Some questions about the AI...

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by LintMan:
1) Does the AI "cheat" at all? (ie: omniscient view, bonus income/units, etc) What effects do the various difficulty settings have on the AI? Is there any way to tell what level the assorted AI's are set to in a game? (Aside - what difficulty level are the AI's set to in the Walkthru game?)

The AI, on higher difficulties, receives more nation points to spend, and on lower difficulties than normal, receives less. The level of the AI is set at the beginning of the game. Regardless of the difficulty setting, the AI does not receive any income bonusses. The AI is ostensibly not omniscient, although it is aware of the ownership of any provinces, regardless of scouting: Of course, humans can infer most of this data also.

2) What makes AI decide to attack or hold off attacking you? What are its criteria for doing so? In my current game, I've shared a long, peaceful border with Pangaea for many turns. Then, it attacked me unprovoked and started a war.

The AI will often choose to attack you if it believes you to be easy prey. Sometimes this is determined rather randomly, and it may arbitrarily flip out and go postal on you for no reason...other times it will do nothing even when you don't defend the border.

Along the same lines, what does the AI consider "provocation" for an all-out attack? (ie: is putting temples/preachers along the border offensive? What about peaceful global effect spells (ie: Gift of Health)? How about finding a scout of yours in their territory? What if you take one/a few of their undefended border provinces?

Invading them, or getting into a fight with them will start a war for certain. Preaching, globals, even hostile globals, don't appear to start a war. Having one of their scouts busted doesn't usually start a war either.

3) In some experimentation, it seemed like several of the AI's were actually frequently entering its Pretenders into the Deathmatch Arena contest! Is this common? Does the AI frequently enter its pretenders into the deathmatch event?

The AI does this rather frequently, and you can witness some horribly afflicted pretenders in action this way.

(As an aside - what triggers the deathmatch events - is it purely random, or is it X number of years?)

It appears to be random. I've seen them appear nearly back to back before.

4) Does the AI handle/adjust/adapt to game settings like high/low magic site percentage, strong/weak independent forces, map size vs number of nations, etc, or do these throw off its game plan?

The AI will take into account potential independent forces before attacking, but higher strengths will increase the odds that the AI will fail an attack. It does not appear to seriously consider map size, number of nations, or site percentages in great detail, and always searches poorly.

b) Can the AI remain competitive in a game where there is a fairly large period of "peaceful" expansion and research before nations come into direct conflict?

The AI, due to its lack of fortress building and general lack of interest in strong research, performs poorly when it cannot rush somebody. By midgame, most of its armies will consist of poorly sorted independent rabble.

5) How likely is the AI to try to dispel a non-offensive global enchantment like Gift of Health, Mother Oak, or Forge of the Ancients? How many extra gems are needed? If I can only manange the spell's basic gem cost, is it even worth casting these type spells, or will they go down quickly?

The AI seems to rarely attempt an explicit dispel, although it will happily overwrite your spells with useless globals that provide it with minimal benefit, or even hurt it. As a general rule, 300 gems is a good number to make sure your spell sticks. If the global board is becoming especially crowded, overwriting will become a serious problem, but if the global board is empty, the AI won't really attempt to dispel you, even if you cast a nasty global, until the board fills up.

6) Does the AI forge magic items and equip them intelligently on its commanders? Does it target its research to its strengths (ie: avoiding spending research on spell levels it has no use for (if it doesn't have the proper mage types)). Will it empower and equip mages to raise their magic paths to have access to more powerful spells?

Yes, the AI will forge magic items. No, it does not equip them intelligently. It doesn't appear to research terribly intelligently either, and does not strongly pursue research. I have seen it empower mages, but it does not appear to deliberately reach for specific spells, and it seems to more or less haphazardly cast whatever it can, rather than deliberately attempting a focussed strategy for a specific spell.

[ March 18, 2004, 22:08: Message edited by: Norfleet ]