Re: SP AI definitely still questionable.
 

That may be, but sending the prophet or pretender with a small army on what's essentially a suicide mission is what I'd call a problem.

Re: SP AI definitely still questionable.
 

Depends on the pretender I guess. If they're immortal and your in their dominion, it makes perfect sense.
Besides, I've used my pretender on suicide missions myself, especially if they can cast some nasty spells. If your in a last ditch defensive situation, using your pretender as a nuke can sometimes be useful. I dunno, the pretender as a whole is far less important in Doms 3. In fact, each time I've set an awakening option I've had nothing for the pretender to do by the time they arrive.

Re: SP AI definitely still questionable.
 

Sure, in some cases it can be a good idea to let your pretender be killed (not so much with the prophet though), but I doubt the AI behaviour is limited to those cases.

Re: SP AI definitely still questionable.
 

I don't know, I've only managed a few games so far. I haven't seen the AI attack with it's pretender when it wasn't on the ropes though, I've also noticed a few more inanimate pretenders being taken by the AI.

Re: SP AI definitely still questionable.
 

I think it is vastly improved, since I lost maybe two games of Dom 2 in all the time I played it (I only play SP) but have lost 3 of 4 games so far with Dominions 3.

The biggest problem that has been around since I first got Dom 2 is enemy pretenders picking death-3 scales on non-Ermor nations. This is probably the single most frustrating thing about Dominions to me. I hate coming to a new nation and killing its 100 total troops and taking its 5000-person populated capital all due to heavy death scales. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Re: SP AI definitely still questionable.
 

We're not talking immortal pretenders / prophets, nor last ditch situations : in my case, Abysia was _ahead_, only me coming close, and yet they pissed away prophets and pretenders to no good purpose.

It still ain't particularly good as an SP game.

M-Santa : Worse : Non-death AI nations casting Burden of Time in Dom2. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: SP AI definitely still questionable.
 

Caine you are imho to harsh to the AI.

The AI builds now castles, so imho you are challenged enough if you take impossible AIs. The big AI hordes usually give you lots of trouble.

The suicidal Gods might be a bit annoying, but if you take a look at Aow 2 SM or Warlords 4, there the AI is rather suicidical with their Heroes too.

The AI imho provides enough challenge in SP and given the complexity of the game you can imho call the AI decent.

Re: SP AI definitely still questionable.
 

It's a pity Illwinter didn't include a bot interface to Dominions III. It might have been fun to play around with.

Re: SP AI definitely still questionable.
 

I totally agree. The AI is much much better now. I've almost never lost an SP game in Doms 2 [just in very rare situations, like a 5+ front war]. Now that I have the full game, I've played 2 MP games so far, and 1 SP game. I lost that SP game against impossible AIs. In fact I was owned. Well the situation was bad too, since I started in the middle, so basically I was attacked from south first, then an other AI began to invade me from north with a huge army, and a couple of other smaller armies. Impossible AIs are a hardcore challenge now.


There are some things what should be improved regarding the AI [especially when the AI is doing insane things like attacking a province defended by 200 troops with 20 troops an 4 commanders, or 20 troops and a pretender], but which AI is perfect? I am sure that the devs will try to improve these problematic things as well.

Re: SP AI definitely still questionable.
 

Note that those can be considered 'probing attacks'. AI will lose those battles 100% of the time IF you keep those forces in that province. If you decide to move them, you will lose that province. That way AI effectively ties your forces to a province. It shouldn't be doing that with pretenders though.

Also, AI's can make dumb things sometimes. Declaring AI as dumb just because it does those things sometimes will make us ALL dumb as will ALL do dumb things sometimes. Simply put Caine, you didn't play with this AI long enough to declare it good or bad.