Ai benefits (cheats?) » Forum Post by tesb

The Ai can't really 'cheat' as such.

It only deals with the bonus's afforded to it by the play level.
The bonus amounts per level may have changed between DL and DA.

Only the human component can truly cheat, because the human can mod to their liking.

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I understand your question and do think the AI gets several advances over the human player.
Artificial Intelligence can not react to situations as humans do. They are mostly scripted and therefore need, according to the difficulty level, boni to make up for that.
In Civilization 3 for example the AI gets 2 Settlers in the beginning ,not 1 like the human player. Production and Research also gets better modifiers. Additionaly on hard difficulty levels the human player is crippled by getting slower Research and Production modifiers. Without these slight adjustments no AI could ever beat a human player.

So, yes, I think the AI in Galciv2 "cheats" similary if we consider those methods cheating.

Someone correct me if I am wrong. Also excuse my bad english.

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Generally speaking, the AI in DA is better than in DL. On 'tough' the AI shouldn't receive any additional bonus, only on the levels above that. In the GC2 wiki the bonus and differences between the AIs levels are well documented. See this link.

In fact, on the levels below tough, the AI receives mali to their abilities and doesn't use all of the available algorithms.

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tesb

Join Date 03/2008

+302

I just wonder on what difficulty setting the ai is on par (nobody gains advantages over the other and the ai uses is best algorithms) because in vanilla it was on tough and now i donßt even stand a chance.

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Tough.

Tough is equal footing, the AI uses all available algorithms but doesn't receive any bonus abilities. Above that, the only advantage it gets are boni, it doesn't cheat in the sense that it automatically see planets, resources or any other thing. The algorithms stay the same.

Also, at a certain point it seems that in fact the player gets these boni as well: Compare your research output from a 'normal' game to that of a 'suicidal' game.

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tesb

Join Date 03/2008

+302

Well, I always play on tough (In dread lord i even play on a higher difficulty setting and win with ease). It seems that i am out of luck (small plantes,ect.) or the ai is that much better compared to dread lords.

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the AI in DA is written better than in DL. But even so, it still falls into certain traps at any difficulty level that make it possible for the human player to walk all over them.

My guess is that you are actually trying to play in a style similar to Civilization or other TBS games and that just doesn't work in GC. For example, generally speaking, a truly balanced approach (33/33/33 in the production slider) will allow you to build in all areas but it severely hampers your production that fiddling with the sliders could allow for. Also, a lot of players switching from DL to DA get caught by the extreme worlds, as that they try to rush for them early. Generally speaking, you can usually avoid the extreme worlds altogether in the first, and possibly the second, year of gameplay as they are very expensive to research. This is usually the easiest time to overtake the AI as the will waste effort on those technologies (esp on smaller maps) while you can increase your empire in other ways and come out stronger overall because of it.

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Tough.Tough is equal footing, the AI uses all available algorithms but doesn't receive any bonus abilities. Above that, the only advantage it gets are boni, it doesn't cheat in the sense that it automatically see planets, resources or any other thing. The algorithms stay the same.Also, at a certain point it seems that in fact the player gets these boni as well: Compare your research output from a 'normal' game to that of a 'suicidal' game.

I'm a newb, but i'm gonna have to disagree with you. about the comp not seeing the rescources before we do. It's been my experience that the AI see's all the map. They just have set timelimits b4 they start sending out the constructors. I've noticed this on all the games(not terribly a long game play mind u
) i been playing in galciv2. As well, I don't think you can make the AI not see the entire map. I could be wrong, but it just seems strange to me that in the games i have played in galciv2, about the same time everytime all the opponent AI's start building on the rescource area's
but mayby i'm wrong

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what you are actually seeing is the effects of Stellar Cartography that, generally, the AI starts with and the Human player does not. This means that the AI knows where the planets, resources, anomalies, ships, etc are at the start of the game. It does not know where the habitable planets are, just that there are planets there. The sensor range in DA at least is hard coded at 15 parsecs for both the human player and the AI.

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Yeah, you can actually watch it explore the map. The AI will send out a scout to a planet and only after it has confirmed that there is an inhabitable planet there will it send out its colony ship.

If you only play humans, you are at the disadvantage of not knowing the layout of the planets. But that is a disadvantage of the race, not the game itself.

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what you are actually seeing is the effects of Stellar Cartography that, generally, the AI starts with and the Human player does not. This means that the AI knows where the planets, resources, anomalies, ships, etc are at the start of the game. It does not know where the habitable planets are, just that there are planets there. The sensor range in DA at least is hard coded at 15 parsecs for both the human player and the AI.

if the AI starts out with stellar cartography, wouldn't that then make my point valid? From what I'm understanding on what you have written, is that, that tek is a given to all AI, reguardless of race(ie the humans, if they are one of the Civ AI, will have stellar cartography) while I, the human player, will always have to research it.

I think that's what your saying.

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Yeah, you can actually watch it explore the map. The AI will send out a scout to a planet and only after it has confirmed that there is an inhabitable planet there will it send out its colony ship.If you only play humans, you are at the disadvantage of not knowing the layout of the planets. But that is a disadvantage of the race, not the game itself.

unfourtantly, i haven't played that long, to actually witnes this event. I do not even know how to take out the "fog of war" lol

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I believe only the Terrans and depending on your choices when creating Custom Races that don't start with Stellar Cartography. You could always select any of the other races that do start with it, or you could select it when creating a custom race in the Tech screen.

Research Xeno Research, then Sensors and Stellar Cartography will open up for you. Sensor IV will grant you the ability to build the Eyes of the Universe wonder which greatly increases your visual range around every ship to 15 parsecs, basically allowing you to see everything that is anywhere near your vicinity. Also, generally speaking, the AI puts a very low priority on sensor techs making them a nice tech to be able to sell off for cash without very few drawbacks.

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if the AI starts out with stellar cartography, wouldn't that then make my point valid? From what I'm understanding on what you have written, is that, that tek is a given to all AI, reguardless of race(ie the humans, if they are one of the Civ AI, will have stellar cartography) while I, the human player, will always have to research it.

I think that's what your saying.

Not quite. Its just a tech that the Terrans (not necc. "Humans", as in the actual person sitting at your computer) do not start with. You'll see as you play different races and settings that sometimes you can see the stars and number of planets orbiting the stars on the little minimap to the bottom right. You just dont know what they are until you actually send a ship in the area. Blind exploration toggled off and on can even show you the other AIs spheres of influence. So, with that enabled, you can even figure out where Homeworlds of your opponents are located and avoid scouting those out first, since you know there won't be a planet for you to colonize anyhow.

The AI, to the best of my knowledge, has this "advantage" all the time. It can see the stars and number of orbiting planets, but it has no idea which are habitable or not.

I'm a newb, but i'm gonna have to disagree with you. about the comp not seeing the rescources before we do. It's been my experience that the AI see's all the map. They just have set timelimits b4 they start sending out the constructors. I've noticed this on all the games(not terribly a long game play mind u

What your probably seeing is the delay between the AI scout finding the resource and the AI building and sending a constructor as a result of it. If you dont see the scout find it, which you probably won't since it has moved on when YOU found the resource, all you see is the resulting beeline of a constructor from the AI planet to a resource, and you feel as though its cheating.

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