Does the computer cheat?

[DoggFood]

Im playing as the Spanish on expert difficulty in a glorious achievements game. Byzantine are the only faction with as many points as me. So i decided rather than taking all their lands I was going to take Constantanoble then bust up their economy and leave the other computer factions to take their land. After I took Constantanoble I sent a 9 star general with 1200 troops to pillage Byzantine holdings in the north. After I would take a province I would destroy all the buildings there and move on to another province. But once my army left the province a loyalist uprising would happen in the pillaged province because their was no fort there. Giving the Byzantines another 2000 thousand troops. After thrity or so turns burning and looting provinces the Byantines had amassed an army of 18,000 troops in Bulgaria with another 10,000 troops in surrounding provinces. All these troops were given to them from loyalist uprisings from provinces I took then looted them and left.

My question is how can they afford this? Their at war with every faction near them so they have no trade, I've burned down any farming economy they had but they are still building new buildings throughout their provinces.

P.S. I routed all 18,000 of them with an army of 1,200 http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[KukriKhan]

I face a similar situation in my Danish campaign. My only explanation is that they hold all the sea lanes (having destroyed my fleet after 50 years of alliance, grrr), and still have access to islands that can produce top-notch armies.

[Balrog]

Doggfood I dont know about your sitaution but I believe the computer AI cheats in general. For example if there are any priests or emmisarys in my provinces I usually try to assassinate them. The turn I attempt to do so they will usually leave my province. If I dont make the attempt they will stay.

anyone else seen this?

[Kraellin]

one of the differences in this game from earlier TW games, is that you can now deficit spend. the AI can also go in debt this way. you can even play the game to purposefully force the AI into debt. if you've ever run out of money yourself, you may notice that you are earning a negative florins or that your current money is in the negative. the AI can also do this and it's not a cheat. there are restrictions to what you can or cannot purchase when this happens and i believe the AI gets these same restrictions.

the only other 'cheats' the AI uses are starting money and morale bonuses, i believe. i, frankly, am still very suspicious of the AI sneaking a peak at my moves, at times, but that could also just mean that the AI is playing well. i'd swear, at times, that the AI is looking over my shoulder and other times i'd swear the bloody thing is blind as a bat ;)

K.

[LadyAnn]

The AI is navigating by sonar, Kraellin. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif

Annie

[Balrog]

I just get this comical image of the AI looking looking over Kraellin's shoulder while he is plotting a move. Kraellin looking up at the AI and the the AI looking away pretending it wasnt watching like some 9th grader trying to cheat on a test.

You do realize in order to make the AI tough cheats have to be plugged in or we as humans would romp all over the computer even on higher difficulty levels. There are certain things that can be done to make the computer smart but the more that is done the more it takes from clock cycles and that is a definte no no.. So the AI cheats as a way to make it seem smart even when its not. I understand this balance that developers have to achieve with clock cycles for graphics, calculations and AI but it just pisses me off when I cathc the AI cheating..

=-(

[Larry Blackshear]

While I've never thought about as a cheat, I often am curious how the AI manages its economy. My games always seem to have the Sicilians trapped on Malta. They often have decent trade routes, but never grow/build/train units.

Is it possible to find an enemy faction's aggregate income? As I recall, in STW you could see what a given territory was building and training, but I have not found that any longer possible.

[DoggFood]

Yeah I figured the AI gets some extra bonuses when playing on expert difficulty but in my game they must be in a massive debt, so how come they can still build new structures?

[RunAway!!]

You can be sure for the most part that all faction incomes are in the negative, or at least very very low. You can find out territory income / tax level / happiness etc. by placing a unit in that territory; spies, assassins, emissaries etc. work best. If you've got enough agents, you can get a pretty good idea of what that nation is earning. As far as deficit spending goes, its possible, and it sucks when it starts majorly happening. You can go into the negative quickly if you've got a lot of sieges going on, or if your provinces are getting rapidly conquered and you're having to ransom armies. When you're in the negative, you can still ransom / lose money to conquerers, but you can't train new units or build things though, so you don't want to stay there. Attempting to destroy an AI's income isn't nearly as effective as wiping out its production base.

[solypsist]

It's been stated by the game developers that the AI does ot cheat (which, by comparison, the AI in STW cheated a whole hell of a lot) http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

here's what happens when the computer seems to be holding up rather well to your onslaught:
1. it starts selling off structures in order to pay for more soldiers. always keeps weapons producing buildings and farm improvements, though.
2. it goes into debt in order to keep every available man in the field. incidentally, the AI *never* disbands units, which might make it look like it has hundreds of full banners, but they're made up of sixteen 2 man units.
3. it starts producing armies, but mostly of peasants - which you'll eventually run into once you move deeper inot enemy territory.
4. being a computer player, it always re-adjusts its taxation to get the most money each turn, which is usually able to produce a small profit even at the worst of times.

[DoggFood]

I don't think that because the computer adjusts taxes every turn is cheating because if you want to you can choose to have the computer adjust the taxes in all your provinces every turn.

[HopAlongBunny]

I don't know.

Every time I have invaded Valencia I have been faced with a bridge assault. If you check the border, its rivers all the way around.

Last time I took Valencia I did my bridge assault...got off rather lightly I thought (JanHeavies are great). I left behind a garrison tailored to defend a bridge. The AI counter attack? Oh some hills, a few stands of trees but not a bridge in sight...How DO they DO that?

[DoggFood]

If you click on a province's info, near the bottom it tells you what type of terrain you will face when fighting in that province. So my guess is that the computer had a brush with luck when randomly choosing what type of terrain you had to fight on.

[woodsman22]

I had a similar situation with the spanish teritories I torched. When I left them in ruin Loylists took the teritories giving spain large armies but several turns later there where bandit / peasant rebelions in the provinces that I destroyed all the buildings in.

I think that was fair. The AI couldnt afford to rebuild and make the people happy and they suffered a revolt the same way I do when I cant make a province happy fast enough.

I also think it is fun to crush the opposition financially to provoke them into attacking and when the pope gets mad at them I attack back. So overall I think the AI is not cheating.

[LadyAnn]

Computer definitely cheat http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

I already told that I played Italy and got ex-comm by th Pope and then France and Italy went down to wipe me out. So I restart the campaign from scratch. I now decide to build right off the bat a bowyer, with intention to conquer Naples before Byzantines can build a fort. In Naples, they have 100 Byz Inf. and 12 Suicide Bombers (Naphta throwers). All I need is an average archer unit and perhaps 4 urb.mil. That would do the trick.

On the second year, when bowyer is just completed, I got an Earth quake message that says Earthquake in Venice, bowyer destroyed. The next message is... Venice: Bowyer completed. Check for bowyer: it disappears without a trace. Meanwhile, a stack of rebels 900 strong is in Naples. So I guess the AI saw my intention and decided to throw a monkey wrench at me...

Annie

[RunAway!!]

CA...the greatest programmers of all time; they've developed not just an AI, but a psychic AI http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/eek.gif