FAF features several advanced AI that offers significant improvements over the default AI. In particular, depending on the AI these can include:
For example, by one measure the fastest custom AI was more than twice as fast as the default Adaptive AI (August 2022), while the Adaptive AI could lose to the most competitive custom AI even with a 100% boost to its resource generation and build speed (although as the base Adaptive AI is under active development this may change).
Further details on the custom AI available in FAF, and how to play using them, are given below.
Each AI has a different style of playing, so be sure to try different AI to see the ones that you like the most.
Author: Uveso
Other mods required: None
This AI is a turtle-focused AI that is designed mainly for 10km maps. It supports Nomads and other unit mods.
The AI-Uveso mod also allows for the generation of 'map markers', which are used by the default AI and certain another custom AI (as of writing, March 2023, AI-Swarm, Marlo's Sorian Edit, Sorian AI, and RNGAI, although RNGAI is expected to be updated to use separate map markers in the near future). I.e. enabling AI-Uveso with these other AI mods can improve their performance.
AI Variants: Easy, Rush, Adaptive, Experimentals, Overwhelm. Uveso Rush is suggested as the more competitive of these variants.
Author: Relent0r
Other mods required: AI-Uveso
AI is aimed at players wanting to learn 1v1 gameplay. It provides an avenue to play against something that emulates some of the methods ladder players use!
AI Variants: RNG Standard, RNG Standard Experimental. RNG Standard is suggested as the more competitive of these variants.
Author: maudlin27
Other mods required: None
Adaptive AI, intended for both 1v1 and team games. Provides a competitive player-like experience, with an estimated rank of 800-1100 (i.e. better than the average FAF player).
Further details on M27AI are available on its forum thread, including a detailed devlog of the AI's progress.
Author: maudlin27
Other mods required: None
Adaptive AI, intended for both 1v1 and team games. Provides a competitive experience, with an estimated rank of 600-800. Compared with M27AI, M28AI aims to provide a more CPU-performant AI that works better in team game scenarios, applying a decentralised approach to AI decisions to work more effectively on larger maps. Although slightly weaker than M27AI overall (as of v1 release, May 2023), it is compatible with a wider range of mods and map settings and runs roughly twice as fast as M27AI.
M28AI also supports the FA and SC campaign missions (as an AI teammate)
Further details on M28AI are available on its forum thread, including a detailed devlog of the AI's progress.
Author: Dragun101
Other mods required: SCTABalance, SCTAFix, and AI-Uveso
Note that this AI is part of the wider SCTA conversion mod, and requires both the SCTABalance and SCTAFix modes to work (which result in the two total annihilation-based factions as playable options for humans and the SCTA AI). The AI comes as part of these two mods.
Author: Degulum/!MarLo
Last updated: October 2022
Other mods required: AI-Uveso
Based on the Sorian AI, this mod looks to make improvements to the logic to provide a more competitive experience.
Author: Softles
Last updated: July 2021
Other mods required: None
Aggressive land-focused AI is particularly effective at the T1-T2 stages of the game.
See also the forum thread for DilliDalli
Author: Softles
Last updated: May 2021
Other mods required: None
Functioning AI that was a predecessor to DilliDalli - considered inferior to DilliDalli.
Author: much stuff
Last updated: September 2021
Other mods required: AI-Uveso
Designed to battle against turtle human players on 20x20+ maps with lots of mass points. Best in a 1v1 environment.
Author: Skouby
Last updated: June 2021
SACUAI was entered in the 2021 computer cup, placing 4th out of the 8 AI entered.
Author: Softles
Last updated: Jun 2018
Other mods required: None
Functioning AI that was a predecessor to Dalli and DilliDalli - considered inferior to DilliDalli.
Author: Sorian
Last updated: Unknown
Other mods required: None
When released Sorian AI represented an improvement to the base AI in FAF. Note though that the base adaptive AI has been updated more recently and is more likely to provide a greater competitive experience than the Sorian AI.
AI variants: Sorian, Rush, Air, Water, Turtle, Adaptive
The following AI has previously been developed for FAF, but currently does not work, and are noted briefly for reference.
Author: Azraeel
Last updated: October 2022
Other mods required: AI-Uveso
Swarm stopped working following changes made to FAF in February 2023. Although the author is currently unavailable, it is hoped that they may update Swarm at some point in the future to fix this issue.
This AI is a multi-use AI that is designed mainly for 10km maps. It provides an additional (optional) 'Eternal' game setting that provides the AI with a steadily increasing resource and builds a modifier to make it more challenging as the game progresses.
Note that this AI may have compatibility issues with RNGAI.
Variants: Terror, Eternal.
Further details on SwarmAI are provided in its forum thread, including suggested maps to play it on.
Most custom AIs for FAF can be accessed from the mod vault in the client. You can either search for the name of a specific AI or search for mods containing the name "AI" (although note this will also bring up several irrelevant results).
As of writing, popular AI mods have also been included in the M&M Team top pics section of the mod vault.
Once you have found the custom AI that you want to try, click on the blue download button to download the mod.
You should then be able to enable the mod from the mods section when hosting a game. You can either do this when creating a game through the client (by looking for the AI mod in the SIM section):
Alternatively, you can enable the mod from the game lobby itself by selecting "Options", and then "Mods":
Browse to the relevant AI mod you want to use, and make sure it is selected (i.e. it should be highlighted in blue):
Once enabled, you can select the custom AI as one or more of the players in a game via the drop-down menu. You can either select the 'normal' (non-cheating) AI version of the mod, or the "AIx" (cheating) version of the mod.
Typically the AIx version of an AI will receive a bonus to its resources and build speed (by default a 50% bonus but this can be adjusted via the game options), and by default receives map-wide omni vision (again this can be turned off via the game options).
Certain AI mods may provide multiple options/AI variants.
Note that some AI mods may recommend or require other mods to be enabled, so please check the mod description for the particular AI you want to use if there are any special requirements noted.
The following are general suggestions for creating games with AI - note that depending on specific comments/descriptions made for the AI you are using these may not apply.
You can provide feedback on particular AI in the FAF discord, through the ai-feedback channel. To view this channel, go to the roles selection channel on the FAF discord and indicate a preference for AI games in the "What Are Your Game Preferences? Part 2 section.
Alternatively, you can join the AI developers discord.
Note that there is less likely to be a response regarding AI that are not under active development.
If reporting a bug with an AI, the following will be helpful for the AI developer to investigate it further:
Rainbow Cup tournaments have been held every 6-12 months, the most recent of which, Rainbow Cup VI, is linked below:
https://forum.faforever.com/topic/5400/rainbow-cup-vi-3v3-1-500
These tournaments typically pit 2 human teams against each other, with the AI featuring as a 3rd (and/or 4th) team in the game. When one human team loses, the other human team wins the match.
A number of the games in the tournament are cast, and links to the first 2 (out of 3) days of the Rainbow Cup VI casts are below:
Day 1 - Rainbow Cup VI
Day 2 - Rainbow Cup VI
Casted games of the 5th Rainbow Cup are unavailable, but the RCV forum post contains more details of how the tournament was run.
Casted games from the 4th Rainbow Cup are available on youtube, with further details on the tournament available on the forum.
Many AI tournaments have been held highlighting:
Details of the AI tournaments that were run and a summary of their results are available on the forum.
Note however that these AI tournaments would only show a snapshot at a particular time, and a number of the AI featured have received significant updates since then.
A computer cup tournament was held in June 2021, which includes the results of the AI vs AI component of this.
A separate page outlines various tips for making maps more AI-friendly.
Interested in getting into AI development? Check out the separate page on AI modding.