Noob question about AI and diplomacy

Zylithan · #1 August 1st, 2007, 03:00 PM

Hi all - I'm brand new to Dominions, and trying to get into it, and get some friends into it. Apologies if this has been asked (I tried searching but didnt find anything).

In a game with multiple AI opponents, or with some players and some AIs...

1. Does the AI atack me more if I attack it first?

There's no official peace or truce agreements, right, but I feel like understood truces could exist. So, if I'm playing vs 2 AIs, should I get cheap victories from both, or just one, because taking an easy province from the second would launch me into a bigger war.

also...

2. Does the AI target players based on score? In MP I imagine people team up on the "winner".. does the AI do this? If so, what scales are most important? Does it know who is winning even if I turn scores off (players wouldn't, but sometimes AIs have special knowledge).

Thanks in advance!

Sombre · #2 August 1st, 2007, 03:04 PM

The AI does seem to react to you doing certain things, like attacking it - I mean to say if you're at 'war' with the AI (they've declared it on you) and you don't fight them at all and they're also at war with someone else, well then they tend to slack off attacking you. Whereas if you keep going for them, they turn their full attention to you.

Or so it seems.

As for attacking you if you're strong,.. I don't think so. This doesn't always happen in MP either ;]

lch · #3 August 1st, 2007, 04:28 PM

Eh, whenever I played SP the AI declared war on me as soon as it could see me, even long before I could see it (scouts, probably). Don't really think that there is some option about coexistance. But the AI does kinda leave you alone sometimes, or doesn't do anything against you after declaring war.

NTJedi · #4 August 1st, 2007, 04:53 PM

Quote:

Zylithan said:
In a game with multiple AI opponents, or with some players and some AIs...

1. Does the AI atack me more if I attack it first?

There's no official peace or truce agreements, right, but I feel like understood truces could exist. So, if I'm playing vs 2 AIs, should I get cheap victories from both, or just one, because taking an easy province from the second would launch me into a bigger war.

I've played lots of games consisting of AI and human opponents. The AI will rarely attack more than one human player, it's fixed personality seems to focus on finishing it's main target and then move to a new target. This might be different when setting the AI personality to aggressive.

Quote:

Zylithan said:
also...

2. Does the AI target players based on score? In MP I imagine people team up on the "winner".. does the AI do this? If so, what scales are most important? Does it know who is winning even if I turn scores off (players wouldn't, but sometimes AIs have special knowledge).

Thanks in advance!

From my experience the AI usually attacks the weakest province with the juicest magic sites. If at war with one human opponent the AI will not start wars with another human player unless it's been attacked. If it catches a human scout sneaking in it's territory this will be considered an attack.
Unfortunately the AI does not team up against the strongest player in the game... which results in watching the dying AI opponents throw daggers and kick each other as the strongest player swallows them. This is why I setup AI's on teams OR will have all AIs on the same team. The AI never knows who is winning.

Zylithan · #5 August 1st, 2007, 05:06 PM

Thanks for all the replies. I assumed you couldn't have teams (I thought the manual said so... but I always thought, what if gods want to form a pantheon... it doesnt have to be monotheism....) did I miss something, or is the teams thing a mod?

NTJedi · #6 August 1st, 2007, 05:07 PM

Quote:

Zylithan said:
Thanks for all the replies. I assumed you couldn't have teams (I thought the manual said so... but I always thought, what if gods want to form a pantheon... it doesnt have to be monotheism....) did I miss something, or is the teams thing a mod?

You can setup the AI opponents to be allied with each other using the MAP edit commands. This can be done by reading the map edit PDF and editing the map file.

sector24 · #7 August 1st, 2007, 05:21 PM

Sorry for changing the subject slightly, but is there any documentation concerning the difference between easy, normal, mighty, etc? Is the AI always the same and the starting resources change? I'm assuming at normal the player and the AI start on equal footing, what's the bonus at the higher difficulty levels?

Zylithan · #8 August 1st, 2007, 05:48 PM

Sector24 - there's actually a thread about this here

http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...o=&fpart=&vc=1

(if I linked properly)

sector24 · #9 August 1st, 2007, 06:56 PM

Thanks for the link, that was a good read. The only thing I can tell you about the AI is that they know when you're weak. I'm curious how many scouts they employ. Actually, I'm curious how many scouts human players employ for that matter.

Lazy_Perfectionist · #10 August 1st, 2007, 07:46 PM

If I've got conveniently placed independent scout recruiting points, I churn out scouts nearly nonstop until I've saturated nearby nations. I even find it helpful to place scouts in the lands of trustworthy allies. If they're facing a deep, hostile invasion, it will let me know precisely what I'll be facing if I launch a relief effort, or aim assisting assassinations.
Or, if the invading force moves on without leaving any province defense or troops behind (it happens), I get to mess with their lines of retreat.