[Tactical AI suggestions for spiders and other venomous creatures]

from Elemental Forums

If one of my units is webbed and the other is one space away, why would the spider move to be in range of both units' melee attacks?  It is to the spider's benefit to take on one enemy at a time.  

A very crafty spider would web one and beguile the other and then move to put both enemy units adjacent to each other.  

Also in nature, a venomous creature generally strikes and withdraws for a time (kites !?!?) until it's prey is dead.  A 3 or 4 move spider/naja/plague beast could do this quite nastily against early champs and troops.

Just some thoughts to improve the enemy AI.

Have you considered randomly envenoming the weapons of bandit units, ruffian archers, troll warriors etc. to spice things up a bit?  Say 10-20% of all encounters might have one or two units capable of poisoning my troops might be a fun challenge.  Or an extra bonus for a Bandit Lord sov...

3,666 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

I've also noticed that spiders like to beguile ranged units, while the effect of beguile only works on melee units.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

On a related note, I take Beast Lord as a trait and the first creatures I go for, if I can, are the various web-casting spiders (not all of them cast webs) since that helps me capture each beastie (assuming I have the mana) one at a time, avoiding taking damage or accidentally killing a beast I want to capture with a counterstrike.  In doing so, I noticed that the tactical AI for spiders refuses to do anything once their spider has been webbed -- even if it can cast web (and hasn't yet, so the countdown timer isn't an issue), it won't.

Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Also, in regards to kiting ... I wish we could kite, but unfortunately once you move, even with a unit like Stalker that has a lot of moves, it won't let you move again ... so you can't move, attack, and move away in the same turn no matter how many 'moves' you have. :/  It would be nice if you could, maybe make an attack consume several movement points but still allow a unit to pull away if it has sufficient remaining moves.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

I wondered about that, I actually skipped using my sov with the Ignys bow last night to avoid the possibility of friendly fire during one battle...

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Each creature should have a unique AI based on it's strengths and weaknesses.