SPAA or SPAG ?

[Marek_Tucan]

I have to say that the AI artillery kinda bothered me in my SPWW2 3.01 campaing, as well as air strikes, but I also have to say it was always my fault - too long resting on one point, forgetting to move support infantry from shell impact zones etc.
Yes, the numerical advantage can be sometimes a pain, but if you had 15 Abrams and he got 50 MBT's, I doubt they were on a good level. AI once attacked my company of M-60's with a fleet of about 90 Shermans (M4A3) and six M-48's and he nearly got me rolled over my forward platoon (he had more tanks than my M-60's got ammo)), but Sherman vs. M-60 is something I cannot call fair fight.
LOS oddities - I haven't noticed them. Again - dug in ATG can be a pain to spot if you don't have some scouts riding along with your tanks, even worse are ATGM's (as I've noticed recently in one PBEM))

Now if you wish for games where AI cheats, go for say Battle Isle 1 and 2 and then you'll see that even SP1 and 2 were only beginners in cheating)

[DRG]

BigJim said:
Ok will try and capture some video for ya, I just played a generated campagne where in the last game I was the defender, I had "earned" enough points to have about 15 M1A1's, the enemy assaulted with no less than 150 vehicles most of which were tanks over 50 were main battle tanks, along with "hords" of infantry and arty and aerial attacks on EVERY turn, which by the way targeted my stinger assets on the first turn BEFORE they had fired. The AI's "buy" points had to be HUGE to afford all the assets thrown my way

You didn't tell us WHO "the enemy" was or how many points you are using. That is important information. All we need is a simple save game to see what it is YOU are seeing to make this conversation more relevant
The game DOES NOT specifically target things like Stingers unless they have fired. There is NO code in the game that does this. If you got whacked it's because you were in places likely to be hit by a human player who's thinking because Andy programmed it to target likely areas of concentration

BigJim said:
I also note that you did not address my main complaint about LOS advantage???

Yes, he did...
"The game uses the same code to spot and hit, there is no "AI bonus"."
That applies to arty as well as units seeing other units. The is NO special AI bonus

Send a save game of your campaign. We cannot comment further on this without seeing what you are seeing

Don

[Karnaaj]

Depends on the battle, as well; remember the points-ratios if it's an assault. Just did a meeting-engagement (USMC v. N. Korea, '97) with 1 Coy M1A1HMC, 1 Pl LAV-25 (ITOW, a couple choppers, a couple AOP Hummers, 5 Dragon teams and some 155s. NKs swarmed with at least 3-4 to 1 odds *numerically*, tank-heavy mix. (Think I was running 12.5k points.) Lots of cheap versus a few pricey things.

I'll note that AI arty was (apparently) map fire, and mostly targeted: 1) high ground, 2) v-hex locations, and 3) roads along route of march, and apparently expecting much slower rate-of-march. Unless I killed another observer team, the only one I saw had been pinned down under 155s and wasn't directing fire for most of the game. Enemy arty also got conterbatteried pretty hard. <G> What air attacks there were managed to accidentally kill a Seahawk (same hex as the targetted tank at the time) and a Dragon team (next hex past the target). Oh, and they scratched up my tanks something *awful*...

A horde isn't that dangerous unless they 1) can run you out of shots/ammo, 2) can close to effective range and 3) have effective weaponry. In 3.01, I was running a Sov invasion of Iran in '79/'80, and the huge numbers of M4s the computer bought were more of a strain to my ammo supply than a danger to my T-80s. (Don't think I even had an immobilisation from M4 fire on a tank before the campaign crashed. They did hit some of my BMPs and BRDMs, tho, but the BMPs killed more than got killed.)

[Nerfix]

There's a huge point diffrence between modern equipment and the older stuff, especially soviet equipment. And I think the computer gets the same buy points as you unless specified. This is why countries like NK or Libya can buy hordes of equipment which however is often really weak.

[Mobhack]

Nerfix said:
There's a huge point diffrence between modern equipment and the older stuff, especially soviet equipment. And I think the computer gets the same buy points as you unless specified. This is why countries like NK or Libya can buy hordes of equipment which however is often really weak.

The AI gets the same points as you now, unlike in the original SP2 where it got a bonus buy at the start of the pick for free, something like some artillery and a tank platoon as I recall, plus some free barge carriers in a river assault crossing too (that went out when we got the original code, immediately). There was also a rare AI special set-up in the meeting engagement where it started deployed to the 50% line as if in a delay, but with equal points. Removed.

The AI now has the exact same points to buy with as you, and no deployment "cheats". The only one of the latter is that the AI is allowed still to deploy a bit further forward than a human when assaulting in a river crossing, but defending against the AI in a river crossing is an exrecise in shooting fish in a barrel, anyway, so it needs help there!

Cheers
Andy

[BigJim]

The campagne I was in was US vs Iraq, as I said I will send a saved game for ya. Not sure which files I need to zip tho can you give me a clue.

If what you say about spotting is correct I must be doing something wrong, will test it further

[TheDesertFox]

BigJim said:
Not sure which files I need to zip tho can you give me a clue.

Andy or Don needs SpSv001.cmt and SpSv001.dat zipped up if you have saved to slot 01. If you used another slot you need the according *.cmt and *.dat files of that slot you saved to.

Singleplayer and unsecure PBEM saves you find here:
[WinSPMBT\Saved Games\]

Secure PBEM files you find here:
[WinSPMBT\PBEM Games\]

cheers

Helge

[DRG]

BigJim said:
The campagne I was in was US vs Iraq, as I said I will send a saved game for ya. Not sure which files I need to zip tho can you give me a clue.

If what you say about spotting is correct I must be doing something wrong, will test it further

Make a note which save slot you are in ( they are printed beside the slot ) then open up your SAVED GAMES folder and look for the two files Helge mentioned but with your slot number. There will be two. A DAT file and a .CMT file

Zip both of them up and attach to your next post

Keep in mind the AI buys by points the same as you do and although you may buy 7 1993 era M1A2's for approx 3100 points the Iraqi AI can buy 27 T-62m's for the same number of points. All tank costs are calculated with the same formula. The more capable it is the more it costs. I think you will agree a T-62m is no match for an M1A2 but 4 T-62's for every Abrams evens the odds ( a bit )

If you take the Iraqis then play the AI as the US you will not see it buy a horde of M1A2's becasue M1A2's cost about 435 points each and a T-62m is 112. ( and 7 M1A2's will have NO difficulty defeating 27 T-62's unless the T-62's are handled very skillfully

Don

[Listy]

A quick solve to the AI arty problem:

Buy a Regiment of MLRS, and dont use them. that solves the problem just fine...

Just out of intrest, what do you have your prefrences set to? Check those to make sure you haven't allocated the AI an advantage.

[KevinRanger95]

countries like Russia or the old iraq or Iran or India and so on, do they send their SPSAM's alone with their tanks and infantry? I noticed that toward the end on many battles, namely ones above, they would send their SP-SAM's to the final assault. One time in the mass confusion, I let a SP-SAM get through my lines, and he ended up behind me going for my hexes, glad he could not fire anything!