AI Difficulty Bonuses

[Stale Baguette Police]

As in the title, what are the specific bonuses the AI gets to morale, manpower, etc at the different difficulty levels?

[LCcmdr]

Hover over each option and the game will give you the "general particulars" of increased manpower, money, etc.

[Stale Baguette Police]

Originally posted by LCcmdr:

Hover over each option and the game will give you the "general particulars" of increased manpower, money, etc.

It doesn't give any particulars that I can see, just a generic message "adjusts morale, manpower, etc..." as I mentioned.

[moosees]

Not sure what bonus are tied to difficulty or agressiveness but the general list is (at least):

• More volunteers
  
• More causualties (I guess is's for you and not the AI)
  
• More morale restored in battles
  
• More exp gained in battles
  
• Less lost state support from losses
  
• Faster readiness recovery (this is WAAAAAAAAAAAAY too much imho)
  
• Better weapon production
  
• Bonus to all spending of AI
  
• More subsidy generation (maybe)
  
• Higher agression means AI will recruit more troops compared to the player

[LCcmdr]

As I understand this, each bump up in ability adds morale improvement, better survival in combat (harder to kill), better cohesion (?), more volunteers provided, and some buffs to industry, finance, trade, and foreign relations. Simply put, the AI is harder to kill but not any smarter. Nor does it necessary make better campaign choices--though this is accentuated by the calm to aggressive slider. The more aggressive options are a pain I(MO).

[Stale Baguette Police]

I was hoping someone had dug into the files and figured out the numbers. I played a Hard AI Confederacy and it was able to raise almost a half million man army without breaking tht bank.

Is mediocre "no bonus"? Is "Hard a 5% handicap to tht AI or is it something ridiculous? It helps to know so that it's easier to troubleshoot if things are working as intended.

[LCcmdr]

Great question, and thanks for raising it. I've searched the manual but found nothing more than what appears on the set up panel.

Hopefully, there are some here who have the skills to find and explain this.

[moosees]

Some numbers in addition to my previous post, most numbers are 1+x so maybe double the bonus for highest difficulty. It could be half that too since there's a variable with "max start bonus: 0.5":

• Causualties: 0.35, sounds fishy, I don't think the AI deals 70% more dmg on VH. Half that sounds more reasonable.
  
• Morale restored in battles: 0.3.
  
• Exp gained in battles: 0.3.
  
• Less support loss: 0.3.
  
• Readiness recovery: 0.3.
  
• Weapon production: 0.3.
  
• Spending: 0.3.
  
• Subsidy generation: 1, dont know if this is 1+x so 300% (or 200%) for max difficulty or if it's not changed at all.
  
• Volunteers: 1. Confusing explaination but it's multiplied by bonus so 0.5% extra volunteers? Probably not since the AI seems to be able to recruit a fair number of troops.
  
• Troop count: 0.17, special case since the forumla here is 1.25+x instead of 1+x. Full formula is 'Player troop count' * (1.25+x), or maybe 'Player troop count' * (1.25+x) * 0.5 if the bonus variable plays in to this.

Explaination for volunteer bonus:

Bonus influence modifier on number of volunteers (50 bonus and value of 0.5 here means 25% more volunteers)

[Stale Baguette Police]

Thanks for the detailed info, that's really interesting. I was curious how big a variance there is between "normal" (mediocre) and Hard and Very Hard.

With AI in tht state that it is, a lot of players including myself up the difficulty. But it does lead to some weird situations like the CSA potentially out-recruiting thr USA. I would hope that someday the AI gets good enough that we can play against it without giving it a handicap and still be challenged.

[moosees]

Unfair AI advantages is how every game challenge the player, at least until we get widespread self-improving AIs. However I think raising most numbers in campaignprefs and lowering AI readiness building is the best we can do for now in this game.

[Stale Baguette Police]

We'll....yes, but I think there is a lot that can still be done without escalating to machine learning. Making the AI cheat isn't quite as fun. Agreed it is the best we have, for now. But without multiplayer, I think tht AI really needs to shine.

[Old War Dog]

I said the AI was cheating a few weeks ago and was jumped on by several contributes. My point is now and then improving the AI without making it CPT Obvious that the AI is playing from completely different rules. Good example is the readiness rule does not apply to AI it can move through non-supported territory without degradation, it has a repair and replenish rate that is embarrassing, on the battlefield if it is nearly destroyed and being pursued it regenerates at a rate that is laughable. My option is this runes the immersion that the player needs to come back for more. After all immersion is 50% of the battle between an excellence game an a well excepted game. I have a little over 1300 hours on this game and have seen great improvements most of the last update was good stuff except for the monkeypoxing with the AI.