Firefly Studios’ Designer Stephen Richards and series creator Stephen Richards have revealed four major improvements to AI behaviour found in their upcoming ‘castle sim’ sequel Stronghold: Warlords during the latest dev diary. This new entry in the historical real-time strategy series will usher in major improvements and refinements in how computer-controlled opponents interact with the player, each other and any warlords present on the map.

Watch the new dev diary:

Suffice to say, the AI no longer cheats. It no longer needs a helping hand to provide the fun gameplay that a Stronghold game must provide, allowing you to disrupt their economy and pin them down. We know we’ve done our job properly when a warlord coordinates a pincer movement and players sit back thinking ‘That’s what I would have done!’

Simon Bradbury, Lead Designer at Firefly Studios

AI behaviours related to castle management, skirmish combat and city building have been completely revamped for Stronghold: Warlords, in addition to being able to work with the new warlords system. Much like the archetypes of the warlords themselves – such as the Ox, Tiger and Crane – each enemy AI will adhere to a distinct style of play over a set of predetermined behaviours. The decisions made by computer opponents will now be made according to map layout, tactical positioning of warlords, available resources, current army composition and their priorities at different stages of gameplay.

In practical terms this means less hard coded, predictable behaviours and more flexibility in how AI opponents can outmanoeuvre the player, but also how it deals with the evolving situation within its own castle. Independent of the player, AI will build, sell resources and train their army according to changing priorities over the course of a skirmish match. Just like a human player the AI will adjust its focus between city building and RTS combat, while also battling it out with the player for control over each map’s selection of warlords. Just remember… While major advances in AI can be scary human players can always just hit the power button. Take that evil robot future!

AI is another example of community-requested improvements coming to Firefly’s next entry in the Stronghold series and one that players can continue to provide feedback on by joining the game’s official Discord server. Who knows, maybe your suggestions will be mentioned in the next dev diary.

Now scheduled for release January 26th 2021 on Steam, players can find out more about Stronghold: Warlords by visiting the game’s official website: www.StrongholdWarlords.com.

For even more gaming news and maybe some more dev diary releases, click right HERE.