Hilariously Unbalanced AI

Ctrlbnull · Unread postby **Ctrlbnull** » 01 Jun 2006, 03:04

So I'm in the second Mission of the Sylvan Campaign, tanking away like a champion, looking for them emerald dragons.

I notice my first enemy demon hero, he out numbers me 2 to 1 when he attacks me, but through some good positioning and have 5 luck, I managed to get out with most of my army intact.

Almost immediatley after (the same turn) A second demon hero, with a larger army then the first came up. This one took a little dancing to get it done, and I lost most of my men. So I turned and ran back to my base. As I passed the Stairs in the middle of the map, a third hero with an even larger army then the other two appeared.

Now, I checked his army, he had a Throng of Cerebus, zounds of imps, etc, etc. Now, I manage to make it just back to my base before he gets in range of me (due to him having about, 10 more move points then me) and restock my army with some reserves. Checking his army again, I noticed something. Where before he had a Throng of Cerebus, he now had a Swarm. He had a Legion of Imps, where before it was just Zounds.

He had not visited any towns, or picked up any units along the way. He seemed to be getting troops just spawning in his army per turn, to a degree where I was so vastly out numbered I had to win by shooting his catapult. He literally doubled his army in the 3 turns it took me to see him and run back to my base.

Thats just stupid. In a map where you can barely do anything due to lack of troops and tier 7, and the enemy have massive armies to begin with, they also get TROOPS SPAWNING IN THEIR ARMIES.

On the good news I have enough Master Hunters to kill 20 Arch Devils from the other side of the map.

Oh yeah. This is my first post here. This game is quite awesome, just the AI and the cheats it gets are stupid and need to be looked at.

Also: I love the Beta Treant

Raspyn · Unread postby **Raspyn** » 01 Jun 2006, 04:07

Just playing devil's advocate here... but a possible explanation is the spell "Summon Creature"?

Ctrlbnull · Unread postby **Ctrlbnull** » 01 Jun 2006, 04:17

Yeah, I guessed at that.

Should've said it before, but he was summoning in around 200 imps, 5 Arch devils, 100 cerebus.

Combined with the fact he had 60/60 mana every time I fought him, without touching one of those mana refillers, and the fact that no town can produce that much a day, nor can any hero support that kind of mana regen

Sir Alock · Unread postby **Sir Alock** » 01 Jun 2006, 08:57

"Also: I love the Beta Treant"

I won't tackle the AI in question. I'm still in mid-campaign right now.

Anyway....I was going to create a thread on the Beta Treant! Why did Nival change it? Makes no sense! The Beta was far cooler looking IMHO. The new Treants aren't bad, just not as nice looking, kind of bland.

Oh well.....I'm enjoying the game like you! I can't wait until the patches & the Map Editor later down the road. Sooner the better!

Orfinn · Unread postby **Orfinn** » 01 Jun 2006, 10:06

I paid the Thieves guild in town (played mp map mind you) to see how much my ai opponent had, guess what? he had over 100K in the bank, still hes forces werent big and he flagged all possible dwellings and mines. Its a mixed ai. The ai in the campaign is scripted that may because it plays so weird.

ThunderTitan · Unread postby **ThunderTitan** » 01 Jun 2006, 13:26

Ctrlbnull wrote:Yeah, I guessed at that.

Should've said it before, but he was summoning in around 200 imps, 5 Arch devils, 100 cerebus.

Combined with the fact he had 60/60 mana every time I fought him, without touching one of those mana refillers, and the fact that no town can produce that much a day, nor can any hero support that kind of mana regen

I once fought a wizard hero in the Necro campaign that kept casting Phantom Image over and over and his mana didn't seem to go down at all. Bloody crazy AI.

HodgePodge · Unread postby **HodgePodge** » 01 Jun 2006, 21:12

ThunderTitan wrote: I once fought a wizard hero in the Necro campaign that kept casting Phantom Image over and over and his mana didn't seem to go down at all. Bloody crazy AI.

You mean "bloody cheating AI". This kind of stuff happens even in the custom maps. Nival tried to hide the poor quality AI by just feeding it resources & creatures every day. That's just really stupid, it ruins the game altogether.

JamaY · Unread postby **JamaY** » 02 Jun 2006, 00:45

ThunderTitan wrote:
Ctrlbnull wrote:Yeah, I guessed at that.

Should've said it before, but he was summoning in around 200 imps, 5 Arch devils, 100 cerebus.

Combined with the fact he had 60/60 mana every time I fought him, without touching one of those mana refillers, and the fact that no town can produce that much a day, nor can any hero support that kind of mana regen
I once fought a wizard hero in the Necro campaign that kept casting Phantom Image over and over and his mana didn't seem to go down at all. Bloody crazy AI.

