The AI in the turn-based strategy game Total War: Warhammer III is hit or miss. Sometimes, it works well and provides you with a challenging experience. But there are also times when it just doesn’t know what to do. Developer Creative Assembly knows this, which is why the company delivered changes to AI behavior in Update 2.3.0, now available on PC.
There are two things that Creative Assembly has worked on the AI behavior in Warhammer III. The first is “Proactive Evasion” referring to the AI’s willingness to proactively evade incoming damage from projectiles and spells. The Battle difficulty settings will determine the AI’s ability to dodge these effects.
The second is “Ranged Units Target Selection.” Basically, this tells you whether the AI’s ranged units are going to actively select specific targets or just hit the first unit it comes across. For instance, when choosing the Very Hard difficulty setting, the AI will try to focus its attention on a single enemy unit as much as possible. Alternatively, it will prioritize shooting softer enemies whenever it gets the chance.
So in summary, adjusting the appropriate Battle settings will now change AI behavior depending on the difficulty.
Patch Notes
- Easy Difficulty
- The AI will not try to evade any incoming spell or artillery projectiles.
- Normal Difficulty
- When possible, the AI will try to evade any direct damage incoming from spells.
- Hard Difficulty
- When possible, the AI will try to evade any direct damage incoming from spells and light projectile damage while fighting in settlements.
- Very Hard Difficulty
- When possible, the AI will try to evade any direct damage incoming from spells, artillery shots, and light projectiles while fighting in settlements.
- Easy Difficulty
- The AI ranged units will shoot at the first enemy unit encountered.
- Normal Difficulty
- The AI ranged units will shoot at the first enemy unit encountered.
- Hard Difficulty
- When possible, the AI will prioritize shooting soft targets first.
- Soft targets are units that the AI deems easy to damage – primarily units with low amounts of armor.
- Very Hard Difficulty
- When possible, the AI will try to focus fire on a single enemy unit.
- When possible, the AI will prioritize shooting soft targets first.
- The AI will not prioritize shooting against very evasive enemy targets.
- The priority and urgency with which the AI will try to enact these behaviors is not absolute, meaning that if the AI has more critical tasks queued up, it will execute them first. For example, if a unit is engaged in melee combat, it will try to resolve the outcome of that interaction before trying to evade artillery shots.
- In a Multiplayer context, the host’s Battle difficulty settings apply to everyone.
What can you say about the changes made to Total War: Warhammer III’s AI behavior relative to the set Battle difficulty?
