I've had some harsh words to say about this game's AI so I've decided to pick it up again after the last patch and see what's happened. I played a couple of games that I thought would be as generous as possible for the AI - sandbox, little water and monster spawns on low and difficulty on Impossible.
I played against the Dragon Queen, Xara, Krel the Kingpin and Rajkh or whatever that guy's name is with the invisible face.
Early game was very challenging as the AI created buckets of troops with their massive cash reserve. It's nice to see the AI trying to focus fire and choosing the most vulnerable target where possible, but they don't deal with terrain well, often falling foul of swamp tiles or the like, getting slaughtered before reaching a viable target.
In my first game, the Dragon Queen fielded an enormous army but fortunately kept allying with me, as did Xara. Given the size of their armies, I wouldn't have survived early game were it not for these alliances. I was happy to see that they no longer offer vast sums of mana or gold for alliances from which they barely benefit. The Dragon Queen evidently went straight for the Unity spell in research and had started casting way before I was within reach of Counterspell. This didn't prompt other AI factions to break their alliance with her, apart from Xara (though they intermittently break and then reform alliances with the player and with each other for no apparent reason). While I tried to cut through Krel to attack her, it was clear I wasn't going to have the force required to take her capital in time. I thought Xara would come to my aid, but she had found a strip of water at the bottom of the map, and to my great disappointment, she was sending units uselessly back and forth in the water, going over the same tiles over and over.
Having said that, the AI beat me, and that hasn't happened in a while.
I decided to play again without the Unity spell victory condition, replacing Rachjkhjjhhk or whatever with Mallicus (?) and her undead.
Xara and the Dragon Queen made alliances with me again which at least afforded me the opportunity to study their behaviour. Early on, Xara came across a portal to another world. Before long both she and the Dragon Queen were pouring units through the portal to confront a gold dragon, innumerable elementals and other bad guys. I'm on turn 180 or so by now and the two ladies have sent literally hundreds of units to their death beyond the portal. The units are sent in in dribs and drabs, none above tier 2, with vast numbers of tier 1 melee units who can't even touch the dragon and it is cruel and useless slaughter. In that time I've enjoyed a long and vicious war with Krel who I've finally taken out, while Mallicus hasn't managed to do anything but sent about 6 units across the water to die at the tentacles of sea beasties.
The most remarkable thing I've noticed is that the AI amass huge stocks of mana but they just seem to cast heal spells and the odd lesser fireball early on. Later I saw one or two Raise the Land spells cast, to no apparent purpose. Since the AI just can't deal with water, it would be really nice to see them raise the land to allow their forces to cross without just being eaten by pernicious sea things, or to-ing and fro-ing absurdly.
At this point I've got tier 3 doods and a couple of heroes, so I know I've won. When I feel like it, I'll declare war on my allies and it'll be cakewalk. Having said that, the point of all this is that despite the fact that the AI is terribly flawed, I've had a lot of fun, and that's the point of playing a video game, after all. I finally feel I'm getting my money's worth on a game I initially felt cheated by.
Were it possible (and in terms of code I have no idea whether it is) what I'd like to see is:
1) AI use of strike forces. Instead of dribbles of units being sent to their doom, squads of mixed units sent at the pace of the slowest unit, with melee at the front.
2) Use of a wider variety of spells. The AI cannot deal with water - they should prioritise simply getting rid of water through Raise the Land (and maybe lower the land for mountains - and fertile land for swamps, while we're at it).
3) Simply do NOT send tier one units through portals. I could be wrong, but from what I've seen, when an AI unit walks onto a portal, it cannot but go through the portal. I saw full strength units lining up for a shot on the gold dragon that had practically committed genocide on their comrades, only to go back through the portal they had only just come through on the turn before.
4) For the love of sweet jebus, build training grounds and tier 3 units. Even once.
TL;DR: AI has improved but not much. It's no longer just obviously broken, at least not in sandbox. It does show a reckless disrespect for the value of life and some kind of hydrophobia that results in truly mental behaviour when confronting bodies of water. It also cannot resist portals, so just runs at them with open arms, wide eyes and no sense. The bottom line is that the game is pretty to look at and fun to play, but you will be shocked and disappointed by the weakness of the AI.
