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spaceweezle has Age of Wonders III

1 Aug, 2023 @ 7:37am

Workaround for Daft AI?

Despite all my modding efforts and that of others I can't seem to produce AI opponents that aren't abhorrently stupid.

It has taken me a long time to realize how bad they actually are. Through careful observation you can see they only operate at about 5% efficiency on Emperor..

But alas, that's not my main concern. I'd like to find out why AI get progressively more stupid the longer the game goes. More accurately why do they keep suiciding small stacks or single units into player cities?

Is there anything that can be done about that?

I was very recently in a situation where I had about 12 stacks closing on my city, all elite/champion rank against my two support stacks. I buckled in relishing the epic battle to come. But what happened next made me want to uninstall the game. They send dribs and drabs of their army to assault my city, typically one stack at a time, or worse a single hero..

I can only speculate that the AI get confused by the allure of items at the base of the city, and so mindlessly engage the hex to retrieve it which triggers a battle.

Can't think how else to explain why they keep suiciding tiny forces when they have a giant army nearby.

The weird thing is I'm currently playing a team game 6 emp AI vs me and one Ally, yet they are somehow collectively less threatening than other games when I was at war with just one.

Judging by the mods section, nobody has an answer for this. I'm already running Boosted AI + AI city boost and cheat boost. I don't know where to go from here.

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Showing 1-3 of 3 comments

Gladen

11 Aug, 2023 @ 9:18am

I think over the years people have achieved alot in this department. I don't think a.i can be improved in more than what others have accomplished already. Sadly.

Some small details that could help to improve their performance is to restrict their usage of useless spells. How they prioritize research etc. Maybe even giving them some unique research and skills not available to player.

Giving them upkeep reduction and giving them heal after battle could help, but not solve the core issue of brainless activities.

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1723737261

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2839173224

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2167958777

The last mod is probably quite questionable what it does and if it's fully functional as it looks more like an overhaul.

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=629923755

Last edited by Gladen; 11 Aug, 2023 @ 10:06am

spaceweezle has Age of Wonders III

11 Aug, 2023 @ 6:00pm

I've already perused these mods, unfortunately they are collectively less impactful than just Boosted AI mod. They also don't actually touch on the real problem which is AI Macro.

Among all of them the only thing I haven't already incorporated is the compact empire component, which isn't going to solve anything and may even prove counter-productive. The Ai already have a problem with city overlap and city founding placement.

It's only after playing with my own AI partner that I have formed a clearer picture of how they operate on a macro level, which is not good to say the least. Possibly the worst AI macro I've seen in a strategy game. Though I would speculate that these behaviours might instead be unresolved bugs, bugs they seem to adhere to roughly 60% of the time like the suiciding behaviour and army fragmentation issue.

In my current game I am more or less fighting with my AI team member as a means to redirect her city placements as the AI have no perception of foundation potential- All they see is the defined weight for initial placement which results in horrendously wasteful foundations.

So blind in fact that my AI buddy will settle on one gold mine and two mana nodes and a dungeon rather than the nearby cluster consisting of 7 Sphynx, 3 Ziggurat, Flowrocks, Mana nodes and more. I have to physically intervene with Forts to steer her to better foundations.