Dawn of War Skirmish

===================Message follows below!=================

Dawn Of Skirmish *DARK CRUSADE EXPANSION ONLY* V2.3 RELEASE and
Acknowledgements (April 30, 2007)

Meet the Cast:
==============

Thudo (Thudmeizer)..>> Team Lead/Coder/Gfx/Bonafied Cheerleader
ArkhanTheBlack......>> Lead Coder/Scripter
LarkinVB............>> Lead Coder/Scripter/Beta Tester
Corsix..............>> Coder
Inquisitor..........>> Beta Tester
Zenoth..............>> Beta Tester
Malkor..............>> Beta Tester
Troubadour..........>> Beta Tester
ThetaOrion..........>> Beta Tester
FinalDeath..........>> Beta Tester
QuietDeath..........>> Beta Tester
JBird...............>> Beta Tester
Slash...............>> Beta Tester


Introduction
============

Prepare for a more enhanced Dawn Of War - Dark Crusade skirmish experience!

This project started after the release of Dawn Of War with the intent
to bring to the global DoW community a more intense and satisfying AI
opponent on the field of war. We hope you will agree that has been
achieved with the understanding more is to be done in the future. Our
work continues to evolve and in the coming months will make current
efforts pale in comparison. However, you have to start somewhere and
hot damn what a jumpstart!

Its been a slice from start to, well, continuing! We're so looking
forward to enhancing the AI even further in the coming months!


A Personal Thanks
=================

At this time I would like to personally thank all the participating
members of the team:

ArkhanTheBlack, LarkinVB, Excedrin, and Corsix, as well as our beta
testers: Inquisitor, Malkor, Zenoth, FinalDeath, Troubadour, Slash,
JBird, and QuietDeath (all who keep our work "in-perspective" and
"on-track" with our ultimate goals of achieving the most competitive
DoW AI opponent we can create!).

Its through your dedication, patience, and technical expertise that
allowed the work to commence and prosper. Without you fellers, there'd
be a pittence of work compared to the greatness this project has
become. We've come a long way and do sincerely hope to continue our
expert correspondance into the future of the product.

CutterShane (Original idea and implementation of the Heroes mod)

Alex Gnome (Original idea and implementation of the Camera mod)


Disclaimer
==========

This is to acknowledge that we take no personal responsibility for any
hardware damage or data corruption brought forth by the use or
installation of this DoW modification. As used, this modification
works "as is" and has been thoroughly tested and should not cause any
major problems. In the event, however, that something serious does
occur, it is up to the user(s) of their computer(s) to make
appropriate backups before any attempt is made to install the
following DoW modification. Use at your own risk.


Whats In The Package?
====================

o Main Installation Package containing the Enhanced DoW AI scripts
(contains ONLY those .ai files that our team altered)
o Dawn Of Skirmish DC V2.3 dowai.txt (what your reading)
o Doc folder containing information how to add your own faction to the
AI project.


Installation
============

Piece of Cake! Run the executable and it will extract to where your
<installed Dawn Of War folder> is.

Once installed, run the newly placed shortcut on your desktop "DOW
Skirmish AI V2.3" or from StartMenu/Programs/"Dawn Of War Skirmish AI
Mod". You will know if the modification is running when on the
top-left section of the Dawn Of War Main Menu it will display: Dawn Of
Skirmish V2.3.

To uninstall this modification, go back to StartMenu/Programs/"DOW
Skirmish AI Mod" and choose "Remove Dawn Of Skirmish AI Mod" to remove
the modification from Dawn Of War.

**NOTE**

This version of the AI mod will only work with the Dark Crusade Expansion.


What's new in Dawn of Skirmish DC AI 2.3?
=========================================

o Various balancing adjustments to DC patch 1.2
o IG bunkering and transport code now work without 'AI SCAR support'
(Thanks to Relic for adding the AI functions!)
o AI SCAR support replaced by AI Donations (Don't activate if you
experience lag or sync errors)
o Save game reload bug fixed (No more fatal AI errors after reloading)
o Fixed some Heroes bugs which allowed cheating or resulted in SCAR
errors after a save game reload
o Improved AI vs stealth troops
o Additional AI improvements (like always)
o Added extended camera zoom modes to allow to zoom out with the mouse
wheel (Optional installation feature)


Extended camera zoom modes
==========================
Optional installation feature which adds two files camera_high.lua and
camera_low.lua to the Dowai_mod\Data folder. If you dislike them you
can deselect them during installation or just delete them if you
already installed them. The default view is almost the same like
vanilla therefore you shouldn't notice much difference until you start
to zoom in or out. Thanks to Alex Gnome for the original discovery of
the camera settings.