Finally, I can only imagine how difficult it is to code AI for a game as complex as this. My thanks to the Devs for their continued efforts.
I played against the Dragon Queen, Xara, Krel the Kingpin and Rajkh or whatever that guy's name is with the invisible face.
Early game was very challenging as the AI created buckets of troops with their massive cash reserve. It's nice to see the AI trying to focus fire and choosing the most vulnerable target where possible, but they don't deal with terrain well, often falling foul of swamp tiles or the like, getting slaughtered before reaching a viable target.
In my first game, the Dragon Queen fielded an enormous army but fortunately kept allying with me, as did Xara. Given the size of their armies, I wouldn't have survived early game were it not for these alliances. I was happy to see that they no longer offer vast sums of mana or gold for alliances from which they barely benefit. The Dragon Queen evidently went straight for the Unity spell in research and had started casting way before I was within reach of Counterspell. This didn't prompt other AI factions to break their alliance with her, apart from Xara (though they intermittently break and then reform alliances with the player and with each other for no apparent reason). While I tried to cut through Krel to attack her, it was clear I wasn't going to have the force required to take her capital in time. I thought Xara would come to my aid, but she had found a strip of water at the bottom of the map, and to my great disappointment, she was sending units uselessly back and forth in the water, going over the same tiles over and over.
Having said that, the AI beat me, and that hasn't happened in a while.
I decided to play again without the Unity spell victory condition, replacing Rachjkhjjhhk or whatever with Mallicus (?) and her undead.
Xara and the Dragon Queen made alliances with me again which at least afforded me the opportunity to study their behaviour. Early on, Xara came across a portal to another world. Before long both she and the Dragon Queen were pouring units through the portal to confront a gold dragon, innumerable elementals and other bad guys. I'm on turn 180 or so by now and the two ladies have sent literally hundreds of units to their death beyond the portal. The units are sent in in dribs and drabs, none above tier 2, with vast numbers of tier 1 melee units who can't even touch the dragon and it is cruel and useless slaughter. In that time I've enjoyed a long and vicious war with Krel who I've finally taken out, while Mallicus hasn't managed to do anything but sent about 6 units across the water to die at the tentacles of sea beasties.
The most remarkable thing I've noticed is that the AI amass huge stocks of mana but they just seem to cast heal spells and the odd lesser fireball early on. Later I saw one or two Raise the Land spells cast, to no apparent purpose. Since the AI just can't deal with water, it would be really nice to see them raise the land to allow their forces to cross without just being eaten by pernicious sea things, or to-ing and fro-ing absurdly.
At this point I've got tier 3 doods and a couple of heroes, so I know I've won. When I feel like it, I'll declare war on my allies and it'll be cakewalk. Having said that, the point of all this is that despite the fact that the AI is terribly flawed, I've had a lot of fun, and that's the point of playing a video game, after all. I finally feel I'm getting my money's worth on a game I initially felt cheated by.
Were it possible (and in terms of code I have no idea whether it is) what I'd like to see is:
1) AI use of strike forces. Instead of dribbles of units being sent to their doom, squads of mixed units sent at the pace of the slowest unit, with melee at the front.
2) Use of a wider variety of spells. The AI cannot deal with water - they should prioritise simply getting rid of water through Raise the Land (and maybe lower the land for mountains - and fertile land for swamps, while we're at it).
3) Simply do NOT send tier one units through portals. I could be wrong, but from what I've seen, when an AI unit walks onto a portal, it cannot but go through the portal. I saw full strength units lining up for a shot on the gold dragon that had practically committed genocide on their comrades, only to go back through the portal they had only just come through on the turn before.
4) For the love of sweet jebus, build training grounds and tier 3 units. Even once.
TL;DR: AI has improved but not much. It's no longer just obviously broken, at least not in sandbox. It does show a reckless disrespect for the value of life and some kind of hydrophobia that results in truly mental behaviour when confronting bodies of water. It also cannot resist portals, so just runs at them with open arms, wide eyes and no sense. The bottom line is that the game is pretty to look at and fun to play, but you will be shocked and disappointed by the weakness of the AI.
Finally, I can only imagine how difficult it is to code AI for a game as complex as this. My thanks to the Devs for their continued efforts.
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