Finally, after I've been working on this AI since Summer 2021 now (with interruptions), I decided that it's time to share ZebbaAI to everyone.
The initial idea behind ZebbaAI was to create an AI that plays all various strategies to see how they tend to work out in varying situations, including adapting its strategy to opponent strategies. For that to work the goal is to give the AI all the necessary tools to make use of everything the game offers, e.g. deer pushing. It's not yet at a point where I'd like to have it, since implementing some of these abilities are quite time consuming, but I'm working on it.
Game Mode: Random Map, Empire Wars & Custom Scenario (consider map restrictions)
Civs: Can play all civilizations, including the expansions
Maps: besides standard open maps like arabia, ZebbaAI can play nomad, arena, fortress & other hybrid maps and custom maps. (Not optimized on water-maps though)
ZebbaAI can't play properly on island-like maps or on Black Forest type of maps: It needs a map with land connection to the enemy
Taunts in TGs: AI reacts to following taunts: 3 ("food please"), 4("wood please"), 5("gold please"), 6("stone please"),
31("Attack an enemy now"), 38("give me your extra resources"), Flare-Location + 48("I'm being attacked, please help")
Strategies: Drush, Archerrush, Scoutrush, Towerrush (currently deactivated), FC into Unique Unit, FC into Gold Unit,
Fast-Imp (only pockets in team-games or on closed maps like Arena)
Difficulty: there are no levels of difficulty for ZebbaAI. Its current level is comparable to the hard DE AI.
Stay tuned for more improvements & updates in the future!
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New in Version 1.2.4
General:
- Deactivated TSA in Imperial-Age --> AI will now properly attack in imperial-age with its army instead of sending in units one by one
- implemented improved version of retreat rules for enemy fortifications (only before castle-age for testing purposes & lag-prevention):
--> added player loop, so AI should now be able to retreat from any enemy tc & tower
--> AI should no longer run with parts of its army through the enemy tc when retreating
- Reduced priority of producing villagers when being far behind military-wise
- AI will add a 3rd archery-range if encountering a lot of man-at-arms in feudal-age
- AI can now make skirmishers against hand-cannoneers
- overall improved counter unit selection, map-scouting, strategy adaptations, research-timings
- overall improved eco-balance-system in castle-age
Villager Ram Defense:
- now also applies for all tcs instead of just the starting tc
- should now also work for rams by any enemy
- AI will now also attack armored elephants with villagers
Defending Forward Towers:
- AI will now also attack walls, in case the tower is walled in (I haven't tested this functionality yet enough to see if it's worth it)
- will no longer rush forward towers with villager when having a low amount of villagers or if the enemy is teutons while having multiple towers
- will now target towers more precisely with rams
Evacuating villagers:
- should now also work properly in 2v2s & 3v3s
- added market rules to buy the necessary resources for a new tc
Team-Games:
- further restricted counter unit production for AIs in pocket position before imperial-age
Drush:
- disabled scoutrush as a follow up strategy
- opponent should now be scouted in time before the attack
Archer Rush:
- will no longer make archers if the opponent has a high amount of skirmishers
Scout Rush:
- improved eco-management in feudal-age to be able to afford archery-range, mining-camp & blacksmith earlier
- adjusted rules for building a 2nd stable in prolonged feudal-age fights
- fixed a bug where a pocket in TGs wouldn't start attacking
- will no longer build a range in TGs as a pocket
Castle-Age Eagles:
- added ability to switch from eagles to ranged units if encountering infantry or hand-cannons
Castle-Age Boom:
- will now delay barracks for longswords/eagles when booming
- will buy additional stone if required to build extra TCs
- overall improved build order to setup boom faster
Castle Drop on Arena:
- fixed a bug where the AI would sell its stone after a failed castle-drop instead of building a safe castle in its base
- fixed a bug where the AI would stop making villagers for the rest of the game
Aztecs:
- will now properly make jaguar warriors to counter enemy infantry
Cumans:
- if going for a boom as a pocket in TGs, AI will now go for the 2 TC-Feudal-Boom
Dravidians:
- will no longer train elephants
Bug Fixes:
- fixed several bugs regarding Deer-Pushing & own Base-Scouting
- fixed a critical bug in boar-luring that caused that the AI wouldn't garrison villagers into the tc to shoot the boar, resulting in losing lots of villager
- fixed some bugs where the AI would not correctly delete villagers, train new villagers or research imperial-age
- fixed a bug that caused the AI to not build the first mill next to the berries
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I thank everyone for the feedback! If you're noticing any strange behaviour or you have any feedback I'll be more than happy if you'll let me know!
What's up next:
- further stabilizing & improving retreat rules & base scouting
- further improving team-games to a point that team members work together more often
- improving deer-pushing by using precise coordinates
- fully implementing proper ranged unit army micro
- implementing sheep scouting, eating only one sheep at a time
- adding late game army compositions
- reactivating towerrush & improving it
- using the scout to block villagers in drushes & scoutrushes
- adding a new defensive fast feudal strategy
- further developing full DUC Dark-Age economy
dette 