You wrote:
One thing which I've always wanted to fix is Jimmy2's Battle for the ark, but I think getting the AI on that map to operate the way the author intended may be an impossible task.
The
The problem is that the author wanted the Philistines to bring your ark to their camp, but they don't. I downloaded the Scenario, and on loading it up, the most obvious reason looks like the "Z" canyon valley route that the Designer made to get from the ark to the enemy base. The AI in AOE and ROR has a tough time navigating "Z" patterns of valleys and cliffs. For instance, in another Scenario, my archers shot at cavalry across cliffs and the cavalry did not charge at me because the cliff edge was too long for them to figure out that they could go around the cliff edge to attack me - and something like that is far simpler than the "Z" path in "Battle for the Ark."
The second obvious reason is that IIRC, the AI has the command of bringing arks to its Town Centers. But in this case although the Red Player captured the ark, there is no Red Town Center, just Brown ones surrounded by Red buildings.
1. URBACKYARD wrote:
2. Maybe the Definitive Edition addresses this issue and allows you to command the AI to bring the ark to their base.
3. Simplify the path from the ark to the enemy base and look at the ROR official 3rd Campaign's Scenario "Ctesiphon", where an enemy raiding party takes your war chest at the beginning of the mission and brings it to their base. Also look at the Ctesiphon Scenario to see if there is anything particular that the raiding AI player has in their AI, Civilization or PER settings that could help. The problem with straightening out the path is that the Designer wants you to be able to recapture the ark before it gets to the enemy base, which you might not practically be able to do in that case. This is because on a straight path the AI enemy might take it right back to their base, whereas the instructions say that the artifact will wait a bit in the valley before getting to the enemy base, which would give you a chance to send forces to get it first.
4. Start with the Israelite war chest at the enemy base so that you have to attack their base. The only practical difference this would make is that there is no part of the gameplay where you actually see the chest getting stolen. I think that this is legitimate, because the Designer's main intent was to have you get the ark from the enemy base. The part where you watch it get stolen at the beginning is more "thematic" or Story-ish and less a practical issue. The practical task for the Player is to get the Ark back.
5. Just consider the Scenario okay as it is. Consider the storyline to be that the enemy has just stolen the war chest and you have to get it back, so that you get it before the enemy would bring it to the base, even though it never actually does that.
What you would have to do ideally is make some commands for the AI to have the ark wait for a while in the canyon (like a few minutes) and then to guide it through the "Z" valley. This is because you really have two tasks as a Designer: 1. make sure that the ark waits a while in the middle valley area and 2. make sure that it can navigate the Z maze of cliffs.
I agree with your guess that in AOE and ROR it is normally not possible to make these kinds of detailed AI Commands, like "Capture Item X, Wait for Time Y, follow path Z to Building TC."
I believe that Game designing is well advanced to the point where designers could mod a game to make an object do that. But on the other hand, one of the advantages (and disadvantages) of ROR is its simplicity. The complexity of AOK's and AOEIII's Scenario Design is daunting for me in a way that AOE's is not.
If it was up to me, I would go with Option 3 above, simplifying the path to the Philistine base and putting in a Town Center so that the AI would take it there (IIRC, the AI takes arks to Town Centers). Then I would take out any VC rules that give victory to the enemy Player for getting the ark to their base and would change the storyline so that you have to recapture the ark whether it goes to the enemy player's base or not.
In other words, since there is no "wait until Time X" command in ROR, you are stuck with either making the mission so that
(1) you capture the ark while it just stays stopped in the valley, like it currently does. For this, you can add in an Artifact VC timer so that you have only like 4 minutes ("2000 years") to get the Ark, which would resemble the author's intent where the ark stays for a while in the Valley, or make it a timed mission that would make the Red team win after X amount of time. OR:
(2) you design the Scenario better so that the AI immediately takes the ark to its base AND you start with a cavalry and horsebacked attack party at your base so that you can reach the ark before it plods all the way back to the Red base. For this you would probably have to add in a Red Town Center (right now it looks like a Brown TC overlapping a Red house) and straighten the Z cliff maze; OR
(3) The ark starts at the Red Base, and you have to build up a force to get it back. For this, you would have to get rid of the Instructions and any VCs saying that you can't let it get back to Red's base.