Question about AI and computer performance

[Fridgebadger]

In a closed thread below, someone made a cryptic comment about the AI and a file called config.ai.xml (something along those lines, at least), advising someone to maximise their pc performance, clean out their hard drive etc.

So my question is, does the game scale the AI to your PC? Will the AI behave more intelligently on a better computer?

[Daevyll]

It would be highly improbable for it to actually behave more 'intelligently' as in using diferent routines.

However, a trick that has been used in the past is to scale the scope of data used in the decision-making process to available capacity.
This means for example in a chess-game, that on the low end of the spectrum the AI will go through all possible moves for 1 turn ahead, whereas at the high end it will try to work out everything for the next 10 turns (which, of course, will scale exponentially).

Coming back to M2TW however, I doubt it. The AI seems to be based on giving units objectives and perhaps an overall directive (behaviour) which doesnt lend itself that well to scaling in the way above. The gains would be minimal anyway I think, considering the horsepower of modern machines. Achieving all that eye-candy takes a lot more than the AI routines I am certain.

But, perhaps a developer can give you an answer that is based on more than my own suppositions.