MTW AI... not so good?

[Covak]

Is the MTW AI just really dumb on Normal? Does it get smarter on Hard or Expert? I haven't gone too far in my campaign... does it get tougher in the later stages? So far it's been great fun, but not very challenging. It seems as long as you have a reasonable understanding of things, you can just destroy the AI, especially in the battles. May just be luck so far though, heh...

P.S. Rome: Total War looks so good, it scares me. If there was a multiplayer campaign mode, me real life would be over.

[pdoan8]

Quote[/b] (Gregoshi @ April 26 2003,22:37)]For those of you in the Main Hall who don't get over much to the Entrance Hall, the following is a post GilJaysmith made in response to a discussion about the battle AI behaviour at different difficulty settings:

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Feeling generous, so: here's a reasonably full list of what the battle AI will do at different game settings. This is based on a quick code search; whether some of these points come across in the game may depend on your playing style.

- On expert the AI gets a morale bonus - on easy the player gets one
- On hard and above, AI skirmishers will try to avoid being pincered
- On easy the AI will not consider going into loose formation to avoid being shot at
- On easy the AI will not consider outflanking, double-envelopment, or stop-and-shoot tactics
- On easy the AI won't move troops out of the way of castle walls which may be about to collapse
- On easy the AI will try to hide rather than flee if the battle is going badly
- On easy the AI will not try ambushes
- On easy the AI will not try the 'appear weak' battle plan
- The AI is more likely to deploy in woods on harder difficulties, and less likely to camp near the red zone on easier difficulties
- The AI is more likely to consider scouting the map to find the rest of your army if it can't see it all on higher difficulties
- On easy the AI will not skirmish
- On higher than easy, the AI will specifically consider shooting at your artillery
- On easy the AI will generally attack rather than defend, and will not consider withdrawing for a much longer time
- On higher than easy, the AI will check to see if it's marching into enfilade fire when attacking your main body
- On easy the AI may come out of a wall breach to chase you if you attack and are repulsed

Strewth. Behind The Magic or what...
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The full topic can be found here: Game settings (http://www.totalwar.org/cgi-bin/forum/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=15;t=6129;st=0;r=1;&#entry80854).

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif Covak

Hope that helps.

[ShadesWolf]

Hi Covak http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif

pdoan8 got to the thread first http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[ChaosShade]

I find the ai will seldom actually attack unless I play on Hard or expert. Thier forces seem to mill around in front of my lines while they get slaughtered by pav arbs or whatever else I have shooting at them http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif

[Papewaio]

type in the following when in the strategic map including the stops

.nuttermode.

sort of an anticheat http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Losfalos]

Papewiao

what does nutternode do?

[Papewaio]

Don't know what nutternode does... sounds like a good name for one of our forums where we could have flame wars...

As for .nuttermode. it makes the strategic AI more aggressive http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Lare]

I just can't believe how dumb can expert-difficulty be. An attacker that was markedly superior than me; outnumbered me with 5000 versus 1500 men and had better quality troops, attacked me and put 5 siege engines on the field right from the start As you may figure out, it was very easy for me to defeat the first wave of attack and kill their general. The siege engines weren't able to shoot a single shot towards me, since I was too far away.

As if that wasn't enough, the expert AI didn't exen bother to gather the seacond attack-wave, but just walked units against my troops one by one, as the reinforcements bacame available. What a slaughter it was..

The result was, that I lost about 380 men and the computer lost over 3500 men, since I killed all the prisoners. I'm sure the same has happened to all of you, but I just can't stop wondering.

[Portuguese Rebel]

Maybe you need to try multiplayer... you will get more of a challenge there.
In single player the major hard thing to accomplish is to keep your own lands from rebelling.