Hello there!
Finally, after I've been working on this AI since Summer 2021 now, 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, except Armenians & Georgians
Maps: Optimized on Arabia, Yucatan, Arena, Fortress, and similiar maps. Besides that, ZebbaAI can play nomad and other 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 difficulties for this AI. However, the game throttles AI performance on difficulties below extreme, so set the difficulty to extreme for the best performance. Its current level is comparable to the HD AI.
Stay tuned for more improvements & updates in the future!
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New in Version 1.2.5
General:
- added ability to research devotion & fortified wall
- added ability to scout with horses as huns on nomadic maps
- added ability to train petards
- added basic monk micro
- added spearman micro in feudal-age
- added ability to snipe monks with scouts
- added ability to properly retreat with monks from enemy castles, TCs & towers
- added missing ability to retreat from kreposts
- overall improved economy-setup & research timings
- added a full defense mode if the AI is far behind
- when facing enemy monks, AI will target light-cav upgrade more likely in imperial age
- AI will now prefer to build a monastery as Lithuanians, Aztecs & Burgundians, if not significantly behind in military
- AI will no longer train elephant-archers & battle-elephants (except as Malay) in castle-age
- added ability to request resources in urgent situations
- Crucial Imperial-Age upgrades are now targeted more precisely
- AI will no longer go Fast Imp or FC UU in team-games (except on Arena/Fortress)
- now cancels unit production if it's close to going to imperial-age
- slightly improved castle-age foot archer performance
- now occasionally retreats if in a military disadvantage
- AI can now research ring-archer-armor even if the civ doesn't have bracer
Towerrush Defense:
- removed ability of villagers to target walls around towers, as villagers would continue to target the wall even if the tower goes down
Evacuating villagers:
- AI will no longer place certain buildings/train military units if it doesn't have a TC
Teamgames:
- AI will now train trade carts in imperial-age more consistently
- fixed request for ally-help & reactions when being under attack
- added ability to switch the attack to the next closest player if the AI has a large advantage vs the current target-player
Drush:
- Militias will now properly retreat from enemy threats
- No longer goes for FC-UU as a Drush follow-up
Scoutrush:
- improved economy setup
- scouts will now properly retreat from enemy threats
FC-Boom:
- improved build order & market usage to target the 4th TC much faster
FC-Relics:
- improved build order & eco-setup
Siege-Infantry Strategy:
- is now replaced by siege-monk-pike strategy, as the previous longswords-strategy performed poorly
Bengalis:
- will no longer go for elephants in castle-age & instead either go for archers, monks or light cav
Gurjaras:
- fixed a bug where a Gurjara player in team-games would place his initial mill to an ally forage-bush if the own forage-bushes haven't been scouted
Persians:
- Updated Persians unique tech to "Citadels"
- AI will now research Savar upgrade properly
- added ability to research parthian tactics in castle-age
Romans:
- will now research ballistics when playing with scorpions
Saracens:
- Updated Saracens unique tech to "Bimaristan" and research conditions
Custom Maps:
- fixed a bug preventing the AI to research castle-age
Bug Fixes:
- fixed a bug where the AI would be unable to get to feudal-age on maps without berries & deer
- fixed a bug where the scout would freeze while scouting the base
- fixed a bug that caused the scout to stutter while scouting the base
- fixed a bug where the AI would build unlimited amount of blacksmiths
- fixed a number of bugs in Imperial-Age where the AI would stockpile a lot of resources but not train any units
- fixed a number of bugs regarding retreat rules
- fixed a rare bug that would prevent the AI from selecting a strategy as flank, resulting in not making any villagers
- fixed a bug where the AI would never research mining-camp upgrades
- fixed a rare bug where the AI would keep villagers inside a TC forever
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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 next:
- improving deer-pushing by using precise coordinates
- fully implementing proper ranged unit army micro
- fully implementing micro in drushes & scoutrushes
- implementing sheep scouting, eating only one sheep at a time
- adding late game army compositions
- reactivating towerrush & improving it
- adding a new defensive fast feudal strategy
- further developing full DUC Dark-Age economy
Next Update will focus more on optimizing Dark-Age eco & Arena strategies.
dette 