JTS Battleground Vs WDS ACW

[RickMandar]

Hello

i played Gettysburg battle in a 2 solo games comparison. The Matrix Battleground version vs The WDS last version with same settings.

Obviously the WDS version is much more user friendly. The graphics on Batlleground are too small nearly unplayable (Napoleonic Battleground are fortunately bigger).
My surprise however is more on the gameplay and especially on the ai behavior.

In Battleground version the ai seems much more clever.
In the first few hours Bufford's cavalry attempts to defend the historical places (Mc Pherson Farm bridge ridge...)forcing the player to deploy his army like in the historical battle. I have significant losses.

In WDS version Bufford's cavalry hides in the oak ridge forest and stays there until it's surrounded and destroyed.
I notice also that in WDS the artillery is crazy. It goes alone always limbrered along the front line being assaulted by my infantry.

May we hope some improvements in ai behavior in the future ?

[Verdun1916]

Interesting comparison! Thanks for posting!

[Alan Sharif]

And there was me thinking my play had improved over the years.

[Alan Sharif]

Joking aside, my understanding is that AI is going to be reviewed in future updates. I think it an area that does need more development, and I am positive WDS wont let us down once they get around to it.

[rahamy]

Doug, the scenario designer for Getty, used "flags" instead of scripting - so that might be the case here. I'd need a precises scenario file name to look at the file and tell what's going on.

[Verdun1916]

Doug, the scenario designer for Getty, used "flags" instead of scripting - so that might be the case here. I'd need a precises scenario file name to look at the file and tell what's going on.

Sorry for a possibly ignorant question from someone who knows little to nothing about how to program or make a PC game, but whats the diffrence diffrence between "flags" and scripting. The latter is a bit self explanatory atleast.

[krmiller_usa]

For a complete explanation of Scripting and the use of Flags you want to look at the Help File for the Scenario Editor (cwedit.pdf) in the Manuals folder.

Basically in the Header dialog in the Editor you can select an AI Value. This consists of a number that determines how the AI acts.
*0 AI will conduct an Extreme Defense
1 AI will defend the objectives in the scenario.
2 AI will use Scripts
3 AI will attack attempting to take the objectives.
4 AI will make an Extreme Attack.
* Extreme means AI will attack or defend until it can no longer do so.

If a 2 is chosen the program chooses a script if there are more than one and the AI follows the scripted orders. Scripts are written orders for units, this can be at unit, brigade, division corps or army level. Objectives and times can be designated for each unit to move. This works pretty well at the unit level but gets progressively worse as it goes up the chain. In my experience the shorter scenarios, say at division level are ok to use this method but for larger scenarios, and for multi day scenarios it doesn't work too well because you have to go into division/corps level orders and these just don't work very well.

Flags are used only if you don't use scripts.
In that case if you set the Flag to 0 the AI will commit all of it's units to Attack or Defend.
If the Flags value is set to 1 the AI will only commit units based on opportunities.

*For the HPS/JTS/WDS 3 Day Getty battle, CSA AI Value is 4, Union is 0, Flags are 0.
*For the BG games 3 Day Getty battle, CSA is 3, Union is 1, Flags are 1.
*Thanks to LarkinVB I was able to confirm that the AI/Flag settings mean the same thing in both games.

*Not sure how different the AI module is between the games but the differences in the settings will have some effect on the AI play.
Also there are major differences in the engines. BG games were phase mode only, defender's always fired first and it was always at full effect, any hit resulted in a Morale check and melee was more predictable than the current games. These are major differences and would have a big effect even if the same AI was used in both games.

* indicates edits.

[LarkinVB]

Managed to unzip the old editor into the Matrix version, they don't provide it, and it shows the Yank AI is set to 1, the Rebs to 3 and the Flags to 1. Not sure if these correspond to the current values as I can't open the Help file for the old Editor since hlp files are no longer supported.

I found this in case you have the help file.
https://ehubsoft.herokuapp.com/chmviewer/

[krmiller_usa]

I found this in case you have the help file.
https://ehubsoft.herokuapp.com/chmviewer/

This is great, going to try to use this to convert it to a pdf for myself.
It showed that the AI values were the same for the BG games.

I also seemed to have forgotten to show the 0 Extreme Defense in my previous post, will edit it.

[RickMandar]

I keep going the gettysburg battle and will keep you informed of any interesting ai behavior i notice.
For now, the behavior is still much more historical in BG but the score is not coherent with the losses and objectives . I am Confederates and I have a minor victory which should become a major one soon and i am stuck on Mac Pherson'ts farm. From the north attack I didn't reach Pennsylvania college.

it's 2 Pm on Day 1. North is on right side.

Results:

With WDS here is the situation at the end of day one.

Results:

And i am with and advantage for ai union of +10 on BG and +20 on WDS.