Firefly Studios' devs sit down to detail their advances in enemy behaviour including procedural castles, warlord control, deeper castle management and improved combat.
Firefly Studios’ Designer Stephen Richards and series creator Simon Bradbury have shared with us the four major improvements to AI behaviour in their upcoming ‘castle sim’ sequel Stronghold: Warlords.
The title will bring some significant changes and refinements in how computer-controlled opponents interact with the player, each other and any warlords present on the map.
"Suffice to say, the AI no longer cheats," said Simon Bradbury, Lead Designer at Firefly Studios.
AI behaviours related to castle management, skirmish combat and city building have been completely overhauled for Stronghold: Warlords, in addition to being able to work with the new warlords system.
Each enemy AI will now adhere to a distinct style of play over a set of predetermined behaviours. The decisions made by computer opponents will now be made according to map layout, tactical positioning of warlords, available resources, current army composition and their priorities at different stages of gameplay.
This means less hardcoded, predictable behaviours and more flexibility in how AI opponents can outmanoeuvre the player, but also how it deals with the evolving situation within its own castle.
The game's AI will build, sell resources and train their army according to changing priorities during a skirmish match.
Just like a human player, the AI will adjust its focus between city-building and RTS combat, while also battling it out with the player for control over each map’s selection of warlords.
Unlike the human player, the AI has a power button.
The latest feature is one of the community-requested improvements coming to Stronghold: Warlords. Everyone interested can provide additional feedback via the game's Discord server .
Stronghold: Warlords will launch on Steam on January 26 2021.