Why do the CPU players attack their own?

[MarkoS]

I really love W:A, especially how it was in a way supported with patches until 2008 :)

I am playing the single-player missions again and have noticed that CPU players will frequently attack worms from another CPU team when there are no easy "human" targets... quite strange, eh?

[CyberShadow]

If they're not level 5 CPUs, that's intentional - they're not supposed to be very smart ;)

[GreeN]

All CPU teams act this way, don't they?

[CyberShadow]

I don't think a CPU5 would shoot one of its own, unless it was standing directly in the path between the worm and an enemy.

[GreeN]

Well I haven't tested recently, but I'm sure the OP is referring to the CPU team deliberately making a calculated attack on one of its own worms when there is no clear shot/path to you. I would imagine this would be even more so the case with CPU 5 teams, where they will not take a shot that cannot be achieved.

Edit: There was no point blabbering on without testing, so I just proved myself wrong. CPU 5 teams don't attack themselves. Also they will take an impossible shot. I was talking bull****.

[KRD]

CPU 5 quite often looks like it wants to attack an allied worm, though, but in the end narrowly misses it. Happens a lot when you pile your worms in such a way that prevents the AI from coming up with a good shot.

I guess it's there just so it doesn't do nothing for the remainder of its turn.

[Junkman]

CPU 5 worms will sometimes attack each other. Most of the time, they'll do it in the intent to hurt one of your worms, but there are rare instances where they would shoot other worms, or even themselves for no discernible reason.

That replay shows the CPU having quite a hard time not damaging their own worms. Check out the first 4 minutes as there's quite a lot of friendly CPU fire, and feel free to go and skip at 20 minutes to see a CPU 5 worm shooting itself for no reason. All this in an Elite Deathmatch!

[CyberShadow]

skip at 20 minutes to see a CPU 5 worm shooting itself for no reason.That was an ordinary shot misprediction (http://worms2d.info/CPU_shot_misprediction).

[Thurbo]

I assume deathmatches were quite impossible without the A.I.s being morons, and Team17 knew that. It's difficult enough fighting with 1-2 (most likely 1) worms against more than... I don't remember, 15 worms? Anyway all what deathmatches are about is figuring out the weak points of the A.I.

[Alien King]

That was an ordinary shot misprediction (http://worms2d.info/CPU_shot_misprediction).

So it's not always a deliberate miss?

[KRD]

Not always, no.

On occasion, I've seen the top difficulty AI burn itself terribly with oil drums as well. Seems like it doesn't take those into account at all.

[Plutonic]

I always used to see CPU5 players shoot allies (rather than own team) with shot gun.

[Junkman]

That was an ordinary shot misprediction (http://worms2d.info/CPU_shot_misprediction).
I always thought that the AI would usually take steps to not hurt itself, hence why I figured that was pretty bizarre behavior coming from a CPU 5 worm. That, and the wall wasn't really in the way of anything that would have involved hurting my worm.

If this is a miscalculation that's some pretty bizarre error. :)

Deathmatch was fun mainly to see how you could mess up the AI. Placing girders always seem to throw it off, as it'll usually try to shoot around the girder to get you instead of simply blowing it away and then finally get you in a future turn. That's what it deserves for trying to be fancy. :p

[CyberShadow]

It simply hit the stray pixel when it didn't intend to. If you removed the stray pixel, the shot would have hit land far away enough to not hurt the CPU worm (http://dump.thecybershadow.net/841bbbf8002ba92d9d54125fe5c83ef4/screen0508.png) - and if you were to remove all land, that shot would have nearly hit your worm (http://dump.thecybershadow.net/c26ee59ce9d4dd6cf28ddf883edf9e12/screen0507.png).

Edit: by popular request: alternative version of second screenshot (http://dump.thecybershadow.net/cf12e30f4ad71fd5975f9448355a41d8/screen0509.png)

[Explorer]

It simply hit the stray pixel when it didn't intend to.

Maybe it did intend to do that. I often saw CPU worms trying to cut the land with bazookas or grenades in order to hit your worm eventually.

[Alien King]

Maybe it did intend to do that. I often saw CPU worms trying to cut the land with bazookas or grenades in order to hit your worm eventually.

The two screenshots. Did you see them?

[Explorer]

The two screenshots. Did you see them?

You mean CyberShadow's ones? Yes I saw that before posting.

[fig00r]

I always used to see CPU5 players shoot allies (rather than own team) with shot gun.

With the shotgun, they tend to shoot one of mine, then one of their allies if they can't hit me the second time.

But I have seen them attacking allies with both grenades and bazooka.