[AI][1.000] Spiders prioritize ranged unit targets for webbing, beguile

from Elemental Forums

Imagine, for a moment, that you are a ravenous harridan being attacked by a midgame army commanded by Yarbuzl of Hrieeoogalefr. You and your daughters have the beguile and webbing abilities, and Yarbuzl has with him a couple squads of cavarly and a couple of archers. Clearly, if you cast the webbing ability on the archers, it does nothing to their ability to attack you. Beguile only applies to melee spells, and therefore should also not be cast on the archers.

 

And yet, time and again, this is exactly what I have seen ravenous harridans, black widows, etc. do: use these abilities on ranged units from turn 1 of the battle. Now I am playing on normal difficulty, so maybe this is a "deliberate mistake" on the part of the AI, but the choice of these targets is absurd on its face.

12,652 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Nope, not a "deliberate mistake" / difficulty level handicap. Just a 'mis-feature' from the days of E:WOM. In the case of the spiders where there are no enemy archers, the AI will web a unit, then cast Beguile on it.  AI is just dumb about this.

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

yeah... Spiders/etc target ranged units for web/beguile.  They shouldn't and it should be changed to have them specifically target melee units.  I've even seen two spiders cast web on the same archer unit (the first web worked, so the 2nd spider shouldn't have tried).

Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

One time in a battle with lots of spiders Web was cast three or four times on the one unit, and it made 0 difference to how long the web lasted.  In fact, the spiders shouldn't be able to Web a unit that is already webbed.  However the AI doesn't need to go through the UI.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

spiders are dumb, i'm sure we can agree there. They should be prioritising mounted units for webbing, and the strongest unwebbed physical attackers, for beguile. it doesn't make sense to use beguile and web on the same target.

Farthermore, there's often situations where using EITHER ability doesn't really make much sense - webs are useless if i took first turn and i'm already up in your face, and beguile is easily nullified by keeping a space between attacking units. I've won a great many battles against spiders that were more powerful than me, because i was busy killing them while they wasted turns with pointless debuffs. if they 'd actually just bite me, i'd die pretty easily. 

it seems like the spiders (and in fact, just about every unit which has a built in skill) are hardcoded to use up all of their skills before they resort to physical attacks.

 

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Another thought is that the AI is smart and thinks that being webbed ought mean the archers can't fire, and that beguiled archers would be confused to shoot at their mates. ;)

But if this were the case, the affects might ought last no more than a turn, maybe two. Perhaps longer for units within melee range? 

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Is it possible to mod individual units AI?

I guess I'd take a shot on spiders if so...