The AI Pretender design is insane!

[Loren]

I just took out an enemy pretender.

F9 W9 E9 S9 D9 N4! No wonder I have been fighting through some pretty bad terrain!

[Sombre]

That must be on impossible. All those extra design points put to use.

[Juzza]

I hate the way AI difficulty settings work...

[Loren]

Sombre said:
That must be on impossible. All those extra design points put to use.

It might be, I've forgotten what I started this with.

I don't have a good picture of what his scales are like because my dominion is pressing in but the lands I have been fighting through have had some pretty low population numbers. Something sure devastated the landscape and I strongly suspect it's bad scales despite all the points he put into his sage.

When it's got gobs of points to spend it should put more into scales!

[PyroStock]

Loren said:
When it's got gobs of points to spend it should put more into scales!

Agreed.

I have an AI as EA Argatha, which is a cold blooded nation, that took Cold2 instead of Heat0to3. I might expect such silliness from Easy AI, but not Very Difficult or Impossible.

[iceboy]

I wish we could design the AI Pretends that we will face!

[Zeldor]

But you can. Just set him as human and switch to AI on turn 1.

[NTJedi]

PyroStock said:

Agreed.

I have an AI as EA Argatha, which is a cold blooded nation, that took Cold2 instead of Heat0to3. I might expect such silliness from Easy AI, but not Very Difficult or Impossible.

Very true... the best help an AI can recieve are strong positive scales which can be done by editing the .map file. Inside the Dominions doc folder is a PDF which explains how to edit the .map file.

[Twan]

Personnally when I buff AIs I use a mod to give them researchbonus on an immobile pretender or recuperation+immortality on a combat chassis + I set the god with max dominion and crazy scales.

And I only give them high earth magic (eventually other paths but with low levels only), so the AIs will only cast global without drawbacks for them (riches from beneath, mechanical militia, earth blood deep well...). Giving high water, air or death may be ultra detrimental to an AI (ex : Man casting eternal storm and wasting the archers, or a sea nation trapping its troops with "Sea of Ice" + all high death AIs tend to cast "Burden of Time" and "Utterdark").

Ie :

Mod

#newmonster 2800
#copystats 158
#name "AI Oracle"
#researchbonus 30
#end

#newmonster 2801
#copystats 156
#name "AI Cyclops"
#immortal
#regeneration 10
#heal
#end

Map
#god x "AI Oracle" (or "AI Cyclops")
#dominionstr 10
#mag_earth 10
#scale_chaos -3
#scale_lazy -3
#scale_unmagic -3
#end

[NTJedi]

Loren said:
I just took out an enemy pretender.

F9 W9 E9 S9 D9 N4! No wonder I have been fighting through some pretty bad terrain!

What's really bad is the AI doesn't know how to use blessed units... so all those blessings were pretty much wasted by the AI.

Another bad side effect is the AI suffers more from bad scales... especially death scales and unluck scales. For better balanced multiplayer games with AI opponents I have to provide the AIs with their scales and sometimes even provide them their pretenders and dominion strength by editing the map file.