How to make good "pool" teams?

[~Guest~]

Hi all!

From Deezire's AI guide:

"Its worth noting that the AI is frequently triggered to create 'pool' teams. These are teams which tend to be created based on time rather than any specific event (although some pool teams are still triggered for creation by events) - this is done automatically in skirmish mode by the 'autocreate' process with the frequency of this being controlled by the TeamDelays= statement in RULES.INI (see the RULES.INI Guide). The members of these teams usually assume some default behaviour such as guarding the AI's base, and the main reason for their creation is simply to make units available for the AI so that it doesn't play the game in a scripted, linear fashion. Use of pool teams also ensures that, for example, the AI always has something with which to defend its base or guard its Ore Miners."

So how do I make an "pool team"?
Do I just set the trigger type to "-1 pool team" and leave the taskforce without a script?
What units r best for pool teams? Low tech?

Thank u if someone can help!

[Dracaveli]

editing the Ai can be a pain, making it work the way u want or wish comes  through trial and error....

creating AI defense teams are fairly easy, it's just offense that's quite tricky..I myself am no good at it, yet. I just do odd things here and there....my only advice is to edit the AI within maps and the AI.ini file as well...u never know what u can find by mistake

[~Guest~]

Thanks for the info Dracaveli.

DCoder, could u please post a reply, please?

[DCoder]

Er, what makes me so special? Just cause I wrote the AI Editor doesn't necessarily mean I know the AI inside out...
But pool teams are not hard, just do what you said, trigger type -1, and I usually give them a script to get out of their base to avoid congestion, typically Regroup followed by Guard Area or something similar. Theoretically pool teams are a good source of prebuilt units for later taskforces, so you might want to enable AreTeamMembersRecruitable on the team, too.

[~Guest~]

Well..Yes, because of that U guess.

Well, I made the AI pool teams for each side, but AI seems not to make those at all.

I dont know what's wrong...

[Dracaveli]

pool teams themselves are just built they dont follow a scripttype, it may seem like they do but in reality they just fill up the autocreate team which u select in the teamtype....

(my thinking is the autocreate function makes a teamtype created from units on the map by pool teams only)

I started my AI from zero and decided to test this , the pool team itself is just placed on the map, then it becomes eligible to be recruited into the autocreate team, in which case the same pool team "being as i only had one" is built again, since the previous members are dissovled into the autocreate team.

The  'pool" team itself follows no scriptype assign to the trigger and just sit around near the AI base c-yard until it is chosen to fill the same autocreate team...

u cant make a pool team leave the base at a regroup point since it does not follow any scriptype....what the AI is really doing is creating/filling another team which scripts it's members to leave the base....in which case the AI once again rebuilds the pool team until it's members are also dissovled...so on and so on.....

since only one of said pool team can exist on the map at one time it replaces itself everytime members are dissovled into a team type, but the pool team itself will always remain around your c-yard but doesnt cause to much congestion

EDIT: It seems pool teams themselves will use their assign script type only when the teamtype is set to be side specific i.e RUSSIANS, Africans etc....when set to NONE the pool teamtype does not use it's assigned script type (unless u have autocreate on, which i already talked about)

Bottom line is this: pool teams need to be side specific in order to work properly, when u use NONE along with autocreate, u force the AI to build 1 team which will use the script plus a 2nd or really the pool team itself which will sit around your C-yard.