How Much Does The AI Cheat? [Poor Difficulty Scaling]

[Akboris]

Im playing in Single Player on normal as the Space Marines and im doing okay. Ive taken two regions without setbacks but the first region I conquered has just been attacked from the flank by the Tau. Fortunately, unlike soulstorm (Which has better difficulty scaling imo) Dark Crusade saves buildings so you get an advantage if your attacked.

Something I noticed, however, was that the Tau spawned literally on top of my mid map defences and they had multiple bases! In the course of a minute! What? I had loads of resources and stuff so I spammed them tfo with loads of units and im about to win but imagine trying to win that without all that stuff! Imagine trying to beat like 3 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ bases out of nowhere with nothing. Not only this but they came in with multiple tanky things straight away too!

Ive always ended up rage quiting the campaign in this game because one level youll be kickin azz and feeling like a badazz but the next level youll get utterly btfo and destroyed in a flash.

Some levels the AI refuses to take the L and will send engineers all the way around the map creating bases while your destroying the last.

So how much does the AI cheat and whats the algorithm? What benefits does the AI get.
The game is awesome btw.

[Akboris]

Woah the game sneaks in multiple enemy players disguised as one up and sends them up against you. Wow.

[Latharion]

When an AI attacks a region, the number of honor guard squads seems to determine the starting attack strength (which determines the number of starting bases, etc). The AI's honor guard squad count rises every time it can afford to buy some, regardless of the number of regions it owns (if any other than it's stronghold). If you take over all of it's regions minus it's stronghold, then it's honor guard squad count will only increase based on the initial 100 PR that it gains for it's stronghold.

As to it's behavior during an attack, from what I've experienced, it seems to be determined at random. There seems to be several behavior arch-types that it can be assigned (things like "base builder", "expansionist", "rusher", and "defender", to name a few. Because it seems to be random, you can always save after ever overworld move, and then reload if you do not like the chosen behavior your opponent was assigned. I think it is kind of silly to do it this way, but it isn't unusual at all. Age of Empires behaved in much the same way (AoE and AoE2). I've encountered AI attackers that only run around grabbing strategic points and capping them, not even bothering to build combat units. I've also seen AI attackers that spam their highest tech units. resulting in endless waves of tanky units. This can be extremely frustrating when the AI also has a honor guard count (meaning multiple bases and multiple squad caps), which means encountering a rediculous number of predator tanks or multiple bane blades.

I wish the developers had set it up so each base gained a different behavior or something, or at the very least, I wish the AI would obey the same squad cap limits that the player has though.

[Akboris]

Originally posted by Latharion:

When an AI attacks a region, the number of honor guard squads seems to determine the starting attack strength (which determines the number of starting bases, etc). The AI's honor guard squad count rises every time it can afford to buy some, regardless of the number of regions it owns (if any other than it's stronghold). If you take over all of it's regions minus it's stronghold, then it's honor guard squad count will only increase based on the initial 100 PR that it gains for it's stronghold.

As to it's behavior during an attack, from what I've experienced, it seems to be determined at random. There seems to be several behavior arch-types that it can be assigned (things like "base builder", "expansionist", "rusher", and "defender", to name a few. Because it seems to be random, you can always save after ever overworld move, and then reload if you do not like the chosen behavior your opponent was assigned. I think it is kind of silly to do it this way, but it isn't unusual at all. Age of Empires behaved in much the same way (AoE and AoE2). I've encountered AI attackers that only run around grabbing strategic points and capping them, not even bothering to build combat units. I've also seen AI attackers that spam their highest tech units. resulting in endless waves of tanky units. This can be extremely frustrating when the AI also has a honor guard count (meaning multiple bases and multiple squad caps), which means encountering a rediculous number of predator tanks or multiple bane blades.

I wish the developers had set it up so each base gained a different behavior or something, or at the very least, I wish the AI would obey the same squad cap limits that the player has though.

I wish it was easier.

A few hours in you always reach a stalemate where everyone has about 10 defence for every region and half the armies have disappeared so your stuck with your below average honor guard against their 450 bases and 20 unit honor guard.

Because for some reason despite conquering the most regions the player will never obtain anywhere near the amount of honor units that the AI will. Its probably because the capital territories dont give you ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ for some reason. I have no idea why. Its ridiculous.

So unless your some sort of veteran or playing on Easy I cant find a way to get past about 6 or 7 regions. You'll have to wait until one of the few remaining boios knocks out another so you can slip in, just to get rid of the bodyguards. Never mind the 450 extra bases the AI gets for some reason.

Soulstorm did this type of thing better because the AI doesnt seem to have the same number of advantages and the bonuses are restricted to the capitals, which makes so much more sense. But then you dont get the saved base defences. AHH.

Its a shame because dark crusade would be so much more badass if the campaign was tweaked a little.

[Latharion]

There are a few strategic routes that can be taken to assure a more level playing field. For one thing, moving directly to the Pavonis Space Port and then to the Eres Badlands for the bonuses will net you the ability to move anywhere on the map, twice for each single move the AI players get. This will allow you to pick your targets and go for the honor guard squads that will do you the most good, and take regions that may give you a buffer.

Also, always prioritize buy honor guard units over reinforcing a region. Because the AI players will always purchase their honor guard whenever they can, you may as well do the same. Some honor guard squads are far superior to standard squads (like the Tau Fire Warrior Elite squads), others are probably not worth much, but squads that don't count against your squad cap are always good, even if the unit isn't vastly superior.

As others have pointed out recently, always spend the time to build your base in every region you attack. Build multiple barracks, vehicle depots, etc., to allow you to rapidly create an army. This will allow you to generate an army at the start of the game rapidly, which will save you planetary requisition (so you do not have to reinforce) allowing you to afford honor guard squads.

Finally, the only difference in the difficulty levels is the ratio if your unit's HP compared to the AI's. The core behaviorisms remain. The AI's behavior is determined randomly. It doesn't make "bad" decisions due to lower difficulty, thus the only real challenge difference is in the survivability of your units. On easy, the ratio is something like 25% AI HP compared to the players 100%, on normal, it's higher, and on hard, they are equal. I am not sure if damage is affected or not. It may be that the player receives a bonus to damage on easy, but it may not.