[Suggestion] Ability to choose different AI roles for different creatures

This is something I've been thinking about while trying to design cool custom scenarios, only to see them fail because the AI doesn't understand what it's supposed to do.

I suggest that we should have a way to assign different roles to creatures based on what their character is supposed to be doing in that particular scenario. These could look something like this:

Default
This is the default AI.

Bloodthirsty
Always attacks the nearest enemy, never caps victory square.

Defensive
Always caps victory squares and defends them at all cost.

Cowardly
Tries to run away from all enemies. Only caps victory squares by accident.

Protector
Protects the highest ranking ally creature.

Insane
Attacks any creature, friend or foe (lets you have 3 teams basically). Other enemy characters see this "ally" as an enemy .

etc. etc.

You would assign the role in the same window where you pick the creatures and add their amount.


Related to this.. I know that there are already differences in how different creatures act (casters vs. melee for example), but does anyone know if this is because of their cards, or because they have a completely different AI? For example if we give Human Servant a couple of Nimble Strikes, will it start attacking more aggressively?

I've never really thought about this but I'm guessing there are different types of AI's already but they always go hand-in-hand with the creature type.

 

its a great idea... we are bit limited to what we can do because of the editor..

about the ai, it seems theres diferent ai's already, the dog boy is a fun example, usul he trys to keep away,but if you get near you get bash'ed

 

Yea, Dog Boy (Human Servant) is the first character that came up to my mind as well. It could be that the reason he's defensive is that the AI sees Bash as a defensive card, but there are aggressive creatures with Bash, so I don't see any other option than Dog Boy having a different AI. It would be interesting to see what he would do with Nimble Strike.

It could also be that all creatures have either "melee" or "caster" AI's, and that Dog Boy has the latter one, making him avoid close contact. But it could also be that he has his own special AI.

 

Yes please

 

Indeed. I've been thinking of Nimble Strike for zombies. One per mob could be a spring-loaded, brain-seeking projectile. A meth jag zombie. Should produce a good initial encounter shock value.

As to 3rd sides, I'd like to see [1] always neutral, [2] neutral unless harmed (switches to opposing attacker), [3] attacks all except my (3rd) side - which is what [2] should become if harmed by both sides, and [4] attacks all. I've never seen an engine that allows more than two sides. I suspect it could prove very difficult to add to an existing engine.