Hilariously Unbalanced AI

[Alamar]

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

Playing devil's advocate maybe the AI thought that if it attacked you that it's losses would be so bad that it wouldn't be able to take another AI's main hero.

Until we get more maps that are "team" maps we won't know for sure.

[schaf]

I noticed the same problem of growing armies. I'm playing 3. map in inferno campaign and this asshole Gilraen or whatever his name is, got cca. 20 unicorns, lots of archers, druids and pixies and some treants in just few days. He was far away from his castles and heroes. And there is no way he could summon so many units. It seems like he has a non-stop growing army, no matter where he is or what he does. It's just stupid solution, i barely managed to defeat him after several tries, only 80 poor hunters survived. This is wierd, what's the point of playing against AI then? I guess there is none.

[Alamar]

I noticed the same problem of growing armies. I'm playing 3. map in inferno campaign and this ******* Gilraen or whatever his name is, got cca. 20 unicorns, lots of archers, druids and pixies and some treants in just few days. He was far away from his castles and heroes. And there is no way he could summon so many units. It seems like he has a non-stop growing army, no matter where he is or what he does. It's just stupid solution, i barely managed to defeat him after several tries, only 80 poor hunters survived. This is wierd, what's the point of playing against AI then? I guess there is none.

The "scripting solution" as presented in the campaigns sounds terrible. From all the complaints it almost sounds like it would be more fun to just play on some of the real MP maps where such scripting is minimal.

[5il3nc3r]

Playing devil's advocate maybe the AI thought that if it attacked you that it's losses would be so bad that it wouldn't be able to take another AI's main hero.

Until we get more maps that are "team" maps we won't know for sure.

I had my Castle, a lvl 22 hero and exactly one week's worth of creatures (Inferno)
He had his best hero (lv 20-something), 26 archangels, about 400 marksman, 100 inquisitors, 240 imp. griffons,about 30-40 paladins.

Do you really think I would have been able to cripple him even the slightest!? =_=

5il

[DaemianLucifer]

I noticed the same problem of growing armies. I'm playing 3. map in inferno campaign and this ******* Gilraen or whatever his name is, got cca. 20 unicorns, lots of archers, druids and pixies and some treants in just few days. He was far away from his castles and heroes. And there is no way he could summon so many units. It seems like he has a non-stop growing army, no matter where he is or what he does. It's just stupid solution, i barely managed to defeat him after several tries, only 80 poor hunters survived. This is wierd, what's the point of playing against AI then? I guess there is none.

Gilraen seems to have the ability that neutral sylvans that appear on the map every week always join him.So you have to beat him fast.

I had my Castle, a lvl 22 hero and exactly one week's worth of creatures (Inferno)
He had his best hero (lv 20-something), 26 archangels, about 400 marksman, 100 inquisitors, 240 imp. griffons,about 30-40 paladins.

Do you really think I would have been able to cripple him even the slightest!? =_=

5il

You could kill 30 or so of his imps,and those are valuable.

[5il3nc3r]

So he was afraid of losing 30 conscripts when he could get another town/get rid of one enemy ?
-_-

Stupid AI

5il

[schaf]

DaemianLucifer, yes i agree about neutral stacks. But there were none unicorn or treant stacks around my castle. I know that because he was wandering around my castle area for quite some time.

And thx god for those big neutral stacks, i got 1k of pixies that way and some blade dancers, which proved to be life savers. Too bad i don't have diplomacy skill. After i defeated Gilraen, i went for the druids and all of a sudden AI was crippled. So much infact, that when i killed his heroes, he did not buy any new ones, makes you wonder why.

[HodgePodge]

And thx god for those big neutral stacks, i got 1k of pixies that way and some blade dancers, which proved to be life savers. Too bad i don't have diplomacy skill. After i defeated Gilraen, i went for the druids and all of a sudden AI was crippled. So much infact, that when i killed his heroes, he did not buy any new ones, makes you wonder why.

