AI nation skills

Zeldor · #1 October 21st, 2007, 05:58 PM

I've played that game many games already and what I noticed is that AI handles some nations much better than others. Did you observe that too? If it's common I think it should be addressed in a patch, I don't like getting same nations getting strong every time and some other disappearing even faster.

I have played mainly MA against difficult AI, so if you have any observations write that age and difficulty.

MA:

Nations that are extremely strong, always:
Ermor [huge armies, huge numbers of castles]
Pangea [rapid expansion, huge armies]
Oceania [unless it meets R'lyeh]

Above average nations [that most often are stronger than average with some unlucky moments]:
Mictlan
Pythium
Jotunheim

Very weak nations:
Bandar Log [huge research, dies very fast, huge problems with fighting indies]
Caelum [dies fast]

I play TC most of the time so I don't know about their performance...

sum1lost · #2 October 21st, 2007, 06:11 PM

It has to do with the amount of rubbish units that the AI has available to buy/obtain, I've found. The AI is also rather solid with MA and LA agartha, oddly enough- if it has enough resources. I think that this might be because these nations have no real chaff recruitables (similarly to pythium...)

Edi · #3 October 21st, 2007, 06:13 PM

In the EA the AI always does well with the glamour nations (Vanheim, Helheim, Tir na n'Og), Ermor and Ulm. It also gets decent mileage out of Yomi and sometimes Pangaea. Depends a lot on what scales it picks, misfortune 3 tends to slow it down a lot.

Zeldor · #4 October 21st, 2007, 07:10 PM

AI should really be able to adjust pretenders and scales to the map size.

Fate · #5 October 21st, 2007, 08:26 PM

in so far as it picks randomly, that would be nice. Anything is better than random.

Sombre · #6 October 21st, 2007, 11:21 PM

In terms of vanilla balanced mod nations the AI is surprisingly strong with Arga Dis. It gave me fits just by cramming huge numbers of Argan Hoplites down my throat early on.

NTJedi · #7 October 22nd, 2007, 02:27 AM

One of the greatest benefits an AI can receive is an order_3 and productivity_3. It's gold income increases per difficulty level and an order_3 can really make it powerful. I've seen and felt the difference.

To better understand which AI nations are the strongest each would have to be given identical scales with identical pretenders of small size on the most balanced map which can be found. The human player can provide himself two separate provinces with no neighbors, high astral mage pretender at start to cast eyes of god. Rotate starting positions and record results after 100 turns.
**Water nations should be tested separately since most AI land nations lack the knowledge for attacking water provinces.**

Chaos_3 and Unluck_3 really make a weak AI, Death_3 weakens the AI long term.

Saxon · #8 October 22nd, 2007, 08:58 AM

Another option, very easy to implement, is to �stale� your first three or four turns. Just hit end turn and do not give any orders for the first few turns. While it does not change how the AI performs, it gives the human a big disadvantage. As the growth tends to be exponential, those lost turns at the start really hurt in the long run.

I regret that I do not remember who first posted this idea, as they deserve credit for such a simple fix.

Meglobob · #9 October 22nd, 2007, 09:03 AM

Play on NI (no independent maps) helps alot.

Set resources to 300 helps the impossible AI as well.

Zeldor · #10 October 22nd, 2007, 10:16 AM

AI strength is not my biggest problem. I would like to see all AIs equal. I do not want to have always strong Ermor against me. I would like to meet strong Bandar Log or Caelum. Now if you play on a big map with most nations in you may expect that the same nations will be your biggest threat.