Computer Difficulty and Bonus ?
 

I decided to play a game agains the AI again for a change. But now I had one question, if I set computer difficulty to high will the computer actually play "smarter" ? or will it just cheat.

And does anyone know what exacly is done by the bonus setting ? (and the differences between none to high)

Thanks.

Re: Computer Difficulty and Bonus ?
 

Ok

IIRC
Difficulty setting just says what ministers the AI uses (so its recommended to be on high regardless)

And bonuses just gives the AI extra things at the start
I think, Im not sure on that one

Re: Computer Difficulty and Bonus ?
 

From the FAQ:

1.4 AI Difficulty and Bonus
1.4.1 AI bonuses applies to intelligence, research and resources, exist in x2, x3 and x5. Construction rates: Low x1.5, medium x2, high x3 (Suicide Junkie, Rexxx)
1.4.2 AI Difficulty: Setting the AI difficulty to Medium or Low causes some of the ministers to be disabled for that empire. High Difficulty makes the AI use all of its ministers. Setting this below "high" is not recommended. (Suicide Junkie)

Re: Computer Difficulty and Bonus ?
 

thanks.

Re: Computer Difficulty and Bonus ?
 

For a really good game do the following.

Set AI bonuses both to high
Set Racial PT to 5k
Manually edit your race taking 50% on all characteristics and no adv. Racial traits and choose the neutral culture.

Begin and enjoy.

Re: Computer Difficulty and Bonus ?
 

One more option I would recommend in the game setup: choose the AI team mod. This will prevent wars between the AI races and they will fight all together your empire.

Re: Computer Difficulty and Bonus ?
 

The AI team mode does NOT prevent war between IA as far as I remenber. They just can't accpet treaty with you.

Re: Computer Difficulty and Bonus ?
 

You can set that setting in the setup screen; "Team Mode: All AI players versus all Human players" in Game Settings. You won't need a mod for that (though I'm not sure if it works, never tried it).

Re: Computer Difficulty and Bonus ?
 

This setting does only flag human as Evil Empire, it does not affectrelation between AI. I use "AI team mode" instead of setting because I have mistaken the 2 words.

Re: Computer Difficulty and Bonus ?
 

Actually setting it to team mode does have an effect on the AI's relations with each other, it just doesn't prevent them from making war. They will get a bonus in their feelings towards each other. I'm not sure of the exact amount of the bonus and it can be overcome by other factors.

In a large game with many AI they will be brotherly towards and partner with most of the other AI. But if there are AI that are close to them and claim systems that they want or whatever the other factors are, they will go to war with them.

Human players they will pretty much hate regardless of anything else.

Re: Computer Difficulty and Bonus ?
 

Version 1.87:
...
12. Fixed - In Computer Versus Human games, the AI's would get negative happiness modifiers on treaties (partnership) they were forced to have.
...

I guess they are only "forced to have" a partnership when they initially meet???

Re: Computer Difficulty and Bonus ?
 

I think that's just a poorly written history item. The happiness modifier is refering to the happiness of the populations on the planets. The other factor I was refering to is the AI anger which controls whether an AI will make a treaty with another empire. My understanding is there is no hard code switch that says "You must make a partnership with this AI race" rather what he's done is use the exsisting mechanics and simply give each AI bonus points to the AI anger variable. So they will tend towards partnership with AI players unless some other factors override that. In some tests I did creating a scenario once I could see from turn to turn some adjacent AI players would form a partnership, then get angry and declare war, then form a partnership again, in a continuing cycle. That's where I got the impression that it wasn't a hard code imperative, but a massaging of the anger values that was controlling their treaties with each other. So I think he doesn't literally mean "forced" in the history log. But I guess I don't know without someone asking him directly.

Re: Computer Difficulty and Bonus ?
 

Interesting. I always thought that in computer vs. human games all the AI's were locked into a partnership.

Re: Computer Difficulty and Bonus ?
 

That's what I see in my games. They may have a murderous mood towards other AI empires, but they have and maintain a partnership treaty.

Re: Computer Difficulty and Bonus ?
 

The AI in SEIV does not "cheat" in the same sense as Civ, where all of the computer players start out with knowledge of the entire map, or the old Strategic Conquest games where the starting computer city received a bonus in building armies and the human player’s starting city was further away from neutral cities than the computer was. Only “Ancient Races” start with knowledge of the entire map; that race must “pay” for that trait in racial points, AI or not, and the map is subject to fog-of-war. The "Bonus", as previously mentioned, affects every AI's production and construction rates. Unless Team mode is activated and until a human reaches Mega-Evil empire status, the AI will co-operate with a human player as well or as badly as any other AI player (Again, no global "cheating").

However, it does appear that the AI “knows” your score, even if “Can view score of all players” is not selected. Since some of the AI diplomacy actions are dependant upon the score ratio, this is probably the only “cheat” where the AI has information that a human doesn’t automatically have.

As far as the team mode, running test games where I "check" by changing all AI to human from the "Players" menu and looking at logs, the AI immediately forms a partnership upon meeting another AI and immediately goes to war upon meeting a human. I can not answer if the treaties are permanent, but they appear to be holding for at least 50 turns, independent of anger level or mood.

Re: Computer Difficulty and Bonus ?
 

The AI seems to be able to see the cargo on a planet as well. It uses this information to determine if it would be a bad idea to attack it.

Re: Computer Difficulty and Bonus ?
 

What cargo would that be? Fighters? Drones? At least in the beginning, the various AI will happily march to their death blowing up their escorts, frigates and destroyers against my mines and WP. Is this a mid or end game calculation?

Re: Computer Difficulty and Bonus ?
 

I think it is more of a deciding factor in which target to attack, not necessarily whether to attack or flee.