I generally play on the lower difficulty settings, the AI seems fairly balanced there. I've only found a couple things that stood out as out of place: - if you take out an enemy sorcerer lord early, other AI sorcerer lords on other planes will switch to taking you down at the earliest opportunity, sending as many armies as they can afford beelining towards your capital. There is a discipline that allows you to see enemy cities on other planes, and it is what human players would tend to do (unite against an early threat), but it can feel a little overwhelming sometimes. - The AI seems to like spamming a lot of crappy cities, somehow turning a profit while I only end up with money sinks if I take them over. I am fully willing to accept this is due to me being bad at empire management, though.
Even on the lowest setting, it started with extra units in its capital, it would defeat tough neutrals with weak units when it should not be able to, and it would get tons of free gold so it could continue to produce units even when it should not be able to. I find it hard to believe you didn't notice these things. Playing against such an AI in a strategy game is completely not fun and pointless to me.
Well, having magic and a strategy will help you win tough battles with neutrals. Yet, I do notice that they do seem to create units very fast, but they dont mob you in the easiest setting. They send armies of 4, and they get scared and run away quite a bit. I have won 2 games on the easiest setting. I'm winning a game on the second easiest. I find it fun, but I guess this game isn't for you.
@ioticus: As far as I can tell the AIs in PC don't cheat. I know what you mean, longtime MoM player here I never got my feet off the ground on MoM highest difficulty. Here, I am crushing the opposition and having a great time. If you like MoM, ignore khann I'm pretty sure you'll like Planar Conquest.
You want cheating? Try Master of Magic on impossible, with the 1.5 patch (fan made, still being developed as of this moment). The AI wizards will have STACKS of sprites or other pricy units in under 10-20 turns. And spam cities like there's no tomorrow, no matter how awful the placement Amazing update to a 23 year old classic regardless.
Dude, you are a human player. You possess the intelligence to change tactics & use new strategy while the AI only runs on script. In those terms, you are already having a huge advantage over those AI. Giving them some advantage so that they wont be a pushover i dont see any wrong to it. If AI is not given any bonuses, i dont think there's any decent challenge anymore because AI cant really change tactics.
@nullzone has a strategy guide, and there is a game setup for grey elves/summoner, including a walk-through. @nullzone can win the game on the normal setting in about 10 turns; I was/am a noob, and while I had it on the easiest setting, I was able to win in about 40 turns. It gives you a feel for basic strategy and AI dynamics. From there you can start experimenting with your own. I hope you give it a try, it really is a great game. And as of 1.2.3 version, it is stable, with no game breaking bugs. Of course, there will be continued development and tuning/balancing, but the developer is not trying to make the AI cheat to take all the fun out of it.
Level Up Bonsuses for Regular units Some time ago I requested details on level up bonsus data for non hero units similar to that published in the game manual for hero units. Recognizing that it might take some time for that request to move to the top of the developers to do list, I have done a little data gathering on my own. I have started with some of the Dwarven units. The following numbers were gathered from units trained in cities with only the minimum buildings in place to allow training that unit i.e. no extra bonuses. In addition, I did not select the warlord trait so the levels attainable will be limited. Here is my initial data. It is incomplete as I am still leveling up the units and as I have to read the manual a bit more to make sure I am using the information correctly. Stats not mentioned did not change with level up. Abbreviations used: Lvl = level HP = hit points XPR = experience points required to attain the next level. Please note that XP earned goes to zero each time a unit levels up so it gets much harder to level up each time. AMD = average melee damage the unit can do to an enemy unit if it hits ARD = average ranged damage the unit can do to an enemy unit if it hits (within normal range?) AMD = average ranged magic damage that a unit can do to an enemy unit if it hits FS = fortitude save value for the unit RS = reflex save value for the unit WS = willpower save value for the unit. Dwarf Defender LVL. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5 HP. 40. 64. 88. 112. 136 XPR. 1000. 2000. 3000. 4000. 5000 AMD. 13. 14.3. 15.6. 16.9. 18.2 FS. 4. 5. 5. 6. 6 RS. -1. -1. 0. 0. 0 WS. 1. 1. 2. 2. 2 Please forgive me if the information above is already known and I have just not seen it published. If there is any interest, I have similar data for several other Dwarven units and will be glad to share that. Also, unless I find the data elsewhere I intend to expand the data to include all units for all factions in the game. edit: Question: is there some easy way to buid a table in this forum? I notice my numbers above all ran together.
