computer difficulty and bonus

[Kimball]

What does "computer player difficutly" control and what does "computer player bonus" control? I noticed different "race opt" in the ai_general file for each race. Does either one of the above affect which race opt is chosen?

[Nitram Draw]

I think difficulty is how "smart" the AI plays.
The bonus is how much extra resource and intel/research the AI get. I think it is multiples, ie low bonus AI get 2 x its produced resources to use. Don't know the actual multiples though.

[DirectorTsaarx]

From the Malfador website Q&A:

AI Difficulty settings:

Low - The AI is quite dumb and will not use fleets. They should be pretty easy to engage and destroy. There is more of a chance for peaceful AI races in the galaxy.

Medium - The AI is of moderate intelligence. They will use fleets and all of the ministers in the game.

High - The AI uses all of its capabilities to destroy you. They also receive some bonuses in resources to help them along. There is a higher chance for aggressive AIs when starting a new game.
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And Nitram is right; the "bonuses" translate into multipliers. A couple other regulars here have calculated that low, medium and hign bonuses are 2x, 3x and 5x (respectively). These multipliers affect resource, research and intel production.

[Kimball]

Thanks for the info.

[raynor]

I don't think the AI gets extra resources as part of the bonus level. Rather, I think they get a faster production rate. An easy way to test this is to start a high bonus and high tech game. Take control of an AI player and start building a ship with a SM component. Shift control back to the computer for a couple of turns. When you take control of the empire again, you should see that the ship has much less time until completion than you would have expected.

[capnq]

If I understand it correctly, the three Race Opt settings define the race's characteristics for 2000, 3000, and 5000 point starts, respectively.

------------------
Cap'n Q

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft

[jc173]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by raynor:
I don't think the AI gets extra resources as part of the bonus level. Rather, I think they get a faster production rate. An easy way to test this is to start a high bonus and high tech game. Take control of an AI player and start building a ship with a SM component. Shift control back to the computer for a couple of turns. When you take control of the empire again, you should see that the ship has much less time until completion than you would have expected.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
They do seem to get a bonus for their Research and Intel production. At least checking on one of my AI's on low bonus shows that under the research and intel project allocation screens they are getting twice as many points as listed on their score. It doesn't seem like their getting any resource bonuses though. The amount listed under score seems to be match up with the amount listed on empire summary. Each individual colony seems to be producing the same as a player colony would. I check a 99% mineral world which had two mineral extractor III's on it, with a 5% population bonus and 20% happiness bonus, it was producing about 2.3k worth of minerals.

[Daynarr]

AI gets production bonus (I believe it is about 50%) when you select High difficulty level, not bonus. You will note that almost all AI's can build colonizer in 1 turn if they have Hardy Industrialists trait (25% production bonus), while this is impossible for human player.

[This message has been edited by Daynarr (edited 14 May 2001).]

[Marty Ward]

I'm not sure how much extra resources the AI gets but they do get some.
If you start a game on high bonus and everything else default and run one turn the AI's stored resource totals will be higher than expected. They will have full minerals stored and slightly more organic's and radioactive's than the human player.


[This message has been edited by Marty Ward (edited 15 May 2001).]

[Krakenup]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Daynarr:
AI gets production bonus (I believe it is about 50%) when you select High difficulty level, not bonus. You will note that almost all AI's can build colonizer in 1 turn if they have Hardy Industrialists trait (25% production bonus), while this is impossible for human player.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
This does not seem to be the case. The difficulty level does not affect the construction rate, but the bonus does. A low bonus gives the AI around a 50% construction rate increase. Medium bonus is about 100% increase, and high bonus is probably 150% or 200%.