AI Cheating/Difficulty

[Khosrau]

After the most recent release of the Origins DLC and Update I feel like the AI has gone from 0 to 100 in difficulty scaling. There are just way to many games now where it feels like the player is getting dog piled on by the AI. On top of the AI acting super aggressive for no reason now, they also seem to be cheating way more frequently; recruiting way over force limit and suffering seemingly no manpower or economic issues, conquering dozens of high development provinces with seemingly no aggressive expansion impact, and while at war with the player they apparently gain access to the never ending bag of money with which they hire mercs and regular armies at an outstanding rate. But the problem just doesn't end there, the AI nations a player allies seem to suddenly become the least intelligent thing on the planet. They can't organize their armies properly, zone of control becomes a problem for them (which is another thing the AI is still ignoring zone of control rules), they always go into massive debt, and they refuse to attach or assist player armies in war.

Paradox please fix your dang AI, I even like the old AI better because at least they were consistently poor. Now you just have super powered nations destroying any chance at an actual campaign. It's even worse in multiplayer because the AI freaks out with more than one Human player and just does everything in their power to ally great powers, go over force limit, warn their country, and use every trick in the book to shut down any chance at an enjoyable game. Surely the amount of hours I have in this game tells you that I'm not just a new ♥♥♥♥ player, I've been playing for over 5 years now, fix your game!

[Malvastor]

Originally posted by Khosrau:

Nah you’re all dumb and don’t know how to play the game

Please, enlighten us.

[Laffet]

Originally posted by Khosrau:

Nah you’re all dumb and don’t know how to play the game

why are you the way that you are?

[Damedius]

As Volbound has mentioned you can take loans and pay for mercs for even the hardest starts.

Also if you are small and reliant on allies, make sure to finish Diplomatic before you annex a subject. Having your allies reject the call to arms because you have -3 Dilplo Rep sucks.

[Blackbeard_teach]

Originally posted by Marquoz:

The AI is no better or worse than its ever been, and the only cheats that it gets have been exhaustively documented by players digging through the game files. You can find the entire list here: https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Artificial_intelligence#Cheats

The things you claim are cheats, aren't. When the AI is at war, it will take out loan after loan to finance its armies. It will drill in peacetime to raise army professionalism and then slacken recruiting standards when at war to generate more manpower. It will recruit streltsy or janissaries if it's Muscowy/Russia or the Ottomans. It will hire mercs. It will raise war taxes. It will spend military and diplomatic monarch points to hire generals and admirals for all of its armies and fleets. It will do anything to win, and you can do every single one of those things as well.

Once you learn the game's systems, the AI isn't a challenge. Until you do, it is.

yeaaa... and noooo....

make your commander 999 in all stats, start from a city far away from a hostile siege, and you will notice that the AI will want to move his troops away from the siege as your troops make the move order.
now do the same but with no commander(so slowest speed) and the AI won't move his troops, place your "god among men" leader and they will start to make a move

[Medicles]

Originally posted by Blackbeard_teach:

yeaaa... and noooo....

make your commander 999 in all stats, start from a city far away from a hostile siege, and you will notice that the AI will want to move his troops away from the siege as your troops make the move order.
now do the same but with no commander(so slowest speed) and the AI won't move his troops, place your "god among men" leader and they will start to make a move

The enemy has the same military access as you do, so they are able to see your army going towards theirs. It also calculates the strength of your army and if its too much, then they leave or even hide without any attempt to attack or even siege your provinces.

If you implied that the AI is cheating because it knows where you are going then i have bad news for you. That is basically standard for all AIs in strategy games, like ever.

[Vladolf Putler]

Originally posted by volbound1700:

AI doesn't seem that much stronger. Ottos tend to be tougher now but that is pretty historic. The game is difficult if you play minors but still is fairly manageable if you play the major/recommended countries as well as some other countries that are bigger like Venice, Bohemia, etc.

You can always just merc spawn and go into debt. Key is to stay ahead of AI on Military Tech. If you fall behind on Military Tech, it can get very difficult.

I felt like prior to the recent update, the AI was actually harder. I saw Austria AI actually pursue the mission tree PU with Bohemia and Hungary. I don't see that much anymore.

PUs everwhere everytime in my all games, dont know how was it prior but its definitely happening a lot now

[Medicles]

I definitely see Castile more often now choosing to PU whole Iberia. Spain is generally the strongest european nation in my campaigns since Origin.