My point is there should be a setting where the AI does not cheat, especially on the easiest setting. I'm not asking to take away cheats on higher difficulties. I'm sure I'm not alone in my frustration with this. I've never seen an AI cheat as bad as the AI in WoM in my 30 years of gaming.
As far as I know the AI did not cheat on the lower settings in MoM. The fact that it cheated on impossible is irrelevant. My point is WoM and PC should also have a setting that allows you to play against a non-cheating AI. So far no one has convinced me that PC has fixed this problem.
@ioticus: don't get too hung up on cheating AIs. Easy difficulty settings in PC really are that, easy. While Mintdragon did embarrass me a bit with his "Null can beat the game in 10 turns" comment - that was only under very specific circumstances, after all - it still shows that PC isn't over-the-top insanely difficult like MoM is on high difficulty. And easier diffs pretty much are a walk in the park in PC; you can play at your leisure without getting massacred by an overpowered AI.
Well put and the manual says "There are five difficulty levels. The easier ones make the AI more peaceful and give bonuses to the player. The higher ones make the AI much more aggressive and give it powerful bonuses." So basically the game makes you the cheater in the easier difficulty.
@khann: Now that's interesting, must have missed that part in the manual. Athros sent me a PM already, also confirming that the AI gets boni on higher difficulty levels. Funny thing is, I was expecting something extreme on highest difficulty; like in every other 4x game, where the high-diff AI kicks my behind six ways to Sunday. But the PC boni aren't totally off the scale like e.g. in MoM. In fact, I didn't even notice
I have encountered an annoying bug. Has anyone else had the hero General Krull? After movement, his walking sound keeps repeating in the background. It doesn't stop other sound effects but keeps going. It only stops after restarting the game, but comes back after I move his unit again. Edit: If not known, I can send my save if needed.
But what I want to know is, and I wish a developer could definitively answer this question, is there a setting in which both you and the AI play without any cheats on either side, because this is the only way I like to play strategy games.
How bout just you just whack it on the third difficulty setting? It sounds like it's the most balanced and closest thing to what you're after in this situation. But if you're wanting a mode where "both you and the AI play without any cheats" and "this is the only way I like to play strategy games", am I right in assuming that you like to steamroll over your AI opponents and win scenarios with ease in two seconds flat? Because that is what would happen in a mode of that description, as others have said - you are a human, you have supposed high intelligence and on the fly decision making capabilities. AI are just that, artificial, reacting to code and programming which (usually) comes nowhere near the complicated intelligence of the human brain. So if both of you had zero cheats or bonuses then you would kick their ass into paste each and every single time because you as a human are far superior. Might as well just play all your games on easy.
Your assumption that I would steamroll an AI that doesn't cheat is false, as exemplified by many games that I have been challenged by that don't cheat or at least cheat to a small degree. Don't assume that all people are capable of playing on your level. I've already mentioned that I cannot beat Worlds of Magic on the easiest setting. I think you are just trolling at this point.
Folks, manners please. No need to throw accusations around either way. @ioticus: I'll assume that Worlds of Magic has about the same difficulty level as PC. If you cannot beat WoM or PC on easiest difficulty, how about you post what you are doing, and we'll try to give advice? Compared to MoM, I find PC pretty easy, so we should be able to get you to the point where you can give the AI a good trashing. If you feel like reading a few textwalls, take a look at the guides in my signature. I tried my best to capture both basic and advanced concepts and strategies; so you should find some useful information in there.
