>1. Nicowar could really benefit from better handling of resource overgrowth
Nicowar places clearing areas around buildings so that there is always a 1x1 tiles edge around it. This is the perfect situation, but it works most of the time (Nicowar is pretty good at handling unit counts).
Suggestion: Nicowar could create massive clearing areas (whole bases, not just buildings), and clearing paths to other swarms (which would link to more base clearing areas etc). This would mean they wouldn't get trapped anymore, but can Nicowar handle the unit count needed?
>2. It would be nice if Nicowar always planned its attack route and kept it clear of resource obstacles.
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>When Nicowar's enemy is using resource walls, it would be better if Nicowar usually chose to attack through the wall by clearing it, because this will generally find a less well defended part of the enemy base.
Nicowar does this in the latest commit, to some extent. Its not very effeciant, but it set a heap of clearing flags to an enemy swarm and wipped it out, then did so one by one for the rest of the enemies.
Suggestion: Nicowar could set clearing flags only where nessesary (it set them on resources that were not blocking the way on the game I observed). It could also target swarms, and when none are left, target inns, and when they are gone, hospitals (before finally getting rid of the rest). Quite a few inns and hospitals were trapped in resources and were not targeted towards the end of the game, so it never won ^_^
>3. Nicowar should use its ground attack explorers once it gets level 4 schools to attack enemy bases and to support ground attacks.
With the new Nicowar, it beat, with ease, 7 castor before reaching level 4 schools. Even if this was implemented it, chances are it will never be used :P Nicowar is just too quick! It pretty much wins on its unit conversions alone!
>4. Nicowar should notice when it is being attacked by ground attack explorers and defend with its own explorers and new defense towers (and also switch its chosen target to the attacking player).
Plans to place towers within the base have been mentioned. It would certainly help! But Nicowar also needs to recognize when its getting attack (not only by air) but by land too, and not just by warriors. I saw an instance of an enemy tower taking out 5 perfectly good inns and 20 workers because it wasn't destroyed before they start building in the area, and Nicowar didn't react! :P
>5. it would be good if it built another hive near wheat sooner, and turned off its initial hive to prevent wasting worker effort. Otherwise it performs _extremely_ poorly in this situation, due to the long worker trips in feeding the hive.
Good point. Defiantly worth looking into (in general though, build new swarms when the old ones get more than 20 tiles away from a decent food source, not just the initial one).
>6. It would be nice if Nicowar switched into war mode (and chose the attacking player as its target) if attacked early.
This would require a complete set of tasks then I'd imagine. Nicowar + Warrush combined into one unified AI would make a killer AI (literally ^_^). That way you either kill Nicowar fast (and you succeed, or you fail, and the warrush takes effect and you get smashed) or you wait until later in the game, and take the build up approach :P I also see, from the game with nicowar vs. 2 warrush, nicowar looses easily. Adding a warrush approach would defiantly help it have a chance.
>7. Nicowar should clear wheat/wood in order to have a good path to stone/algae for building schools.
Among other things. Yes, this would definitely be a good thing to add. But again, it uses more workers, something thats very hard to keep above the red :P
>8. When farming, Nicowar should designate areas to grow wood or wheat
Helpful, but probably a lot of work for nothing.