Unfortunately, the neutral stacks are scripted too. If Nival wanted them to join your army, they are scripted to join … if Nival chose for them NOT to join your army, they won't … so much for the Diplomacy Skill. With everything scripted all to hell, most strategy in this game is worthless!

[Gaidal Cain]

Unfortunately, the neutral stacks are scripted too. If Nival wanted them to join your army, they are scripted to join … if Nival chose for them NOT to join your army, they won't … so much for the Diplomacy Skill. With everything scripted all to hell, most strategy in this game is worthless!

Calm down. It worked like that in H3 as well, and I think that's one thing which was actually better there than in H4. And you'll need to be pretty good at strategy and tactics if you want to beat some of the maps.

[HodgePodge]

Calm down. It worked like that in H3 as well, and I think that's one thing which was actually better there than in H4. And you'll need to be pretty good at strategy and tactics if you want to beat some of the maps.

Actually, in Heroes III, if a creature stack "Might Join" or "May Join" … the chances were greater if your Hero's army already contained some of the same type of creatures. That doesn't seem to be the case in Heroes 5

[Omega_Destroyer]

There is an artifact, I forget the name, that gives you one mana for every two mana the enemy caster uses. I had the same problem witht he CPU never running out of mana before. I never figured that there was some artifact for it, but I was really ticked about it, mainly because I was a caster.

[ThunderTitan]

Calm down. It worked like that in H3 as well, and I think that's one thing which was actually better there than in H4. And you'll need to be pretty good at strategy and tactics if you want to beat some of the maps.

Actually, in Heroes III, if a creature stack "Might Join" or "May Join" … the chances were greater if your Hero's army already contained some of the same type of creatures. That doesn't seem to be the case in Heroes 5

If you have Silent Stalker the game shows you what creatures will join or fight and there are alot of creatures that has Not Decided Yet, and it doesn't seem to change ever. But more testing might be necesary.

[Leon_Shore]

At first, the AI seemed to be quite a step up from the previous installation of HOMM. However, with some play time, it seems it was just a baby step in the right direction. Both adventure map, and battle AI needs a facelift.

I just recently purchased H5 a few days ago, so I've only been using the Necromancers. Thus, my experience is limited with other races. Most likely, the AI issue is with all town-types, not just against Necros.


BATTLE AI ISSUES:

1). Even if I am outnumbered horrendously (20 to 1), the computer will only send out one stack of melee creatures at a time when fighting against another hero. It plays on the side of caution for the most part.

2). Ghosts/spectres are priority for their attack.

3). When having summoned creatures, they will often times attack just the summoned creatures. Had the CPU attacked my permanent units, I would have lost, due to summonables disappearing.

4). When underseige, AI will use only one opening in the castle walls (usually the main gate) when there are several others available to it. This is probably due to the surrounding moat of spikes. However, if they had rushed me, I wouldn't have won.

5). AI likes to attack higher lvl creatures, even if lower level stacks have a much higher combined force. For example, the CPU attacked my 20+ Vampires over my 1000+ Skeleton archers. Big mistake.


ADVENTURE MAP AI ISSUES:

1). When I invade Computers' territory, the AI just freezes in terror. It purchases most of its creatures and camps out in town, while a lvl 1 hero guards the entrance. I am outnumber again in this case, so there is no need for this action.

2). Since a lvl 1 hero is guarding the town, the hero inside the town cannot move. CPU doesn't know the weaker hero is blocking the insurmountably powerful hero.

3). Once the weak hero is stuck guarding the town, it just sits there for weeks. Even if my hero leaves its territory, the lvl1 hero isn't compelled to move. What a shameful sight.

[ThunderTitan]

At first, the AI seemed to be quite a step up from the previous installation of HOMM.

You mean H4? I doubt anyone can make a worse AI.... Maybe if it kept sending u his resources or something.