Computer Player Strategy Builder Guide

Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion uses an all-new Artificial Intelligence (AI) Expert System to act as the intelligence behind the computer players. This expert system uses a series of Rules that are tested to cause various actions to take place. In the following sections, you will learn how to make new rules for the AI to follow, how to check game facts to trigger those rules, and how to command the AI to take action based on your instructions.

AI Files are text files that have their extension changed to '.per' (for example, 'Henry Tudor.per'). These files contain the script commands that are used to create a new customized computer player. Use a text editor (one that displays line numbers is very helpful) to create your AI scripts, and copy them into the directory where you installed Age of Empires II, in the AI folder.
An empty text file with an .AI extension (for example, 'Marko.ai') should be created to make an entry appear in the list of computer players and in the scenario editor. The game will try to find a file with a matching .per extension that will be started when you pick that player. In your game's AI directory, you would then have 2 files:

C:Program FilesMicrosoft GamesAge of Empires IIAIMyAI.ai (This is an empty file that makes an entry in the game's list)

C:Program FilesMicrosoft GamesAge of Empires IIAIMyAI.per (This file contains your custom AI script of rules and facts)

You must have both a .PER and an .AI file with the same name for your script to function!
Conditional loading allows you to load only rules that fit particular game settings. The system is somewhat similar to the C/C++ preprocessor. The main differences are:
a)The conditional loading mechanism works in the same pass as the parser that loads rules; therefore it is not a preprocessor.
b)The conditional loading mechanism makes a decision on whether a rule is loaded or not. It does not make a decision on whether a rule is parsed.

The latter is a design decision aimed to make syntax checking as painless as possible: single loading of a script in any game setting will check all rules for syntax errors.

The system automatically provides a set of symbols that reflect the game settings. These symbols can be checked to make decisions on which rules should be loaded.

Conditional loading provides three major benefits:
a)The ability to integrate rules for a wide variety of settings into a single AI personality.
b)Rules that are loaded are faster. For example if rules that work only with water maps are loaded, it is not necessary for those rules to keep checking the map type.
c)Rules that do not apply to given settings are not loaded, thus saving memory space.…