Is AI cheating ?

Psitticine · #1 November 21st, 2003, 10:44 PM

The official word, from way back before the game was actually released, is that the only knowledge the AI has that the players don't is the awareness of provincial ownership. As Johan (or Kristoffer) pointed out, that's not a big leap as it is very easy for a human to intuite provincial ownership anyway, and we also have access to the provincial status screen so we always know the relative strengths in terms of numbers as well.

I'd love to say it is a strategy, but I often just forget to move scouts and assassins for awhile. I often come back to find them alone, with no enemy presence about them at all. I've even captured a few provinces with that "tactic," although it was pillage-and-run because I knew my little guy could never hold the place alone.

I realize the results others are getting seem to indicate a certain prescience, but I do firmly believe it is coincidental. The AI tends to shuttle little mini-armies around for whatever reason, possibly for guarding purposes or to avoid supply limits or . . . something. I still haven't figured out what's up with that. Anyway, it is possible that's part of what you're seeing.

Psitticine · #2 November 21st, 2003, 11:32 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by HJ:

quote:
Originally posted by SurvivalistMerc:
It doesn't break seiges when it could easily deal with the force coming at it from either direction but not with the combined force.

That's not what I've seen. They try to break sieges all the time, and I usually have to completely cut off besieged province for them to stop. I've even seen vampire queen and two vampires alone trying to break siege against a huge army of mine when they were cut off completely.

I've also seen them camp in forts like crazy.

On a side note, in one game I'm playing right now, AI-controlled T'ien Chi has no provinces, 1 fortress, the most research, and the largest total army. The reason for this seeming paradox is because they are staying bottled up safe in their starting fortress, researching like mad. Their army level keeps climbing on the graph, so they haven't hit any atrophication due to supply limits. (I think they must be selling gems to buy the new troops, unless they were queued previously.) When they bust free with all that lovely new magic, I pity the fools trying to hold them in check.

Quote:

Originally posted by HJ:
Btw, I don't see how much the fort is damaged when I besiege it. Does the fort's defense rating reset itself if there is an attempt to break the siege, or does it continue to diminish as long as I'm able to damage the walls regardless of the relief attempts?

I'm not sure if you can access the damage numbers for an enemy fort. You can check your own, as you probably already now, via the Fortress button on main map.

The way it works, as far as I know, is that the defenders repair and the attackers siege. The difference represents the relative change in the fort's defense. You get appropriate Messages to tell you of the status of this situation, obviously. There are also some special factors (mindless units count only 1/10 for repairs, sappers siege like madmen, etc.) but that's the basics.

The damage to the fort is only repaired automatically if the province falls back into friendly (to the fort) hands. In that case, the damage is removed completely.