Is AI cheating ?

NTJedi · #1 November 21st, 2003, 11:35 AM

Rainbow.... do more testing with sending powerful assassins or assassins with sneaking troops deep in enemy territory. The AI won't find and attack you BUT it will ALWAYS have troops to match whatever territory you are sitting on.

check out my previous post.

Teraswaerto · #2 November 21st, 2003, 11:49 AM

If the AI sees everything, why does it cast Eyes of God so often? Just for appearances sake?

NTJedi · #3 November 21st, 2003, 01:30 PM

The AI opponent obviously sees hidden assassins traveling deep behind enemy lines. Run that test I mentioned below and you will see.

As for "Eyes of God" the book clearly shows that this spell allows enemy scouts to be detected more easily and it also quells unrest for that Gods domain. So yes this would still be useful for AI opponents.

Whismerhill · #4 November 21st, 2003, 03:55 PM

well well well
here the test :
1 - create a game,
2 - try to have enough military to encircle one of his armies with strong or weak armies and also have a little gold to buy defence in every region the same amount

3 - save the game by quit & saving
4 - make a backup of this game by copying the folder whose name is the game name
5 - now return to the game and move your powerful & big armies to completely block his army
but only one way, with only defence on it
6 - end turn
7 - have it not attacked the weakest ?

8 - quit the game and recopy your backup over the current game folder in dominions 2 (thus overwriting turn files ...)

9 - repeat step 5 to 9, as much as you wish to
while changing the province that is weak...

10 - notice that the province always attacked is the weakest ?

PS: only tested on difficult settings with aran.map and all AI in the game.

Last note : I have done the test of assassin with a special abysian hero who has a original stealth of +25, the province has no army at all : attack it with your assassin ... oups there enough defence to kill him now !!!...
that's pretty strange isn't it ?

of course there is a limit to this I suppose cause, sometimes there is provinces you take undefended...
and well I suppose if the assassin where empowered to rainbow mage 10 and prophet, maybe it would have won the battle ...

with what said others, I'm convinced there's cheating OR let's say that dominions 2 has the power to read in my mind ...

Gandalf Parker · #5 November 21st, 2003, 04:21 PM

Another test might be to use the BattleSim (mini.map) edit it to give yourself alot more than the AI. More population, more gold, a couple of extra gem-producing sites, an extra starting army. Now build up for a couple of turns and then attack. Did the AI catch up to you?

Not that it would matter anyway, but it would be a test. Its not really a solo-play game so the AI cheating isnt a big deal. Everything has its pros and cons, everything is in scales. The scale of AI cheating balances the need for AI being challenging. Its still general opinion (including mine since I have tried abit) that you cannont make a human-challenging AI. The more options there are, the harder it gets.

The AI newsGroups generaly consider Galactic Civilizations and Capitalism II to be the games which are most focused on that target in case you are interested.

Kristoffer O · #6 November 21st, 2003, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by NTJedi:
The AI opponent obviously sees hidden assassins traveling deep behind enemy lines. Run that test I mentioned below and you will see.

That is because your scouts do not see armies in the neighbouring provinces. Everywhere your scouts go they will only see armies in the same province. And the AI often has armies patrolling/moving through their own provinces. The AI does not know where you have your scouts unless he finds them by patrolling. Turns are hosted simultaneously and the AI turn is not different from yours, so it is impossible to make an AI that has knowledge of your moves.

Wendigo · #7 November 21st, 2003, 04:39 PM

Disclaimer: I have no problem with bonused AIs, I expect the AI in strategy games to be boosted if it has to put up a fight vs an experienced human player.

That said, I still insist the my experience doesn't match the one of the OP, the AI certainly fails at 'predicting' or being informed of my moves. Dunno if anything he does in his testing might tip his results (building local def?), but I have one to propose myself:

-Let the enemy AI siege one of your forts, let it build up the sieging force while you round up a massive flying relief force a couple provinces away (or a boosted SC flying pretender). Attack the sieging force & waste them. If the AI knew that your uberpretender was coming, why would it keep its army there mantaining the siege?