can the AI cheat?

**Hybr1d** · 09-04-2010, 01:51

Originally Posted by XSamatan

The AI gets a money bonus every turn. Furthermore they will get some money according to the difficulty settings.

XSamatan

What? That's stupid, why is it like that? The AI should start as the player does and have to manage their financses. Will the AI get a money bonus in EB2?

**TancredTheNorman** · 09-04-2010, 04:49

Originally Posted by Hybr1d

What? That's stupid, why is it like that? The AI should start as the player does and have to manage their financses. Will the AI get a money bonus in EB2?

The player knows how to pick a (good) target for expansion, the ai does not and the player also knows how to disband useless but expensive units and avoid naval engagements before having a develped economy, the ai does not know that either.

The player also knows to have at least a high amount of economic care and not spend whatever it gets on upgrading your barracks, once again the ai knows nothing about that.

That is why the player has to make hard decisions, and the ai gets help.

**stratigos vasilios** · 09-04-2010, 05:49

You have a brain, and the AI gets money. So it hopefully evens out.

I remember reading that somewhere.

**vartan** · 09-04-2010, 06:34

I like how 50% of the authors in this thread (as of this writing) have the default avatar and not a custom one.

Eventually I'll have to write an A.I. for my project and I started wondering when I read the title of this thread if I could represent human tendency to cheat and deceive in encoded form. I wonder, if by giving the player the option of choosing various personalities for the computer A.I., that I could give the player a different experience with the enemy. On one setting the enemy might be brutally honest and not give himself extra money or process_cq all his settlements, while on another setting the computer might be a lying son of a gun.

**Ludens** · 09-04-2010, 10:51

Originally Posted by Hybr1d

That's stupid, why is it like that? The AI should start as the player does and have to manage their financses.

If you take away the bonuses the A.I. will be continually bankrupt. To increase realism, the EB team made building projects more expensive and seriously increased the costs of maintaining armies. However, the A.I. does not take upkeep into account: in fact, it seems more interested in recruiting units than stabilising the economy or improving their cities. Unfortunately, this behaviour cannot be modded: it's hidden somewhere in the .exe file. Hence the team has to help the A.I. by giving them money bonuses (these are not flat amounts by the way, but depend on the number of cities the A.I. owns and its financial status).

I don't know if these will be present in EB2. The M2:TW A.I. is smarter, so I hope less aid will be needed. But it's still no match for a human.

**Titus Marcellus Scato** · 09-04-2010, 11:19

The AI cheats a little on Medium and Hard campaign difficulty, but a LOT on Very Hard campaign difficulty. On Medium and Hard they get just enough of a bonus to avoid going into debt. On Very Hard, they get an extra 10,000 mnai per turn on top of that!

So Very Hard campaign difficulty is not worth playing unless you're a masochist or a blitzer. Hard level is better.

**Cute Wolf** · 09-04-2010, 14:38

Originally Posted by Titus Marcellus Scato

The AI cheats a little on Medium and Hard campaign difficulty, but a LOT on Very Hard campaign difficulty. On Medium and Hard they get just enough of a bonus to avoid going into debt. On Very Hard, they get an extra 10,000 mnai per turn on top of that!

So Very Hard campaign difficulty is not worth playing unless you're a masochist or a blitzer. Hard level is better.

as long as you didn't play at hard/very hard battle difficulty, Very hard CAMPAIGN difficulty are actually a big exploit in itself, just put some stack on the bridge and repel AI assault one by one... you'll got fullstack of gold chevroned warriors soon