Does the AI "cheat"?

Nick_K · #1 March 6th, 2007, 03:34 PM

Gandalf - are you /sure/ that the only advantage the AI gets is starting points? I seem to face lots of enemies with very large armies even when their scales are not so impressive.

In fact, considering how poorly the AI uses its pretender design points I'd expect the different difficulties would not be very different in terms of how hard they are if this is the case. I was under the impression that the AI got a bonus to gold income at least on higher difficulties.

Gandalf Parker · #2 March 6th, 2007, 03:56 PM

You are right, I think that is correct. The AI does get that. On the average setting it gets everything the same as you.
But Im not sure if Id call it a "cheat" on higher settings. If you say "I want to play a mighty AI nation" then you get an AI with a mightier nation than you. Thats not a bad way of making up for the fact that the AI cant be as smart as you (much less a setting making it smarter than that)

Usually when people ask about cheating AI they mean seeing everyone on the map, making decisions based on knowing your moves, access to things that only the game can know.

Gandalf Parker · #3 March 6th, 2007, 04:36 PM

All right. I couldnt find where Johan had posted here the info we had in beta testing so I went back there and asked. He has given permission to post the exact formula.

Quote:

Johan K said:
Resource, magic gem and money bonuses are -30, 0, 30, 60, 100%
Design point bonuses are 0, 0, +50, +100, +150 pnts

mivayan · #4 March 6th, 2007, 04:46 PM

Minor cheats, or rule differences on normal (iirc):

The AI has a supply bonus even on normal since putting supply into army movement calculations is hard(tm).

When an AI has decided to launch an assassination spell like seeking arrow at you, target province is choosen randomly weighted by how many commanders you have in each province.

StrictlyRockers · #5 March 6th, 2007, 07:21 PM

Thanks for all of the information, guys. This is great stuff. I am starting to understand now why the AI opponents are so challenging and so much fun to play against.

Gandalf Parker · #6 March 6th, 2007, 07:50 PM

You should browse thru its brain sometime. Turning on the debug and looking at the log shows ALOT of code has gone into making it smarter since Dom2

Wick · #7 March 7th, 2007, 10:38 PM

The AI also knows who owns every province.

Gandalf Parker · #8 March 8th, 2007, 01:42 PM

Quote:

Wick said:
The AI also knows who owns every province.

I dont remember that being confirmed.
The game of course knows, which is why its one of the hardest things to do for AI. Program them to only know certain things. But the AI seems seperated.

Usually this comes from "it declared war on me and was no where near" but that usually ends up being from scouts or spells. Its very hard for normal players to verify.

The AI does seem to react to hidden units more than it should. Moving armies to provinces that have hidden units in them. But since that tends to get abused by the players it doesnt tend to get mentioned much.

Folket · #9 March 8th, 2007, 07:30 AM

The AI do get more gold and resources. that has been confirmed by the developers themself. That post should be on these boards and possible to find with a search.