Why are tanks so stupids against anti tank guns ?

[Justevictor]

It's simple, the tanks never take care of those who do the most damage, the anti tank guns. Instead, they focus on the towers, the useless little soldiers, and die in a few seconds, shot by the anti tank guns and the silo. Their behavior is completely stupid, it's very very frustrating.

 

[Master Contrail Program]

Why do tanks break away from defensive buildings to kill defenders yet shooters won't stop attacking a building to do the same? Seems backwards and contrary to their descriptions somehow.

Why do cannons seemingly prioritize anything but defensive buildings and often wander off alone to shoot them, usually past several defensive structures?

What exactly are airplanes looking for on their second sortie? It sure as hell isn't the next closest building or defender. I often see them fly across the base past dozens of potential targets for no discernible reason.

Why it's almost as if the AI is poorly designed on purpose in the hope that people will use crowns to speed up training. Goodness knows there's been no official response about the awful attack AI in nearly two years. So it must be just the way they want it.

 

[KniferX]

You're blaming AI, while you should blame game mechanics.

1) Tanks break away when they are shot, to return fire. They tend to ignore ranged defeders shooting though (probably something to do with reacting towards defenders in range only). Shooters do that too, except (and here's the bug) when the defender is near death, then they for some reason ignore that defender unless it's reacting to getting shot at.

2) When howitzers destroy their first target, they scan the area around and target the next first closest target. Even if to get in range to that target they need to cross a maze or break off behind 2 corners, that building was physically closest at the time when they destroyed the last building. It's not a bug, the game's targeting system was DESIGNED that way and this can't be fixed except for rehauling the entire targeting and AI system (won't happen)

3) When planes' target has been destroyed, they take the next closest target to the FIRST target (where the plane is, doesn't matter). During that time, they will do the spin manouver (even while doing the spin manouver for the original target) to line up the shot, and that will get them flying over the map. If, god forbid, it targets defenders that are already getting killed, it will continue doing spin manouvers across the whole map. Again this is by DESIGN, no bugs here.

The game AI is simple because that's what they needed, a simple targetting AI that isn't too taxing on people's devices. Not a lot of effort, and people with budget devices get to play, not high-end gaming phones only.

 

[Master Contrail Program]

Going to disagree with you about airplane targeting.

Example I send my airplanes in from the left side to kill a bunker. They kill it. Then inexplicably fly to the opposite side of the screen to shoot some random thing. There were multiple other buildings and defenders that were near the original target. Yet they chose to fly across the screen to target some random object and take tons of damage while doing so. Before flying all the way back across to where they came in at taking still more damage. If anything, not doing multiple barrel rolls and just strafing what's closest would be less taxing on the system.

I understand why the other units behave the way they do but the AI's approximation of what's closer and my own lying eyes' are two differnt things. Besides, why do cannons target mills, markets, and vaults before anything else? This game isn't meta enough to say the key to victory is crippling the foes' supply lines. Cannons should have the same AI as tanks so they actually work together and don't meander so much.

 

[KniferX]

I have not experienced what you have with my own planes. The blue reticule (plane target) always moves to a target that's near the first one. And they do the spinning to adjust to that new target. If their targets keep getting killed they keep switching and keep spinning.

Howitzers don't have any favourite targets among buildings, they literally go for the next physically closest building from the place they're standing at. Shortest straight line, point A to B, simple targeting that ignores walls, corners on the way. That causes those ridicilous situations.

What might be confusing your eyes is the tile system, sometimes things that look further away are actually closer from the angle you're looking at the battle.

 

[Master Contrail Program]

I don't understand why they won't let us see the tile system in the base editor or replays. The information is clearly there, so why isn't it visible?

 

[Master Contrail Program]

I don't know. I've seen plenty of base designs that incorporate howitzers love for shooting at mills and markets over defenses. Everything being equidistant the howitzer will inexplicably target the things that can't possibly harm them first. Of course that behavior pales in comparison to their uncanny ability to find every trap on the map. It never ceases to amaze me how dozens of units come out of a rally point yet the howies hit the spikes/mines 90% of the time.

 

[KniferX]

Well, the very nature of having range 5 means they will get close to walls and any nook & cranny so they can get in range to shoot a building, without having to punch through a wall firsf like any other troops (barring Brit shooters). They separate from the pack, they run into spikes.

 

[KniferX]

Tiles are actually comprehensible (with a bit of maths) in base editor. A mortar for example is 3x3 square. A trap can function as a unit placeholder, takes up 1 tile, same as a troop. Range of a unit or building is measured in tiles, from the centre of the building, or the 1 tile if it's a unit. Range 5 means that it can shoot at things 5 tiles away.
It also perfectly explains why howies can shoot at towers from a diagonal position unharmed. Without getting into geometrics too much, the diagonal line from the centre of the 3x3 square is longer than a straight line to one of the sides, like it's the case when a howie attacks from the frontal position.

Complicated yes but can be calculated.

 

[pckrn]

if all the troops judged potential threats and paths, we’d have nothing to do lol just dump all your army somwhere and let them plan out the attack

 

[mkm1g15]

completely agree, we keep blaming them, but its our skills that gets us those satisfying 5 stars

 

[Justevictor]

Lol Except that I have nothing to do since silo prevents me from making rallies

 

[SiuYin]

I think the actual AI issue for Tank is
after rally, Tank will aproach to melee range and fire, instead of fire from range of 3

 

[Kam1983]

Imo, Tanks are the dumbest units after supply trucks

 

[Festivus]

You misspelled stupid in the thread title.