Going from Normal AI to Impossible AI... - Page 2

Dedas · #11 June 14th, 2008, 05:57 AM

It would be really cool if you could change the difficulty when setting human players to AI when inside a new game. That way you could design their pretender gods by yourself making them much harder to beat. You could also set up challenging scenarios for yourself. What say you Kristoffer and Co?

Endoperez · #12 June 14th, 2008, 06:02 AM

Doesn't SemiRandom do that? Set up better pretenders for AIs, I mean.

Dedas · #13 June 14th, 2008, 06:05 AM

Haven't even looked at it but will now, thanks Endo!

Would it be possible to use this on the Dawn of Dominions map?

MaxWilson · #14 June 14th, 2008, 06:30 AM

Quote:

Edi said:
I'm too lazy right now, but somebody should dig up the references to just how much bonus the AI gets at what difficulties to make sure so I could add that to the FAQ.

Ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you.

-Max

Gandalf Parker · #15 June 14th, 2008, 11:50 AM

Yes SemiRandom will work on the Dawn of Dominions map.

A couple of points. Firstly, SemiRandom doesnt do anything that you cannot do yourself. The Dominions 3 game comes with a doc file for map commands to create your AIs. You can use a text editor (like notepad or wordpad) on any .map file altho you probably want to copy it to a new name first. You can place AIs if you want to so that they start in powerful locations. You can set the scales. You can create the gods (even ones not on the god list such as giving Eater of Gods as a pretender). You can give the AI extra starting armies (flight of dragons, or even a squad of titan pretenders). You can give the AI specific magic sites and extra castles. You can make sure that the AI begins the game with extra provinces next to it which are high in resources, or gems, or gold. Or even that have specific independents that you wish the AI would use more such as cavemen or knights. And you can set the AIs to ally with other AIs against you (they dont share but you can set it so they do not attack each other).

Secondly its fun to point out that Ballbarian wants very much for people to send in those AI designs so that they can be included in the files that SemiRandom can choose from when scattering random surprises into a map file for people to play on. If you find the program fun then thank him for the couple dozen random things it tossed in that made you smile by sending him one he can add to SemiRandoms library.

Gandalf Parker
--
Me: "Some people play to win or lose, others just to stay in the game."
Them: "Are we talking about games? Or life in general?"
Me: "Exactly."

theenemy · #16 June 14th, 2008, 03:19 PM

Is it true that the AI gets better if you set research to "easy"? I've read some posts about it but never really experiensed a change myself.

Edi · #17 June 14th, 2008, 03:57 PM

Quote:

MaxWilson said:

Quote:

Edi said:
I'm too lazy right now, but somebody should dig up the references to just how much bonus the AI gets at what difficulties to make sure so I could add that to the FAQ.

Ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you.

Thankee muchly. This has been added to the FAQ into the same section as magic research and aging mechanics.

Gandalf Parker · #18 June 14th, 2008, 04:05 PM

Quote:

theenemy said:
Is it true that the AI gets better if you set research to "easy"? I've read some posts about it but never really experiensed a change myself.

I would think that might apply to certain nations more than others. Depending on their tendency to use various spells.

Come to think of it I guess it might also apply to nations which have a tendency to create items.

The problem is that its difficult to test such things because of all of the variables in any game you play with them. In the early days of beta-testing for Dom3 I would create 20 games full of AIs on my server, auto-run them thru 100 turns, save the score files then start 20 more. It eventually gave me some answers as to how well certain nations did against each other or in different game settings. I think it was helpful but I havent done any of those for a couple years now.

quantum_mechani · #19 June 14th, 2008, 04:12 PM

Quote:

kasnavada said:
I think you missed the second part of NTJedi's reply...

Hmmm... I'm still not sure I agree with that. If the AI is going to take any negative scales at all, those don't seem at all the worst.

NTJedi · #20 June 14th, 2008, 05:50 PM

Quote:

quantum_mechani said:

Quote:

NTJedi said:
Smarter scales... such as never taking Death_2 or Death_3 or never taking Unluck_2 or Unluck_3.

Misfortune is a staple of MP players, and there are plenty of times when a build has need of points from death scale as well.

Yes... as mentioned you completely missed my second sentence.