[Plutonium-239]

I do not think the game has any more cheats than it used to have which is a lot. I am not a paradox fan boy and will point out that the game does cheat, especially certain nations in their historical context, for example ottomans unlimited manpower and god tier generals or spain and its ability to colonise at warp speed. While I get frustrated with some certainties I enjoy the challenge of the difficulty. Granted I have not played as an african minor so I cannot attest to that level of difficulty but overall its still a great game.

[Black_Rat]

Originally posted by treadstoneorb:

I do not think the game has any more cheats than it used to have which is a lot. I am not a paradox fan boy and will point out that the game does cheat, especially certain nations in their historical context, for example ottomans unlimited manpower and god tier generals or spain and its ability to colonise at warp speed. While I get frustrated with some certainties I enjoy the challenge of the difficulty. Granted I have not played as an african minor so I cannot attest to that level of difficulty but overall its still a great game.

Nothing you listed is a cheat though...

[Malvastor]

Originally posted by treadstoneorb:

I am not a paradox fan boy and will point out that the game does cheat, especially certain nations in their historical context, for example ottomans unlimited manpower and god tier generals or spain and its ability to colonise at warp speed.

Those are all perfectly doable for the player, even with nations that aren't the ones you mentioned.

• Manpower is easily available if you pump up your army professionalism and use slacken standards, which the AI does quite readily. The Ottomans (and Russia) also have unique abilities to purchase troops that can be disbanded for manpower.
  
  
• God-tier generals just come from high military tradition, which comes from fighting a lot. You can also augment them with a couple idea groups. Also, high army professionalism stacked with a couple other modifiers makes generals ridiculously cheap (as Mughals I was once hiring them for 6 milpoints per general). Which means it's very easy to just spam hire them until one has the points you want, then fire the extras. Especially with Ottoman Government which ensures you almost always have a ruler with decent stats.
  
  
• Spain is built around colonizing, gets several bonuses and missions for it, and tends to pick up more through ideas. You can still beat them or at least compete with them as other colonial nations.

Everything you list is purely mechanical here, and you can do it yourself if you know how.

[Marquoz]

We see comments like this constantly. "Wah! Wah! The AI cheats! That's the only way it could beat me!" But that's not the case. The AI plays the game better than you do. If you learn the mechanics of the game, you can do all of those things too. The first step is admitting that you need to get better.

[Damedius]

Originally posted by Marquoz:

We see comments like this constantly. "Wah! Wah! The AI cheats! That's the only way it could beat me!" But that's not the case. The AI plays the game better than you do. If you learn the mechanics of the game, you can do all of those things too. The first step is admitting that you need to get better.

The AI does cheat though in many ways or get advantages the player doesn't get if you prefer.

Now that can obviously be over come since the AI is only as competent as it is programmed to be.

[Damedius]

Originally posted by Black_Rat:

Originally posted by treadstoneorb:

I do not think the game has any more cheats than it used to have which is a lot. I am not a paradox fan boy and will point out that the game does cheat, especially certain nations in their historical context, for example ottomans unlimited manpower and god tier generals or spain and its ability to colonise at warp speed. While I get frustrated with some certainties I enjoy the challenge of the difficulty. Granted I have not played as an african minor so I cannot attest to that level of difficulty but overall its still a great game.

Nothing you listed is a cheat though...

The Generals are a bit of a cheat. The AI gets more Army Tradition from battles which results in better generals.

[Marquoz]

Originally posted by Damedius:

Originally posted by Marquoz:

We see comments like this constantly. "Wah! Wah! The AI cheats! That's the only way it could beat me!" But that's not the case. The AI plays the game better than you do. If you learn the mechanics of the game, you can do all of those things too. The first step is admitting that you need to get better.

The AI does cheat though in many ways or get advantages the player doesn't get if you prefer.

The "many" ways you refer to are all documented in the link I gave in the second post of this thread. It's a short and weak list.

[Damedius]

Originally posted by Marquoz:

Originally posted by Damedius:

The AI does cheat though in many ways or get advantages the player doesn't get if you prefer.

The "many" ways you refer to are all documented in the link I gave in the second post of this thread. It's a short and weak list.

Knowing where all your armies are at all times isn't weak. Neither is not receiving naval attrition. An extra 25% colonization range isn't bad either. Getting extra naval/army tradition from battles translates into better generals/admirals.

It gets some fairly significant bonuses compared to the player. Ones that would be deemed completely unfair in a game between two human opponents.