Campaign / Battle difficulty settings

**IsItStillThere** · 03-07-2009, 01:32

Glad this is being discussed...

Wouldn't it have been great for the developers to reveal this kind of information in the manual so we don't have to play this guessing game?!

**Liberator** · 03-07-2009, 01:56

I play Campaign VH in my campaign (United Provinces), I'm in the Year 1740 and neither Great Britain nor Spain nor France conquered a single region as far as I know.
There is simply nothing going on in America or western Europe. I think the AI should be more aggressive on VH.

**Ardri** · 03-07-2009, 02:48

VH campaign difficulty seems to work very well, but VH battle difficulty has to give AI bonuses because the computer constantly outguns my units in battles. Just compare the rate at which soldiers die on VH in your units compared to the computer and I believe it is pretty clear there is some sort of bonus being given to the computer in relation to accuracy/speed of fire.

**A Very Super Market** · 03-07-2009, 03:04

I'm playing on Hard difficulty, and that doesn't seem to happen.

I've had shooting duels with infantry of the same specs, and it is arbitrary in who wins.

Maybe you just have poor tech?

**Ardri** · 03-07-2009, 03:08

My tech is actually more advanced than those around me as far as military is concerned so either the difficulty gives a bonus to the computer or I am an especially poor tactician!

**pevergreen** · 03-07-2009, 03:09

Had a massive shooting battle on VH. I won it. Even sides. I just lined up and shot at them.

**Eusebius86** · 03-07-2009, 03:46

Here's the results of my testing on custom battles...

Tests were done with Medium Unit sizes, Great Britain, Line Infantry, no veterancy. All difficulties tested 3 times and averaged. In all tests my units were in 2 files, AI lined up units in 3. In all tests only the front row fired.

- Normal: I had 45 men remaining, AI had 15 men remaining. Pretty accurate if you consider the disadvantage of having 3 files instead of 2.
- Hard: I had 31 remaining, compared to the AI's 13. Once again, I won due to being in 2 files instead of 3. I should have tested at 3 files, but didn't...
- VH: I had 15 men remaining before routing, the AI had 40. VERY lopsided. AI fired very fast, and very accurately.

Interesting notes. Small difference between N and H. HUGE difference between H and VH. Also, AI behaved identically in all 3 difficulty settings. Exchanged rounds until my units dwindled down to about 45, and then charged. Very interesting.

This says nothing as to the AI's tactical abilities. Just that the AI does stat stack as far as reloading times, defense, and accuracy is considered (at a minimum). I'm sure the same applied to naval AI...

Campaign AI will take time to figure out.

**Susanna** · 03-08-2009, 08:44

I did some testing now myself as well *feels all nerdy*

As Eusebius already noted, the AI DOES receive stat bonuses, and does so heavily indeed.

Test:
1 unit Line Infantry vs. 1 unit Line Infantry, very hard, both Austrian, late era, both deployed 4 ranks deep, units shoot until first one routs.

Code:

AI killed	Player killed	Result
16		134		AI WIN
27		113		AI WIN
24		108		AI WIN

Observation: So lopsided it's not even funny. AI Units reload faster, despite my unit firing the first salvo the AI always finished reloading first.

Test 2:

I messed around with experience on my unit, while leaving the AI unit at novice.
Breakeven point was roughly at 7-8 levels of experience. After being promoted 8 times my unit started to barely win against the novice AI infantry.

So at VH the AI gets roughly 8 experience levels worth of bonuses. Quite a lot.