Feedback, EMP and Neural Parasite to give you a bad day, is to have some of the units in the attack waves replaced with tougher variants. For example, replacing an Arbiter with a Khalai Mothership, a Tempest with a Tal’darim Mothership, an Immortal with a Vanguard, or a Colossus with a Wrathwalker that does what it can to kite your units.

At the very least, they have to fix those lines that have been crossed out – because of bugs in the code. The AI should at least be functioning as intended.

They need to fix the Hybrid AI so they only cast Consume DNA on targets with vitality 75 and above, and they need to fix the Slayn Elemental AI so it uses its single-target Essence Leech.

Have all enemy Brood Queens frantically cast Spawn Broodling on Dragoon Fenix whenever he is present in the map.

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Brood Queens being able to spam broodlings on your workers would be a decent zerg counter part to terrans having ghost and using nukes on you

Sounds more like a hindrance to normal gameplay, maybe it could be a mutation instead? import the AI behaviour from the campaigns like the AI focusing weak units and avoiding splash damage then it would seem a lot more interesting.

  1. Play the co-op map you want to edit.
  2. Quit the game once it’s done, and launch the map editor.
  3. After File/Open, in the Blizzard tab, log in.
  4. In “Recently Played” you can find the coop map you played.

I thought there would be another solution, and I had the map editor open while typing this, and surprisingly, I didn’t find another solution.
Maybe that should be reported as a bug?

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Open my [MM] Temple of the Past map in the editor.
What Undead is saying is true, but you wouldn’t be able to actually play it.

That is an evil, evil callback!

I would be in favor of these AI improvements at the Brutal level.
Good idea, not sure it will be a reality though.

well, again… Oblivion Express (what’s up with this map lately?)

I planted a perfect Siege tank defense at each ramp, no ghost was able to pass.

WHAT THEY DECIDED TO DO? the mother##### decided to nuke my ball of tanks that were sieged between the 2 rails.

that was a war declaration, this bastards I swear… luckily my tanks survived and panic tp them to the expansion for repairs.

god… that was some IA shenanigans

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Did you have static with those tanks?

Anything 3 structure or above (I believe) will trick them to nuke there.

if the tank mines count as structures, then yes?

here’s the replay. min 22:30 aprox

https://drop.sc/replay/16407842

Yeah, they’ll nuke the mines.

This might be nightmare mode, but the worst AI behavior, and I mean total hell-mode, is kiting. Imagine if each unit prioritized using its range. It would be an absolute sh**-show. Every marine, every stalker, every hydra, stutter-steps away from your units. Clumps of enemies spread apart in all directions the second they are engaged in an attempt to get back to range.

That. That would be hell.