Maybe I'm more artistically oriented than development, but this is some of the most beautiful code that I've seen in a long time! I wish the slop I shovel at work looked one tenth this good, rather than looking like somebody threw up in their code editor. Martiño, you are a true artist! I'm new to this project and I haven't looked though the sources too much yet, I have a few suggestions for high difficulty AI:
- Randomize attack paths: Make the approach that is taken for the massive attack rule vary. It appears (in the 2.0.1 AI at least) that attacks generally come from a predictable path once the enemy base discovers your camp. This makes it easier to anticipate the attacks and setup strategic defenses on those borders, leaving other borders unguarded with impunity. The scouting/patrol rule should endeavor to discover more routes to the enemies' camp(s).
- Harassment: When military units are limited, but an enemy base has been located, small contingents sent in carefully can moderately disrupt harvesting. The main goal of this type of attack is to target workers and other vulnerable units, but trying not to get killed unless the pay-off (i.e., disruption) appears high.
- Distraction: This is a bit of an extension from randomizing the direction of attack. Once alternate routes to an enemy base are discovered, and preferably at opposite ends of their base, a small "suicide-mission" force can be sent in from one side, shortly followed by a massive attack on another. The opponent will likely send the bulk of their military units to meet the distraction and leave other borders to their base vulnerable.
- Survivability: when regeneration is possible, the AI may want to sometimes have a single unit retreat from a battle when they are damaged to allow them time to regenerate or get healed/repaired by another unit. This would be a pretty complex rule however, because there are a lot of factors should get weighed: the value of the unit (i.e., experience level), the importance of pressing the attack, how much the battle would suffer by the unit retreating, the likelihood that an attempt to retreat will still result in death, etc.
- Sneak Attack: This is another high-complexity rule and would require spy units, which don't exist in the game now (the 2.0.1 at least). The way this strategy works is that a small to mid-sized force culminates fairly near the enemy base, but not between their home base and the enemies and a spy unit observes the enemy base. When the enemy deploys a large military force (to engage in a massive attack) and after a small delay, the sneak attack force attacks the relatively undefended base. This has the dual effect of greatly damaging their base while potentially foiling their attack -- forcing them to withdraw back to defend their base. Alternately, instead of a small force gathering somewhere and trying to remain hidden, the scouts in the area could be used.
Just a few ideas I thought I would share, these are strategies that I've used in various RTS's over the years that have worked quite nicely. I'm also glad to see that the current sources has hotkeys for attacking, selecting idle units and such.
Thanks for an awesome games guys!
Daniel
