insane difficulty = a walk in the park? AI is too passive

DeadlyJulia

Join Date 08/2008

insane difficulty = a walk in the park? AI is too passive

Hi guys,

just bought this lovely game and spent the weekend to conquer a medium map on insane difficulty, all resources + heroes = /plenty/dense, AI on insane, wildlands = max, game speed: epic.

As mcuh as I love fighting monsters etc, but:

I read that this game was supposed to be hard + the enemy was to be ruthless attacking, but here is my experience after 20 of hours of gameplay:

1) i was NEVER once attacked by one of the 8 insane AI enemies

2) all my relation to the enemies is on close, though i often move through their territory (when asked to leave, i always press "Yes") + seldom trade with magic know-how against money

Isn't that strange? there is no challenge if the ai lets me be, even settling next to my cities and proposing trade (once in the game).

The AI explores and attacks monsters, but NEVER acts aggressively against me.

Because of the epic spped of the game, 4 of my cities now are still level 1, only 2 are level 2 (tax was on low for the first 30 turns, now need to earn gold because of all these heroes).

i have explored the whole medium map now killing all the enemy monsters up until "strong" + own nearly 30 heroes (which are eating my gold, haha ). Now that i have recruited nearly 10 level 9 heroes, i will take on strong monsters + above.

So again: the only reason i start the war now is becuase i have seen all and want the challenge now for i have prepared my whole army of heroes for a tough challenge and not a nice coffee party i enjoy now. Maybe the AI sees me as being to strong? I juts recently gained position 2 in faction point, was at the end of the list for nearly 30 turns.

For the research, which is so interesting, i really rue having chosen "epic" as game speed for i ahve only discovered 5 techs until now (the magic ones until "recruit level 9 heroes", nothing in civ, nothing in warfare.

In the faction point list, i am now ranked 2 right behind gilden with 124 points.

I will draw together my endless heroe army now and put them in army a 5 units, killing everthing on sight.

Gilden will be my first victim, conquered in 1-2 turns for i will station an army at each city before i attack. Possible just because they are too stupid to attack.

So, this is called "insane"??

It is a joke, a piece of cake, a slowly but harmless walk in the park.

So is there a bug that causes the enemey not to attack? If i declare war,they start attacking, but from themselves there is no intiative.

I do not cheat, the only thing i of course do is save-reload (i just can't stand to lose a unit (which i never buiild, haha) or see one of my countless heroes being permanently injured.

So please tell me that this game is bugged and what i can do to tune the ai to be aggressive. This way, there is no challenge at all, sadly there is no difficulty above insane.

All i ant is an AI that is at least trying to stand against me, i dont mind if it is cheating having better tiles etc (in fact i am happy they do that, otherwise they wouldnt have a chance at all).

Looking forward to plenty of helpful tips (as i said i just bought the game last friday),

cheers, Deadly Julia

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Great, thx, DeadlyYouknow will prevent any retake attempts .

Regarding beasts: do they award faction points like heroes do?

Influence: I thought faction points control how the AI considers your power, the "normal" Influence is soemthign like a currency only wiht no real incentive not to spend, right? Please correct me if i judge Influence, i i hope i don't need to "save" it only to get the max out of all trade treaties all the time

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Quoting Lord Xia,

reply 13

Well, if you have 8 AI and yourself on a medium map, along with dense monster and epic game length the AI might not be able to expand at all. I'm surprised you were able to get room for that many cities yourself without dragons eating them. Still doesn't sound right, I am doubtful of this.

That is why if you have 8 opponets you alway play on the Large map setting. I have found that the Player AI in 1.00 is a lot more agressive on Normal and Challanging however the neutral Monsters are still passive when it comes to attacking towns. They are so-so when it comes to attack Outpost and things like mines and such. The Neutral AI needs to be a lot more aggressive. But it is probably best to put in a seperate aggressive toggle for Neutral monsters.

The reason for this is that some people may want Players to be really agressive and neutral monsters not so much. More options to taylor your game the better

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Gaunathor

Join Date 04/2006

+170

Quoting DeadlyJulia,

reply 126

Regarding beasts: do they award faction points like heroes do?

Yes. While the exact calculations and other details of Faction Power are unknown, it makes no difference where your military power comes from.

Quoting DeadlyJulia,

reply 126

Both Faction Power and Influence have an effect on how the AI sees you, but they work differently. If you click on "Govern" and then select "Foreign Relations", you can see each factions opinion on you and what is effecting it. If you have a certain amount of Influence, you might see a "+1 Your are influential" or, if your Faction Power is low, you might see a "-1 Your military is weak". The bonuses and penalties might rise and fall, depending on your amounts of each, however, there is no penalty for not having any Influence. Ultimately, Influence only improves your relations with other factions, but your military power determines, if they are willing to go to war with you.

If you want the best trades, you need Influence. I don't know if anyone has managed to calculate the exact effect Influence has on trade value, but, in general, it is best to have as much as possible.

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I'll admit, I skimmed the thread, so I might have missed if someone already said this... however, in general: if you want the AI to be MORE aggressive, turn DOWN the world difficulty. Basically, you want the world LESS of a threat to the AI, this in turn, allows the AI to expand quicker and more aggressively, and will in turn result to them waging wars far sooner. Starting on Insane/dense (world difficulty) makes it very hard for the AI to do well, that's why you see it being so passive. All you have to do to see the Insane AI walk all over you, would be to start a game on Challenging/sparce (world difficulty) with Insane AI. Then you'll see the AI marching on your cities soon enough.

Just the same, the opposite, is just as true. If you want the AI to be LESS aggressive, turn UP the world difficulty. If you have the world difficulty higher than the AI's difficulty, you'll find the AI will sometimes get snuffed out by the world before you even get the chance.

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Quoting Kalin,

reply 130

I'll admit, I skimmed the thread, so I might have missed if someone already said this

You did, while your good point stands, the AI is not going to be aggressive in turn 40

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

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