AI strenght and DIfficulty setting

[bvg]

I know this has been discussed in the old forum, but I can't find it anymore... doesn't matter much... here goes:

I wondered how the difficult settings are made. I mean does the AI get smarter coded? Does it get more resources? Does it get more aggressive? On what difficulty level how much of which?
Maybe you don't know anymore yourself

[IainMcNeil]

It really only effects their agressiveness & how much they pay for new units & structures. I dont think any games dumb down the AI on the easier settings.

[joseph_kerr]

I have to wonder, does the AI have unlimited resources? I'm playing Macedonia in the pre-colonization at very difficult deep into a war with the Thracian Maedi when i'm suddenly hit by three straight years of heavy drought. First time that's happened and my units were almost completely wiped out even without any in the field. Yet here the Thracian Maedi are, assembling this monster army through three straight years of heavy drought, about 20 armies all at full strength of veterans, hoplites and cavalry. There's just no way, i've been targeting all their prime cities with the best resources and i have almost twice as many cities as they do. Given the cities that they have there's no way they should have enough copper just to build those armies let alone the silver and food to supply them in the best of times and they did it through three years of heavy drought.

[IainMcNeil]

No, but it does stockpile them differently to the human player, so shortage and suplus take longer to feed through to the AI.

[joseph_kerr]

I'm getting my ass kicked but this is turning out to be one of my favorite campaigns. I don't know if i'm just seeing a pattern where's there's actually randomness but it seems like they're actually countering against my strong points. I've been slaughtering their armies of hoplites in the forest so they start sending massive armies of warriors against my own light infantry. As soon as i build up decent armies of calvary to respond they're suddenly hitting them with hoplites. They've taken back five cities hitting me that way so far.

[honvedseg]

The AI factions seem to start with a very large stockpile of resources, but these are only released gradually, to avoid swamping the player at the start. The AI also pays less for units than the player does.

The other big factor is that the AI pays little or no upkeep for the units built, so while the player's ability to crank out armies is limited by the number he already has, the AI can just roll them out continuously. Notice that the AI tends to park stacks of units in the open, rather than in cities, since it doesn't suffer the "in the field" penalty to unit upkeep.

I tend to run a "balanced" mix of units, so I haven't noticed the AI building specifically to counter my own units. Typically, I run a few heavy infantry units at the center, with lights on either flank, and plant a unit or two of skirmishers directly behind the battle line, then add a group or two of cav to outflank the opposing line or ride down enemy skirmishers. This tends to resemble a historical formation (aside from the protected position of the skirmishers), and actually works. (Historical accuracy is an unusual feature in a "historical" computer game, and I must tip my hat to the game designers for a job well done.) The AI usually tends to build about half or more of one unit type, with a few various unpredictable units to confuse things.

[ziza]

I found out that easy and impossible levels are almost the same. The actual difficulty of playing decides only the map I am playing.
Why is that?
Easy should be really easy and impossible should be really almost impossible to play.
For example, I played the 1st map after tutorials, i.e. "13. Thermopylae 480 BC - The Hot Gates" and never won even on easy level (Maybe later I will, but it is boring because I cant research anything).
But I won "14. Coastal Anatolia 499BC - The Ionian revolt" on Very Hard level and it was too easy (comparing to 13.).
Besides, I couldn't take that Sardis, but I will next time (I don't care of objective - my objective will be to take Sardis, i.e. to control all cities )
Now I am playing "16. Rome & Persia Grand Campaign 400BC" on impossible level, for now it is really easy to play. I have already 15 cities and I am going to take 4 cities more, still no problems. Maybe the problems will be soon, I am waiting! I will try to take not just 30 cities, but all of them!

[IainMcNeil]

Thermopylae is a special scenario that is probably better to try later. Ideally you'll have played the smaller scenarios from Spartan before trying the more difficult ones in Troy, but its not completely necessary.

[rural]

well ...
they are either smarter or with more resources......
cuz you can see the computers vasseling each other so often while it takes millions or billions to vassel a country with 20 cities