Hail to Princess the Bot

[Colt Ward]

While I think it still has some flaws- BA/infantry was the last one I knew about- its WAY better than it came out 15 or so years ago, when all it knew was hey 'diddle diddle, right up the middle.'  I am watching it in a Clan supernova binary vs AFFC merc BN w/2 companies of armor and it hit a Elemental wall with 6/9/6 lights and PXH and is sliding around to envelope that flank.  Its also refusing the flank my Clan 5/8s shifted to hit, instead pulling them back while the main body re-orients to face me.

Its a better grasp of tactics than I expect, and I am quite happy with the mix of aggressiveness, herding, damage acceptance, and piloting caution I selected combined with forced withdraw.  To see a Shadow Hawk 2H take a cERPPC to the chest at range and then start retreating as it would in a campaign was a shock.  A Stinger lost a side torso and even with the weapon in the other arm, it also started falling back.

So kudos and thanks to the Bot programmers . . . the AI plays better than Micro$haft's MechCommander 2, though that is a very low bar to meet.

[robbybarbera]

Question what settings are you using for Princess bot? Also have you broken the larger unit down into smaller sub formations with Princess bot assigned to each one and various settings changes for each bot instance? I know a scenario that was created for MegaMek that had such things for the deployed lances and I used them for when I play AtB

Scenario link where I got the Princess bot settings:
https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=62392.0

[Colt Ward]

I have, but considering this was a battalion command with supporting armor I felt fine putting them all under the same bot.  In the past I have had different bots controlling different sets, part of that based on when different forces activated.

Also interesting is that right now, Turn 9 or 10?, the bot is tripping up over heavy smoke on a fire it started that had four points of Elementals hanging out in it.  Not to say the Elementals have not cause problems but the 5/8 TW & Gargs with ERLL and ERPPC are able to keep sniping.

[CrossfirePilot]

Princess has gotten better. Even to the point of rules lawyering me a few times when playing (pushing me off the map in a charge). Though the bot still has trouble fighting in a city and letting its forces get strung out.  Though getting beat by it does make humble you.  "I'll be danged to heck if I let a bot beat me, especially a bot named 'princess'" Cross said in a fake Texas drawl.

[Colt Ward]

Yeah, to avoid the strung out have to set the herding pretty high.  Which means its harder to punch them out b/c its fighting a blob.

[CrossfirePilot]

Then the problem with setting the herding high, is then the bot doesn't make use of any sort of advance forces.  I think I found the easiest way to get around this is to have several different bots all on the same team.  So they can make use of each others intel but don't try so hard to stick together.

[Colt Ward]

Well, this time they had wings trying to flank me so like I said I was pretty happy with the settings.

[Kojak]

Princess still can't use homing Arrow IV, right?

[NickAragua]

It's theoretically possible - she can use TAG and artillery now, so if you give her an off-board (or on-board) Arrow IV launcher of some kind, she may fire it, although I haven't tested it very thoroughly.

[Kojak]

As I discovered today, she can indeed use homing Arrow IV, although she tends to fire everything at one hex and then the TAGers just TAG whoever they've got the easiest shot on, so on a decent-sized map the rate of actual connecting shots is an order of magnitude below what a human player would average.

[Deadborder]

For a while, Princess used to have brain farts and freeze when trying to fire Artillery Cannons. Has that changed yet?

[NickAragua]

Pretty sure that bug's been fixed, but I haven't really been using artillery cannons recently, so I couldn't tell for sure.