Classic Builds

[Uh-Nu-Buh]

I echo Alexti. Brute power is going to be the best course for Dom III AI unless/until we get the ability to improve the AI itself.

Developers: As part of the current nation Mods you could have a "production weight" that AIs use. E.g. a nation mod that has a good basic lt inf, hvy inf, and missileer, then a number of variations of the above that produce subtle effects (e.g. a unit that is specialized for pillaging but isn't very good at actual combat) could heavily weight the basic troops so the subtle troops are never produced. The AI could then have a better chance of success. This would allow a modder to produce some real surprises for NIs as well (natural intelligences).

HoneyBadger: it seems to me that the best immediate way for us as players to do this is to create a mod for each nation that gives the AI the best of that nation, and gets rid of the subtle and flotsam. E.g. Arcoscephale EA would no longer have the pansy suicidal winged infantry. They are useful to the superior player, but the AI misuses them 9 out of 10 times. Maybe make the Myrmidons 10% cheaper. Create a couple of brute force gods to go with it: maybe two different SCs.

Another way would be to have the AI use more powerful moded nations. The mod I did a few weeks ago has horrible graphics, but it is awesome for the ai to play--The Hive. I am tempted to go back and actually put some real graphics in the mod and edit it specifically for the AI. In fact, I have two mods that the AI kicks butt with, and I will take a look at redoing them to make them even better for the AI to use, without cheating too much.

[HoneyBadger]

I'll have to look at the Hive-intriguing name by the way. I think your modding idea is a good one, but it'll take some time to get off the ground. Still, it's a good idea, and any more specifics for nations, as far as how to mod them to get the best result for the AI would be appreciated by whomever makes those mods and the rest of us.

[Valandil]

Gandalf did a pretender database for Dom (2? 1?)a while back. I don't know if it still exists, but that could be a helpful thing to add to for Dom3.

As for AI (instead of new players), giving them a human-built pretender negates all the AI bonuses (as mentioned), and AI usually fails to employ the strategy intended anyway, hence, I wouldn't bother with AI pretenders (generally).

[HoneyBadger]

Maybe the designers should look into the possibility of creating maybe 3-5 set-ups for each AI, with or without overlap for difficulty levels, and then have the computer randomly choose a build from set-ups that will compliment the AI. In the meantime, we can address set ups that work for players, and continue to speculate about what setups would compliment which AI nation.

[Ironhawk]

Immortal pretenders might be good picks for the AI, also. You know they will still get them killed somehow anyway, but the immortality just might save them once or twice?

To that end I would say that a good AI pretender might be:

F9 Phoenix

He is immortal for a little more survivability. And he has only one path of magic so the AI wont be ridiculous trying to cast random buffs from like 5 different paths. Hopefully he would make a good artillery platform for the AI.

[quantum_mechani]

For the AI, I don't think you can do a lot better than a simple dom9 no-magic wyrm.

[Gandalf Parker]

The original "Predesigned Pretenders" was from Dominions (one, the original) and are at the bottom of this page which only exists in the WayBackMachine which stores long lost websites.
http://web.archive.org/web/200306031...com/stuff.html

My Dom2 version was a combo of premades for newbies (meant to be funny and beatable) and a tutorial:
"Eventually I should have a downloadable set of gods, a starter game with all the nations, and the same game at various stages (turn 10, turn 100). Plus of course an online explanation. The project so far is in Starter Files"
http://www.dom2minions.com/starter/

That dropped from lack of public interest, then there was the "Random Opponents" project.
http://www.dom2minions.com/Opponents.shtml
and then the "Semi-Random Maps" project
http://www.dom2minions.com/SemiRandom.shtml
among others at the www.Dom2Minions.com site

An example of using map-commands to give the AIs gods can be found here.
http://www.dom2minions.com/WEvsTHEM.shtml
The Deadly Atlantis Rlyeh Ermor alliance (D.A.R.E.) had all 3 setup with extra castles, good chokepoints on the map, allied to each other, and with sibling pretenders (dragons). Also extra units and equipment.

Feel free to use any of them as partial ideas on how this might progress.
Gandalf Parker

[HoneyBadger]

Thanks Gandalf.