[1.7] AI concerns and more

from Elemental Forums

My usual map settings: Huge with 13 AI opponents, Challenging difficulty and AI, max on Monsters/Events/Quests.

The AI is no longer doing its quests
The map is now literally littered (yes going for the alliteration) with easy and medium quests that are being ignored by the computer players. The end result? Out of the 11 opponents left on turn 240 when I cast the Spell of Making, only one had reached the fame level of 100. All the others were at less than 50, meaning they went through the entire game with only one champion. Now don't get me wrong, I did observe the AI finish a quest but it's clearly no longer a priority and it's detrimental to its effectiveness. On my side, I got four Panca Archers, five Ophidians, four shields from the Terrorized Workshop, three Snake Oil chests and so on... A complete free for all.

The AI Champions (and Sovereigns):  the "Kill Me Now" Syndrome
Clearly something has changed and it's for the worst. AI Champions are now magnets for injuries and with 1.7, I've seen several sporting 19 of them (the max). I don't know if monsters are now more prone to attack or if the Champions are charging anything in sight but they seem completely oblivious to danger, mindlessly standing next to stacks they don't stand a chance to defeat. One of my neighbors had a Haunter led stack with Najas and Plaguestalkers next to its capital. Its level 1 champion spent the entire game bumping into this stack, getting trounced and injured, probably spending 95% of its time immobilized in the city. When I finally killed that Haunter on turn 200 or so, the Champion was still at level 3 and had acquired 19 injuries. And what did it do once the path was clear? It ran straight into the adjacent Scrapyard, on its own with only a Rusty Shortsword to its name, to dance in the middle of the angry inhabitants and get mangled once again.
Please consider going back to the 1.6 parameters on this depressing issue because LH 1.7 is a huge step in the wrong direction. And maybe teach the AI to cure its injuries by at least using the potions sitting unused in inventories?

The Wildlands don't spawn monsters as advertised
Ever since the "Wildlands spawning Champions" bug was squashed during the beta, I haven't seen a single extra Wildlands denizen appear on the map. Ever.

26,895 views 12 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

I play on expert or ridiculous with 8 opponents and the AI does quests but they leave all goodie huts and defeated monster liars untouched littering the landscape in my games.

 

I have noticed since the 1.7 patch that any level above challenging sets the AI on the annoying path of pioneer spamming the heck out of the map. Most of my games have half the AI players with 15-17 cities by turn 120ish. Now that would not be a problem except for the fact that all these AI cities are low level and stay that way most the game. All I have to do is go from one to the next with my Sovereigns beginning stack and roll right over them (boring). 

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

I´m having the opposite after 1.7: The AI does not want to colonize - they mostly keep only the starting city and use pioneers to spam lots of outposts...

There is also several instances of the AI not even founding the first city - i found several times the the enemy with their startign units "frozen" on their starting positions, with several places available to create the first city nearby - sometimes on the same tile of the units....

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Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Primal_Savage, reply 3


Did you notice if the AI starting units were on the coastline? I haven't seen this happening often, but when it happens in my games, AI units seems to be on the coastline...

Nothing kills imperial ambitions like the easy-going coastal lifestyle. Pina coladas, pushing captive mites off the cliffs - it's just so laid back!

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Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

I found that in v.1.7. there is<QuestingPriority>0.0</QuestingPriority> instead of <QuestingPriority>1.0</QuestingPriority> which was in 1.6.  this is in CoreAIDefs file. Do you have the same?

1.7. also features new threat estimation scale. Perhaps this is the reason why AI loses its units (not only heroes) too much.

I played several times with 1.7. and also was disappointed that AI was so silly.

If I set <AIPriority InternalName="GoodieHuts"> to 5 then AI is even more mad with trying to attack every monster. May be 2 instead of 3 will save AI units better?

Perhaps it's worth to raise <AIPriority InternalName="SovereignProtectionFactor"> to 4 or 5.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting webusver, reply 5

I found that in v.1.7. there is<QuestingPriority>0.0</QuestingPriority> instead of <QuestingPriority>1.0</QuestingPriority> which was in 1.6.  this is in CoreAIDefs file. Do you have the same?

I just checked the 1.5 and 1.6 versions and no, the questing priority has always been set at 0.0. So it must be something else.

 

Quoting webusver, reply 5

1.7. also features new threat estimation scale. Perhaps this is the reason why AI loses its units (not only heroes) too much.

