At what difficulty does the AI cheat?

NTJedi · #1 February 23rd, 2004, 05:19 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Psitticine:

The difficulty levels control how many points the AI has to spend on its nation. On the Easy level, the AI has less points than the player. On Normal, everybody has the same, and the higher difficulty levels mean more design points for the AI nations.

Other than that, the AI has to play by the same rules as the player.

The AI should earn more research points during mid and late game for higher difficulty levels. The AI seems to ignore the idea of placing units into research... causing human players to take the lead by mid and late game.

ioticus · #2 February 23rd, 2004, 07:27 PM

I'm noticing in my current game the AI is not using a lot of units to research so I'm easily out researching them. Also, does the AI ever build forts? It doesn't seem to. Does the AI ever forge magic items? Again, it doesn't seem to. I hope these problems can be fixed in a patch.

Taqwus · #3 February 23rd, 2004, 07:44 PM

The AI does appear to forge items; I've seen commanders, especially pretenders, decked out in gear albeit perhaps not the most logical selections. It will also use empowerment, global enchantments, remote summons...
It does research, but might not emphasize it enough for a large slow-paced game.
As far as I recall, it does not yet build castles.

Daynarr · #4 February 23rd, 2004, 08:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Taqwus:
As far as I recall, it does not yet build castles.

Unless there is a random event or magic site that will give you Fortified City, he does

.
However he doesn't do it very often (maybe cost of castle could be the reason).

Master Shake · #5 February 24th, 2004, 07:29 PM

The AI does know your province defense the turn you set it. I think this might be linked to the fact that you cannot "unbuy" province defense purchased that round, as if it gets saved. It is clear the AI hasaccess to this info.

Does anyone know if the AI on diffcult level starts with a larger army? I sometimes run into the AI on turn 3 or 4, and they have some damn big armies, that do not appear to be merc-based.

Taqwus · #6 February 24th, 2004, 07:51 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Daynarr:

quote:
Originally posted by Taqwus:
As far as I recall, it does not yet build castles.

Unless there is a random event or magic site that will give you Fortified City, he does .
However he doesn't do it very often (maybe cost of castle could be the reason).

I think I've gotten Fortified Cities from events, actually -- isn't that the "city builds a ring fortress" one?

Daynarr · #7 February 24th, 2004, 08:55 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Taqwus:
I think I've gotten Fortified Cities from events, actually -- isn't that the "city builds a ring fortress" one?

Hmm, never got that event but it's possible.

Not sure what are reasons behind such AI-don't-like-building-castles behavior but I remember seeing that discussion in another thread earlier (somewhere at the time when game was released). I guess main problem is how to make AI realize what is best time and place to invest in building castles.