Make raiding squads and attackers attack other buildings as well

[ByBurton]

Besides, raiding troops do not prioritise religion buildings or healers, so it is (relatively) save to put them outside the walls, possibly even surrounded by some nice gardens for looks, if it is at the back or to the sides of the castle.

This was commented by @heroesflorian in issue #192 . I noticed that attackers just completely ignore buildings outside the castle, for no reason. They should destroy everything in their path. You can even build a wall out of gallows and be safe. Idk about raiding squads, but they ignore stuff as well, iirc.

[Heroesflorian]

Speaking of that... I actually thought previously that release 2.06 (https://github.com/Sh0wdown/UnofficialCrusaderPatch/releases/tag/v2.06) would have improved that - from the release notes:

The AI attack wave problem is (hopefully) improved. The AI units will also attack towers, gatets and other buildings in a siege assault. Multiple units can also attack the same wall part. All of this should cause the waves of units in an assault to become much bigger and more frequent now.

I did not see much of that, however, so far. Did I just not pay enough attention, or do they still not really attack other buildings when charging at the walls etc?

[Monsterfisch]

You didn't miss it in my test matches for my custom sheriff he has a lot of buildings outside that just get ignored (almost entire industry) he only lost them when tearing them down when he needed gold. that being said maybe there were never enough troops in the attack to target industry in my tests so I don't know for sure (many units dies due to pitch traps before they were able to reach anything)

[Sh0wdown]

I see the AI sometimes go for farms when they assault. Otherwise I think towers & gates simply have a higher priority than civil buildings. I used an already existing function when improving the attack waves, so I do not exactly know in what way buildings are attacked, just that they are attacked. If you completely enclose your walls with civil buildings, they will now be attacked. Before the patch you were basically safe from the enemies' infantry by enclosing your castle like that.

[ByBurton]

@Sh0wdown I am talking about weapon production for example. Buildings that are normally placed inside, because they cost a lot of stuff. Attacking units mostly ignore these. Except granary and armory are destroyed, iirc.

[Heroesflorian]

I see the AI sometimes go for farms when they assault. Otherwise I think towers & gates simply have a higher priority than civil buildings. I used an already existing function when improving the attack waves, so I do not exactly know in what way buildings are attacked, just that they are attacked. If you completely enclose your walls with civil buildings, they will now be attacked. Before the patch you were basically safe from the enemies' infantry by enclosing your castle like that.

Did you check whether they attacked the enemy farms with siege attack troops or raiding troops?

Also, good to know there is no longer a "full immunity", but in practice does that mean funnelling the entire army to attack in particular locations by enclosing the whole rest of the castle in civil buildings is still possible?

[Monsterfisch]

As far as I can tell from testing atm they ignore farms and focus walls and towers with the attack armies (at least AI vs AI)

[ByBurton]

As far as I can tell from testing atm they ignore farms and focus walls and towers with the attack armies (at least AI vs AI)

Nah, they do attack farms.

[Monsterfisch]

seems like I jumped the gun by saying ignoring but it certainly is not a steamrolling of the economy buildings in my tests it's not a whole lot of building here is a before-after comparison after a pretty big attack pitch platforms did get destroyed mostly but farms been mostly left alone (only 2 have been destroyed) after breaking through the wall the only building that got destroyed have been torn down by the sheriff himself (houses since he didn't need the for workers in that moment) https://i.imgur.com/udsMcUX.jpg https://i.imgur.com/6KIfHRU.jpg

[PitchNeeded]

AI Raiding squads should attack closer targets first I think before moving on to targets further away. They seem to prioritize attacking quarries first, which is sometimes very effective but isn't so good a tactic if the quarries are at the back of enemy castles. AI raiding parties such as Emir's Arabian swordsmen raids, Caliph's slave raids or Sheriff's macemen raids often try and go round an enemy castle to destroy a quarry at the back of the castle, when there can be much closer economic buildings at the front and sides of the enemy castle that they can attack first.

The annoying AI raiders bug also still exists where rather than moving to the next target to destroy, they will sometimes stand still or stand on aggressive stance and wait for reinforcements to come, which might take a long time.

[Xebenkeck]

Unknown124 is supposedly the parameter that controls that bug. If the value is high they will stand around for a while before moving on to the next objective.