I played several times with 1.7. and also was disappointed that AI was so silly.

If I set <AIPriority InternalName="GoodieHuts"> to 5 then AI is even more mad with trying to attack every monster. May be 2 instead of 3 will save AI units better?

Perhaps it's worth to raise <AIPriority InternalName="SovereignProtectionFactor"> to 4 or 5.

 

Likewise, the <PriorityValue>3.0</PriorityValue> tag for GoodieHuts is the same in the two previous versions. I could be wrong but I don't think this is something that can be fixed via modding.
 
I will restate what I've said above after having played some more because I feel the need to vent a bit. It's pretty heartbreaking how dumb AI sovereigns and champions have become, soloing the closest monster lair without any regards to its comparative strength. I've stationed several scouts and observed over and over an AI champion hit endlessly a deadly stack (such as a Fire Drake) which it cannot defeat. There are plenty of trained units roving around but they never merge for a better shot at defeating the monsters. And the huge number of champion injuries is just plain ridiculous.

And yes, as stated by AER2014, Pioneers are crawling over the map like a permanent cockroach infestation, creating outposts and cities leagues away from the main AI territories. So many freebies for the human player...

Sorry if I sound bitter but I hate seeing how LH 1.7 has debilitated this wonderful game. I really, really hope this isn't the definitive version of the AI we're getting because it is broken.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Hellions, reply 6

Sorry if I sound bitter but I hate seeing how LH 1.7 has debilitated this wonderful game. I really, really hope this isn't the definitive version of the AI we're getting because it is broken.

 

It is frustrating how the patches always seem to be 2 steps forwards, 1 step back.

 

I'm playing testing at the minute, not sure it it helps but will keep on eye on the issues you mentioned above and post some feedback here.  From what i've seen so far though, I would agree that AI seems to leave a lot of goodie huts and quest locations behind... but I can't really comment on if thats changed in 1.7 because I haven't played beyond early game for a while.

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

Hmm. I enjoy how the AI takes fewer quests and goodhie huts. On Expert/ridiculous, they always seemed to take them all before I could!

Yes, it hurts them, but I'm not sure it's a huge difference.

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting abob101, reply 7
I'm playing testing at the minute, not sure it it helps but will keep on eye on the issues you mentioned above and post some feedback here.  From what i've seen so far though, I would agree that AI seems to leave a lot of goodie huts and quest locations behind... but I can't really comment on if thats changed in 1.7 because I haven't played beyond early game for a while.

 

In LH 1.6 and previous versions, the AI players used to clean up their territories of weak and medium quests. They'd do strong ones occasionally and deadly ones very rarely. They pretty much don't bother anymore, probably too busy getting their heads handed to them by those adjacent monster lairs. Now it's worth sending a solo champion to reap your neighbors untouched quests, get their Panca Archers and Ophidians and skyrocket your fame score to Elemental's moon. As for the untouched goodie huts, monsters now tend to leave their lairs, roam around and strange things can happen to them (ie getting killed by the Denizens of the Wildlands for example).

 

Quoting davrovana, reply 8

Hmm. I enjoy how the AI takes fewer quests and goodhie huts. On Expert/ridiculous, they always seemed to take them all before I could!

Yes, it hurts them, but I'm not sure it's a huge difference.

 

It was indeed a race to get to those quests but I'd say it was fun to prioritize triggering them before the AI could. I will confess that, once or twice, I had scouts stand on quest huts to prevent anyone from getting to them before me.

Reply #10 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Makinus_, reply 2

There is also several instances of the AI not even founding the first city - i found several times the the enemy with their startign units "frozen" on their starting positions, with several places available to create the first city nearby - sometimes on the same tile of the units....

I reported this bug a long time ago in one of the beta patches. It has never been fixed thus I gave up on the game and ever buying any DLC. Whats the point of playing an AI that doesn't do anything at all? Just sits there frozen and never founds a city for the rest of the game. Garbage.

Reply #11 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting iceboy105, reply 10

I reported this bug a long time ago in one of the beta patches. It has never been fixed thus I gave up on the game and ever buying any DLC. Whats the point of playing an AI that doesn't do anything at all? Just sits there frozen and never founds a city for the rest of the game. Garbage.

I've seen it on occasion, but it's very rare.  I think it is much rare now that it used to be, like maybe a few times in hundreds of games.

Hardly worth "giving up on the game" over.