Difficulty levels & AI skill ability

exeter0 · April 26, 2002, 04:12

Does AI skill levels change as you increase the difficulty level or is it just that they get the bonuses and discount rates offered in the editor on the difficulty tab?

Or are there strategies, tactics and AI logic streams that are engaged when on Emporer level and not at Warlord level etc?

Be really good to know a little more about this before delving in and changing editor values and altering play balance...

cheers.

Pius Popprasch · April 26, 2002, 04:27

Skills are the same. The A.I. isn't smarter at Deity. There are bonuses and also a changed attitude towards the human player.

Harovan · April 26, 2002, 05:17

Bonuses and handicaps.

At Chieftain and Warlord the AI is handicapped.
Regent is the fair level.
At Monarch, Emperor and Deity the AI gets bonuses.

planetfall · April 26, 2002, 15:49

Also discount rate at which AI will trade techs. See thread on tech whoring for details on discount rate in comment by Soren.

asleepathewheel · April 26, 2002, 20:27

check out the editor to see exactly what the bonuses to the AI are on each level. there you can also tweak.

exeter0 · April 26, 2002, 21:01

I understand that there are 'cheats' that you can apply to increase/decrease AI... but I wanted to know if there were any AI strategies and programming tactics that were not deployed by the AI until the user selected a certain level of difficulty.

Sort of like a chess computer game... where certain algorithms, strategies and look ahead/interpolation logic is applied with increasing 'competency' as the player selects higher levels.

For example... at warlord level I can understand that the AI might send out longbowman unescorted by spearmen... but at emporer level it will still do that... rather than insisting on having stacked unit hordes like we humans do.

It is a bit dissapointing that when you are in conflict the AI will unleash numerous 1-2 unit stacks rather than just a few 5-20 unit stacks.

Don't get me wrong... I think it is impressive the way that the AI will quickly take the opportunity to pounce on 'that lone horseman we forgot on our flank' and other similar tactics...

But it leads me to think that while the AI is good at playing a battle... it is less than competent at playing a war.

As I have never played Emporer or above... I wanted to know if the AI employed more challenging tactics.. or it just had better cheats.

asleepathewheel · April 26, 2002, 21:25

Quote:

Originally posted by exeter0

It is a bit dissapointing that when you are in conflict the AI will unleash numerous 1-2 unit stacks rather than just a few 5-20 unit stacks.

But it leads me to think that while the AI is good at playing a battle... it is less than competent at playing a war.

As I have never played Emporer or above... I wanted to know if the AI employed more challenging tactics.. or it just had better cheats.

The AI uses the same overall tactics at all of the levels.

I have seen huge stacks of units before. Like stacks of 30 immortals roaming around, attacking one city after another (I had a Right of Passage aggreement and though holy sh&t, hope they're not after me!) and I have seen other huge stacks, stacks of large numbers of infantry, cavalry, etc. I guess you just have to be in the right situation for that to happen. large map size, lots of cities. it is quite cool to see that much hardware in one battle.

ChaotikVisions · April 26, 2002, 21:34

Yeah, i've had the AI attack with huge stacks as well. When India gave England a right of passage, they marched through into my lands with a stack of about 20-25, then later when India came into the war also, they brought a stack of 20+ units.

exeter0 · April 26, 2002, 21:41

Wow and damn... i've never seen this... and I think I've only seen the AI with an army once!

Maybe Monarch level is too easy and i am dominating too early... except that when I tried Emporer level once I just got rushed by the Zulus who had about 4 archers, 4 spearmen and 6 warriors ascend from the shadows within 20 turns! It just didn;t seem rational. And they were already 3 techs up (and I had cheated by giving myself 4 techs on startup!!!).

asleepathewheel · April 26, 2002, 21:45

Quote:

Originally posted by exeter0
Wow and damn... i've never seen this... and I think I've only seen the AI with an army once!

Maybe Monarch level is too easy and i am dominating too early... except that when I tried Emporer level once I just got rushed by the Zulus who had about 4 archers, 4 spearmen and 6 warriors ascend from the shadows within 20 turns! It just didn;t seem rational. And they were already 3 techs up (and I had cheated by giving myself 4 techs on startup!!!).

I've actually seen huge armies roaming around on monarch. and I've seen the AI with multiple armies in use at once. not fun to go up against, unless they are a swordsmen army against tanks. then its fun.

exeter0 · April 26, 2002, 21:50

I don't think I'm playing the same game!

asleepathewheel · April 26, 2002, 21:56

Quote:

Originally posted by exeter0
I don't think I'm playing the same game!

haha, I play with huge maps, pangea, and 16 civs, so it is pretty tumultuous the whole game. one civ will go quite for a while, then pop up again with tons of attackers. pretty fun, esp. when you are the cause of the war, paying one of these civs to attack another.

exeter0 · April 26, 2002, 22:10

I play on a huge (220*220) map and 8 civs... I have less civs to allow each civ to have time to develop a good empire and have a great modern period slogging match.. it just doesn;t seem to work out that way...

I just end up doing a blitzkreig and get bored eventually.

Well I'm playing emporer now... but I slightly reduced the number of AI starting units... so we'll see. I also reduced their shield requirements to that of deity level... increased minimum tech research to 16 turns; but decreased AI to AI tech to 130.

dawidge · April 26, 2002, 23:47

Quote:

Originally posted by asleepathewheel

haha, I play with huge maps, pangea, and 16 civs, so it is pretty tumultuous the whole game. one civ will go quite for a while, then pop up again with tons of attackers. pretty fun, esp. when you are the cause of the war, paying one of these civs to attack another.

It's easy. All you need is a big island (continents or pangaea on a huge map) and AIs who hate each other on either side of you. Take out an ROP or two, grab a bucket of popcorn and watch the fun.

I recall one circumstance where I'd just finished digesting the Zulu territory (urp!) and had built up my defenses through conscription to have 4 defenders/city, so the AI considered me too strong to attack. England crosses my turf with 50(!!!) cavalry in two stacks plus a chain of stragglers (uhh, Persians, yeah, they're over there, ride past Zimbabwe and hang a left at the lake).

Meanwhile, I finally get tank tech, and pick off the weaker of the two (England) after nogiating a juicy deal for ROP and alliance vs England with Persia (I needed coal, he had coal, we made a deal

).

Later on, the Aztecs (MPPd with England) sail up to my coast with a dozen transports(!!!

and disgorge 8 tanks

A for effort, F for execution.

It was particularly amusing since the Persians went after the Aztecs and sent a stream of tanks of their own across my shiny new railroads to eliminate the Aztec horde.

They did this three times (why should I bother? It costs me nothing to watch them throw away their troops) before my five transports dropped 40 tanks on their beaches. I still saw the Aztec transports roaming the oceans, but they no longer seemed to have any tanks aboard