AI Highspeed Setting
====================
Option set in the game mode panel at the setup of a game.

People who experience heavy lag and sync problems in multiplayer
should try this option.
Some AI calculations are simplified or skipped to increase performance.
But beware, the AI could be slightly weaker because of that.


Heroes Special
==============
Option set in the game mode panel at the setup of a game. Activates
the Heroes Special mod which is a rework of CutterShanes exceptional
Heroes mod, that specializes only on the unit experience system. Have
a look at the Heroes Special readme file for further information.
There's also a Heroes Special modding document which describes the
inclusion and modification of Heroes Special for other mods.


AI Donation System
==================
Option set in the game mode panel at the setup of a game.

- All races donate requisition if they own more than 800

- All races demand requisition if they own less than 200

- All races donate power if they own more than 600 (Necrons: more than 1100)

- All races demand power if they own less than 200 (Necrons: less than 400)


AI Config Panel
===============

There are several options you can change for each difficulty level to
adjust the AI behaviour to you liking.

1.) Dancing
~~~~~~~~~~~
Dancing is the ability to run away with ranged units if they are
attacked in melee.
There are three possible settings:
a) Off        =>    Dancing is not used at all
b) Standard    =>    The AI is restricted to only dance with one unit at a time
c) Godlike    =>    The AI will dance with several units at a time if necessary

2.) Attack Delay
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This forces the AI to wait with an attack until a specif time has passed.
You can adjust this time in two minute steps from 0 to 20 minutes.

3.) Tech Speed
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
With an increased teching speed, the AI will spend its resources more
on teching than on building troops. With a decreased teching speed,
the AI will spend its resources more on building troops than on
teching.

4.) Teching Handicap
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A handicap will slow down the teching of an AI. It will also hoard
more ressources
instead of spending it immediately for units or buildings.
You can give allies an handicap or opponents. If you give allies a handicap, all
AI's allied with a human player are affected. If you give opponents a
handicap, all
AI's not allied with a human player are affected. You can use this behaviour for
example to weaken AI opponents if you don't feel good enough to face
them at full
strength. Or you want the exact opposite, a real challenge, and weaken your own
allies, so you have to do more yourselve.

5.) Allow alternative strategies
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All AI's have 4 different strategies:

- A solid allround strategy
- A special ranged strategy
- A special melee strategy
- A vehicle fast tech strategy

If alternative strategies are activated, the AIs will choose one of
those strategies at the start by random, though the chances of each
strategy are influenced by opponent and map size. If deactivated, the
AI will always choose the solid allround strategy.

6.) Early Harassing
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This allows commanders and combat troops to make an attack at an
extremly early state to avoid opposing scout capturing strategic
points. If successfull, this can severly cripple
the opponents ressource income and decide the game at a very early
state. On the other side, harassing can also lead to a quick sacrifice
of troops, which gives the opponent an advantage. Harassing is only
possible in the first 4 minutes.

7.) Multiple Troop Production Buildings
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The AI normally builds more troop production buildings if it has
excess ressources. This allows often an outproducing of the opponenr
who can't replace its losses fast enough.
Bear in mind that the AI might still build more troop production
because of other reasons. IG for example need to build them to
increase their squad and support caps. In this case those buildings
are normally only built a bit later. This can also hurt the balance
between the races since some of them are affected more and others less
of it.

8.) Allow Relic units
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If deactivated, the AI won't build any Relic units like the Baneblade
from the Imperial Guard or the Chaos Bloodthirster.


Script Changes (from the original game to what we have today)
==============
Available upon request.


Comments?
=========
Visit us at our home base:
[url="http://forums.revora.net/index.php?showforum=478"]http://forums.revora.net/index.php?showforum=478[/url]
You can also drop by the official Relicforums here:
[url="http://forums.relicnews.com/"]http://forums.relicnews.com/[/url]

Cheers DoWers and prepare for massive attack! :eek: :eek:

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