|
|
Wolf AI: Omnidirectional Castle
|
Author |
File Description |
artofmath |
Posted on 04/23/09 @ 11:05 PM (updated 05/01/09)
Something more... spicy for the dear old Wolf. This castle was created from those who are tired of attacking the Wolf from the back, to skimp on your troops' fair serving of arrows and pitch. This new castle's defenses are more balanced directionally. It should be also less susceptible to attack by fire since more of the vital buildings are inside walls and there are more well workers, and it should also be more difficult to approach with hordes of troops from long distances.
Early on in development:
Update: A wolf2.aiv file has been added.
Based on the (relative) success of my Saladin AI, where his only weakness seems to be lack of firepower in his towers, this new Wolf AI has his castle based on the hexagonal star model that my Saladin uses, albeit with a few modifications.
1) Smaller castle size. Smaller castles are easier to defend with the same amount of wall thickness, towers, and ranged firepower.
2) Extra pitch. I have added an extra layer of pitch around the moat so that if hordes of metal troops come charging in... roast human Kabobs!
It also seems that the Wolf places many many more archers per archer (or xbow) spot in round towers, far more than Saladin does. This means that while Saladin has a mere 3 arab bowmen in his towers, the Wolf (when given time to develop his garrison) will have 3 archers AND 5 crossbowmen in each tower. Players will have a far more difficult time clearing his towers with massed crossbowmen. The Wolf (I have noticed) also has a rather nasty habit of keeping many extra crossbowmen in his keep. This does not rule out fire as an option... but appraching his castle will be harder. Guaranteed.
Players will also find that this Wolf AI LACKS blind spots. :)
This will likely be the last of my aiv submissions, since I have procrastinated enough on studying for my final exams. (3 AP exams too! Gulp...)
Installation instructions:
1) Make a folder named "Wolf AI Backup" inside the aiv folder, and place the old wolf1.aiv file into the new folder.
2) Unpack the new wolf1.aiv and wolf2.aiv files into the C:\Program Files\Firefly Studios\Stronghold Crusader\aiv folder.
Play and Enjoy!
To get back to the original AI, just delete the "wolf1.aiv" file from the Crusader aiv folder, then replace it with the file with the same name from inside the "Wolf AI Backup" folder.
Note: To those 7 people who downloaded the virst version, there is a new version of this AI, with fewer bugs. |
Author | Comments & Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
---|
peter2008 |
Posted on 04/24/09 @ 05:14 PM
Sound very reasonable and promising. Concentrated and deadly fire without the usual blind spots would let me tremble.
While Saladin usually employs 106 pop, the traditional Wolf confines himself to 90 or even 82. Wether "more wells" leeds to higher pop, and wether this, via increased tax income, could p o s s i b l y make him attack more often? (Never stop dreaming?)
We playtested the castle together and noticed that it lacks some hovels. The yard appears empty yet. Better get the precious training buildings inside.
The range of the tower engines does not overlap - try 6 towers with few the ranged troops on the outer 4.
Interesting that this Wolf, having a +1 fear factor, makes gold like crazy.[Edited on 04/24/09 @ 10:38 PM]
|
artofmath
File Author |
Posted on 04/25/09 @ 12:42 AM
Peter: I did not want the ballista and mangonel ranges to overlap since the Wolf in other games seems predisposed to attract the attention of catapults and other nasty siege equipment.
You're right about the concentrated fire: when the Wolf does well (has all the resources he needs) he will stuff his square towers with 8 crossbowmen and ~5 archers, far more firepower than what most AIs employ (perhaps except for the Pig). I disliked large Wolf castles since his defenders were more oten than not too thinly spread out, and the tower garrisons could be completely wiped out by 100 crossbowmen. This new castle is far more difficult to simply storm: a long siege is best.
I'll be shortly posting updates to the Saladin AND Wolf AIs to make their economies a little more eficient, and to iron out all those nasty hovel + building glitches. |
Lord_of_Hell |
Posted on 04/26/09 @ 04:22 AM
hey artofmath, this is a great castle! Just as I saw in the picture the shape of walls I downloaded it :)But Maybe it would be nicer if you put up a complete picture? |
artofmath
File Author |
Posted on 04/26/09 @ 11:08 AM
I think you'll eventually see that geometry tends to prevail. ;) |
peter2008 |
Posted on 04/29/09 @ 06:12 AM
oK. "Omnidirectional" is a shining word. It should perhaps be reserved for castles which don't have blind spots and thus cannot be approached without being shot at constantly (somehow round shape, 6 towers).
The major feature of the square castle here is rather the concave shape of its walls. Very hard to fire over it with a ballista.
The Wolf may always be a tough opponent. He sebds both Arabian archers and crossbows onto the towers and thus can assemble probably the highest defensive fire power of an AI. Leaving away his original negative fear factor makes him even stronger. So there is a good chance of being repelled from his castle.
On the other hand, there are two training buildings outside on the front side and the armoury behind a front tower. So it was not too difficult to wrestle this Wolf down in a second assault from sharp angle.
PS. Tried your wolf2, too. It's very much harder to siege. Please submit it. |
ericgolf
Staff |
Posted on 04/29/09 @ 02:28 PM
So is this the new version which has the extra pitch? |
artofmath
File Author |
Posted on 04/29/09 @ 03:25 PM
This is my first wolf aiv, I had posted a second to the downloads as another concept castle, but it never got approved. The second one is the hexagonal one that Peter is referring to. This is just a weaker first version of it.
Please approve the second Wolf aiv, though I must confess it's similar to my saladin aiv, it has some crucial modifications done to it.[Edited on 04/29/09 @ 03:27 PM]
|
ericgolf
Staff |
Posted on 04/30/09 @ 02:43 PM
Check your email, artofmath. |
artofmath
File Author |
Posted on 05/01/09 @ 12:04 AM
I've added the second wolf AIV file to the download. That was my one submission to firefly for the AIV castle competition; wolf2.aiv is far stornger than the wolf1.aiv file. :) |
peter2008 |
Posted on 05/01/09 @ 04:12 AM
Wolf2 rocks much more. I imagine, it'll be among the favourites of the FF contest.
Without shields and catapults, I was defeated twice when attacking from a front side. Multiple layers of defence await there. Moats, the choke points filled with pitch, some fire ballistas well protected this way. With all three types of marksmen on foot available, the Wolf has the best fire power on his walls. And this one is even strengthend by a +1 attack bonus.
Another great detail is that only less valuable buildings are place outside the walls (perhaps an obstacle for siege towers) and single wells are placed strategically between the towers.
At last, I walked all around the fortress and found the - comparatively - easy spot from behind. While the tower garrisons are of the same size, obviously the absence of fire ballistas made the difference. Here, managed to overwhelm the water bearers on sites - their colleagues had too complicated ways to go. A fire crashed the core of the castle before my melees finished the Lord.
Some towers were still manned. (Usually, we would send maces up.)
Though the gates are protected by killing traps, they fall easily. Seems there is need of a drawbridge. And there should be a third gate leading directly to the buildings on the back side.
A very strong AI castle. :) |
HGDL v0.8.2 |
Statistics |
Downloads: | 582 |
Favorites: [] | 0 |
Size: | 380.76 KB |
Added: | 04/23/09 |
Updated: | 05/01/09 |
|