Does this game AI have anti-player bias?

[Rookie0879]

First and foremost, hello to everyone. I am as casual a player as possible and always prefer the easiest difficulties in games. However, in this game, it seems like the AI doesn't care about winning; all they care about is not letting the player win. For example, this is what I consistently see in my games:

https://i.imgur.com/l8RgfK8.png

Astaroth and I don't even have a shared border. Okay, I thought that I'd bite the bullet, accept the insults that I can't win, and focus on one opponent..:

https://i.imgur.com/ecl8h91.png

On the next turn, I was hit with the event that wiped my legion and an event that took an artifact from me. After this, I conceded my defeat as other archfiends kept sending demands, ignoring the exposed borders of each other.

This happens in every game on the easiest difficulty. AI doesn't care about winning; they are always laser focused on me. I won a few games, but this is really frustrating, so I decided to ask.

[Lily-an]

I don't think the AIs are always targeting the player.

AI usually target archfiend with the highest prestige or obvious weaknesses.

For archfiends that are too far away, Praetors can be used to duel. If you don't have a Praetor, AI who have Praetor is likely to challenge you.

[Indestructibirb]

I notice this when playing on hellish difficulty but I assumed it had to do with the difficulty setting. Maybe it doesn’t since that’s a pretty dramatic screenshot.

I think there’s too much RNG for this type of game. Trying to do stuff and you just randomly get wrecked and have to spend the next three days repairing a random event card’s effects isn’t very engaging.

[rndmize]

You have the highest prestige. Prestige is the game's win condition. The AI will, in general, target whoever is currently winning.

Some recommendations: keep your prestige below first place so you aren't the priority target, unless you are 1) trying to increase your rank 2) at the end of the game aiming to win the election. If you find yourself in the lead regardless, ramp it up and get to the next rank, use the card that hides prestige values, or bet big in your fights.

[Indestructibirb]

Originally posted by rndmize:

You have the highest prestige. Prestige is the game's win condition. The AI will, in general, target whoever is currently winning.

Some recommendations: keep your prestige below first place so you aren't the priority target, unless you are 1) trying to increase your rank 2) at the end of the game aiming to win the election. If you find yourself in the lead regardless, ramp it up and get to the next rank, use the card that hides prestige values, or bet big in your fights.

Ironically, not leading the easy AI in prestige is probably impossible, which seemingly makes them into hard AIs.

[Panda]

It can be really tough when ahead as they will all gang up on you. Try to force a couple to be vassals - especially the sorcerers as they can ruin you without a vendetta just by spamming spells every turn and three of them getting you at once is painful.
It can be a real tightrope between remaining not the target of everyone and still being able to get the prestige to win. A clever AI would attack the weakest foe to consolidate power before coming after you but they effectively just become allies if you go for the long 70+turn games.
Another trick is the event card that masks prestige for 5 turns as they will tend to leave you alone for that long.

[Voivode Bleghingtun]

Originally posted by Archfiend AF:

I

I think there’s too much RNG for this type of game. Trying to do stuff and you just randomly get wrecked and have to spend the next three days repairing a random event card’s effects isn’t very engaging.

I honestly think Single Player might need to be balanced differently than MP at this point. The RNG is fun against other players, but feels like purposeless chaos against AI.