has the AI been upgraded?

[mercurycs]

I bought this game when it first came out and was VERY excited about it. I played it for a bit and was very impressed with what I had seen. I then started reading Posts here that stated that the AI was not too strong once you became familiar enough with the game. I then proceeded to put my copy of the game away because I didn't want to invest too much learning time in a game that I will be able to slaughter all of the time. I unfortunately only play against the computer and not any humans, otherwise I wouldn't care about the AI so much. I was just wondering if any of the Last few patches have updated the AI at all. I REALLY want to get into this game now that I have more time available to me. or should I just wait for dominions III?

[Boron]

Though the AI is bad if you play with vh opponents on a crowded map it is not that easy too win .

But even against stuff like devils the ai can't do too much .

Fortunately a lot can be modded in dominions . So you could just really quick mod the AI a few advantages or use some mods . Especially the black moon mods are imo very nice . The troops there or in the Crusader mod are a bit tougher then most normal troops .
So once you can beat the game with the standard nations try winning against modded nations .

Dominions though is mainly a MP game . It is like diablo or starcraft . Though funny in sp for a short time it really shines in mp .

[Arralen]

Set indies to 7.
Less will make the AI expand to early with lots of small armies. More will actually slow it down too much.

Mod the supply factor to 300% or more.
The AI can't handle supply problems - neither by pathfinding nor be making supply items.
Some of this problems stem from the third:

The Ais still does not build castles - you have to provide them on the map for them.
Without additional castles, there's a lack of supplies. Furthermore the AI has difficulties recruiting heavy units with only one castle.

Use maps with 12..17 provinces per starting nation.

Use difficult/very difficult research
The AI doesn't really know about rushing for crucial spells. With slow research, it's standard troops have a longer "time frame" where they are useful.


With this setup (w/o add. castles, though), I have a "normal" AI (Marignon) seen build up an army of 340 units, 24 of them Fire Snakes and Summor Lions, 6 commanders (4 spellcasters), only 50 or so light inf and the rest medium Marignon Inf and crossbowman.
And that must have been about half the troops it had available at around turn 35 ..

[Beorne]

I'm tired to hear Dom2 has not a good AI. Dom2 is a lot more complex (ie has many more variables, or degrees of freedom or what you want) than any other game. The AI of Dom 2 is very good considering the exponential tree of possibilities the game has. In the vast majority of other strategic turn based games a good AI (or a high difficult game) is obtained by giving lot more resources to the computer player (you can say "cheating"). I think that Dom 2 is so complex that an ai that make reasoning comparable to human strategy in Dom2 could be embedded in a military computer not far form the matrix movies one. I'm joking but you have understood what I mean. Artifical intelligence is an extremely difficult (and in the Last years almost dead due to difficulty) field of computer science.
A great thank to the developers to the effort (in the ai too) put in the game!

[Agrajag]

Beorne said:
In the vast majority of other strategic turn based games a good AI is obtained by giving lot more resources to the computer player /(you can say "cheating").

Well, that's also true for domII =P

Anyway, while the end result will probably be you slaughtering the AI, it can take a lot (and I mean a lot) of time getting to that point.
I don't play that much, so Im no vet, but Im still having troubles beating the AI. (yeah yeah, shame on me)
Oh, and besides that, you can make the AI better by modding extra powerful nations for it, or deciding what nation you want him to play and then add +2 to all of his units' stats, its cheating, but it can make things a whole lot harder.

I'd advise against putting down Dom II if your reasoning behind that decision is AI.

BTW, if you wanna see really sucky AI, go play Warlords IV, the AI there couldnt beat a ten-year-old and the game has no balance (as an example, playing the elven race means winning, and playing against them just gives you a headache).
Though the Warlords: Battlecry (RTS Warlords) game has much better AI, I still can't beat the ultimate difficulty (thuogh Ive stopped playing, because of Dom II among other things, so I probably can't beat it even on knight difficulty :\).

Don't let Dom II slip from your hands!

[Taqwus]

In terms of extremely weak AI/low difficulty, the game 'Ascendancy' has a heck of a reputation, but I can't vouch for it personally.

[mercurycs]

I wasn't even aware the the AI didn't build castles. that is too bad. that would make it much more difficult I think. how is the AI compared to the Civilization series?? Civ III kicks my butt even on the lower levels. I guess I'll put Dominions back on my shelf until the next patch and I will hope and pray that there will be an adjustment to the AI. At least so they build castles. I know nothing about programming so can only assume it would be a monumental task to alter.

[Endoperez]

The code-writing developer doesn't like AI programming.

As someone suggested, playing maps with pre-placed castles AI can conquer would help. And while the AI won't be able to do everything, it will still prove quite a challenge. Especially if you play one of the races that depend more on armies and less on magic. In multiplayer most national units become worthless in few turns, but in single-player I find using them more rewarding than bLasting enemies by magic.

[alexti]

mercurycs said:how is the AI compared to the Civilization series??

I would it say it is better than in Civ III. I've found Civ AI relatively competitive only on the hardest level, where it has insane bonuses. Dom2 AI, even on hardest level has fewer bonuses, though hardest Dom2 AI is somewhat easier to beat than hardest Civ III AI. One problem with Dom2 AI is that you need to play very specific tactis to win against it, which is totally unlike the strategy one would play in MP.

I don't remember AI in Civ I/II very well, but I think in both of them you could win reliably against the hardest AI. At least I remember playing England to start on the small island and make game more challenging...

mercurycs said:Civ III kicks my butt even on the lower levels.

That's not normal. You need to practice more

[PrinzMegaherz]

Blizzard games tend to have a good AI.

I I remember one game of starcraft where I heavily fortified my position with lots of rocket turrets around my base, enough to destroy anything airborne the enemy might throw against me.

I lost the game due to the fact that the AI did not bother to destroy the defence and strictly flew towards my main base, loosing about half its aircrafts.

But then, on a per developer basis, dom 2 surely owns all other game AIs