[Peter Ebbesen]

Originally posted by Arryn:
It's too bad that none of these patches have ever addressed the fundamental weakness of EU/EU2/HoI: a monumentally stupid AI. Dominions II AI is by far better, even with the spellcasting and shoot-your-own-troops flaws.

EU2 runs real time with typically 40-100 different factions active at the same time, Dominions 2 is turn based with fewer factions and sometimes spends 30 seconds or more computing a turn on my 2.4Ghz machine. Guess which can allocate most CPU cycles to the AI?

The EU2 AI throws attacks at stupid provinces, repeatedly, often with too few forces, and when it has enough forces, it wastes untold number of troops to attrition. In comparison, the Dominions II AI throws attacks at stupid provinces, repeatedly, often with too few forces, and when it has enough forces, it wastes untold numbers of troops to attrition.... Hmmm. wait a moment...

As for monumentally stupid, in my experience that is a label that one eventually, unfairly or not, tends to put on any AI as soon as one has learned how to beat it. I am still new enough to Dominions II, having only had it for a month, to be impressed by the fight the AI can put up - but I am already beating it on a regular basis when fighting against a full roster of "impossible" AIs.

That does not mean that the AI is bad - it just means that I am better at taking advantage of its weaknesses that it is of mine, and that I am far, far, better at projecting the long-term outcome of my actions than the AI is, but so what else is new? That is the case in all strategy games.