One of the Academy's heroes regenerates mana during combat. OMG HAXX!

ThunderTitan · Unread postby **ThunderTitan** » 02 Jun 2006, 02:16

JamaY wrote: One of the Academy's heroes regenerates mana during combat. OMG HAXX!

There's a difference between Regenerating mana and it not droping at all. And it wasn't Nur anyway. And all it did was cast Phantom Image over and over again whie the mana stayed the same.

Rapier · Unread postby **Rapier** » 02 Jun 2006, 02:23

I believe that's a bug with phantom forces. Not a bug with hero mana use.

asandir · Unread postby **asandir** » 02 Jun 2006, 02:30

oh goodie, a few more examples of "interesting" ai

well at least it makes for a challenge ;-)

DaemianLucifer · Unread postby **DaemianLucifer** » 02 Jun 2006, 07:24

ThunderTitan wrote: There's a difference between Regenerating mana and it not droping at all. And it wasn't Nur anyway. And all it did was cast Phantom Image over and over again whie the mana stayed the same.

Maybe it was some artifact,or a scroll,or who knows what(but probably it was a bug).

But you have to give credit to AI though.It "knows" that it cheats,so it wont rush to catch a mine,cause it knows it doesnt need it.It will rush the town,or a hero instead.

ThunderTitan · Unread postby **ThunderTitan** » 02 Jun 2006, 11:37

Rapier wrote:I believe that's a bug with phantom forces. Not a bug with hero mana use.

Then why does ur hero lose mana when casting it?

Ctrlbnull · Unread postby **Ctrlbnull** » 03 Jun 2006, 08:35

Another Addition to hilarious AI.

I rushed a enemy hero before they could build up, about the third week, easily crushing it's little force, and then took their town.

It was around level 10, nothing major.

Next turn a massive enemy army (literally huge) rocks up, and hits the town, but my main hero manages to escape. They retake the town, and then run off. I check it's garrison (scouting ftw) and see they left some low tier units in there, and I knew what units the town could build. So I turn around to take it back.

Next turn and a new week, I check the garrison again. Without them moving a friendly hero near the town, this town somehow managed to get 12 arch devils.

Woo.

I won though, having Archdevils as a favorite enemy + 6 luck = Master hunters doing 450% damage. Muahahahaha

DjiDjo · Unread postby **DjiDjo** » 03 Jun 2006, 09:37

The CPU players are too easy even on hardest difficulty

Bardolph · Unread postby **Bardolph** » 03 Jun 2006, 10:56

This is what you get when the beta testers aren't given all the campaigns to try them.
I started a topic on the 3-rd inferno campaign saying that is unbalanced and difficult, but you guys have even bigger problems later in the campaigns.
I don't think the heroes that have godly armies (like Gilraen or others) that are like an end level boss should attack you very early.
We were used in the previous games with an lousy AI but not with this overwhelming difficulty.

Caradoc · Unread postby **Caradoc** » 04 Jun 2006, 05:49

I just ran into a Necro who had apparently had a stack of Ghosts join him for greater glory. He kept casting Raise dead -- at least 12 times -- and wiped out a pretty durn good army of mine.

5il3nc3r · Unread postby **5il3nc3r** » 04 Jun 2006, 12:06

DaemianLucifer wrote:But you have to give credit to AI though.It "knows" that it cheats,so it wont rush to catch a mine,cause it knows it doesnt need it.It will rush the town,or a hero instead.

Playing custom map against computers, his hero was huge and I was garrisoned in my town. He was just walking around, taking a morale boost building (even though he went there already), taking my mines, going somewhere, coming back. All in all, he played around with me for nearly an in-game month... never attacking me. (And there was no way I could stop his attack from the units I had.)

After that month (4 weeks), I managed to gather all my units and eliminate him (with many losses) but still... why didn't he attack me if he had about 4 times as much army I did at the time?

§ıĿ

DaemianLucifer · Unread postby **DaemianLucifer** » 04 Jun 2006, 12:23

5il3nc3r wrote:After that month (4 weeks), I managed to gather all my units and eliminate him (with many losses) but still... why didn't he attack me if he had about 4 times as much army I did at the time?

§ıĿ

He wanted to kill you by fear?

5il3nc3r · Unread postby **5il3nc3r** » 04 Jun 2006, 12:25

>.>
<.<

I somehow doubt it

Just another proof of stupid AI (and I doubt it's a bug)

§ıĿ

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Hilariously Unbalanced AI

Hilariously Unbalanced AI

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