Hardest/Extreme AI performance on different maps

[oldlamehand]

In my opinion, the AI is quite unbalanced. Sometimes it can be almost unstoppable, especially if you "play by its rules" and you're trying to be better at the strategy the AI is playing. But on some maps or in some situations it performs poorly.

The biggest weakness is the water maps like islands. The AI doesn't make enough effort to gain control of the water, Suicidally trying to get transport ships fully loaded with units right past the player's powerful fleet etc.

AI often performs great on open land maps like Arabia. I usually don't stand a chance in a "fair fight." The AI handles early combat well, and if I let it boom, it's also nearly unstoppable. The weakness of the AI, for example, is defense against tower rush.

The AI does well on maps like Arena, but it's pretty easy to disrupt their attempts to peacefully boom if they choose that strategy.

Hardest and Extreme AI is surprisingly strong on the Michi map. Because it is very efficient at booming and managing the economy, and on the Michi map the player has no way to ambush them early, they have to face the AI at the point where it has a strong economy and is constantly spawning hordes of troops from many military buildings. it uses a mix of units that are not easy to counter etc..

Extreme AI will sometimes even attack first on the michi map.

[Quintem]

The AI was I think in part built to perform best on the most popular map(s) which are Arabia and Arena. Any other land map or closed off map is also fairly straight forward for it.

Yes it tends to fall apart on water. I feel like it would need a separate script that detects how much water there is on a map and it will then do a build order and play style more suited to heavy water. That's up to the devs if they think it's worth the time.

[Krosis Priest]

I've been playing on Hard and reporting issues like this for a while now, the AI can be almost frustrating to play against on simple open maps (like Arabia mentioned here a lot), but the slightest deviation from that can make it just fall apart completely. I like a bit longer and more "epic" games, and here is the list of things the AI fails at or does dumb things with:
- Completely ignores the monument in KOTH
- Sometimes doesn't know how to leave its starting island on island-based maps
- Doesn't know how to point its castles in the general enemy direction - often points them at edge of map or allies
- Seems to pretty much not change its priorities/aggression if you build a wonder (I am 90% sure even the original CD version AI went bananas on you if you started building a wonder, the DE one just acts like business as usual)
- Apparently setting a treaty messes up the way it builds up defences as well
- Completely random performance in FFA games or with more than 2 teams - I've had allies crushed by another AI's fully upgraded post-imperial army while my ally has 3 hussars; I've had a Slav ally get destroyed by an army of champions and rams with no ranged or pike support, because it just made its first Boyar well into imperial age.
- Builds absurd amounts of docks for no reason. There's a map with just a few tiny ponds with 1-2 shore fish each in the centre (forgot the name), the AIs built docks in every single one of them.
- Also, if the map has any amount of water, the AI will go absolutely nuts with building a navy even if 3/4 of the map is land, so its land army is half strength at best and you don't need to get near the coast.

So yeah, this is not good enough and imo it's pretty unacceptable for the AI to fail at basically everything except 1v1 Arabia matches in a game that has dozens of settings and features, because it basically means most of those options are fake.

[oldlamehand]

Originally posted by Krosis:

I've been playing on Hard and reporting issues like this for a while now, the AI can be almost frustrating to play against on simple open maps (like Arabia mentioned here a lot), but the slightest deviation from that can make it just fall apart completely. I like a bit longer and more "epic" games, and here is the list of things the AI fails at or does dumb things with:
- Completely ignores the monument in KOTH
- Sometimes doesn't know how to leave its starting island on island-based maps
- Doesn't know how to point its castles in the general enemy direction - often points them at edge of map or allies
- Seems to pretty much not change its priorities/aggression if you build a wonder (I am 90% sure even the original CD version AI went bananas on you if you started building a wonder, the DE one just acts like business as usual)
- Apparently setting a treaty messes up the way it builds up defences as well
- Completely random performance in FFA games or with more than 2 teams - I've had allies crushed by another AI's fully upgraded post-imperial army while my ally has 3 hussars; I've had a Slav ally get destroyed by an army of champions and rams with no ranged or pike support, because it just made its first Boyar well into imperial age.
- Builds absurd amounts of docks for no reason. There's a map with just a few tiny ponds with 1-2 shore fish each in the centre (forgot the name), the AIs built docks in every single one of them.
- Also, if the map has any amount of water, the AI will go absolutely nuts with building a navy even if 3/4 of the map is land, so its land army is half strength at best and you don't need to get near the coast.

So yeah, this is not good enough and imo it's pretty unacceptable for the AI to fail at basically everything except 1v1 Arabia matches in a game that has dozens of settings and features, because it basically means most of those options are fake.

I play random maps, so I have no experience with other modes. But as for the docks sometimes I see the opposite problem.
Islands, about 25 minutes and extreme AI has one dock. More docks were built in the late castle.

Building castles away from the enemy is not always a mistake. If you depend on a unique unit, sometimes it may be better to build a castle or two in a safe place.

[Krosis Priest]

Yeah, kinda like I said, the AI often builds stupid amounts of docks... except, sometimes, maps where it would actually make sense.

One or two yes, not a whole bunch of castles facing exactly nothing. I remember one game specifically where out of 5 or 7 (can't remember) other players, my ally's castles were all facing... me. He then got roflstomped by another AI.

[oldlamehand]

On the other hand, even in maps where the AI doesn't perform exactly great, it usually performs better than in the original AOE2.
Another interesting point: the AI CD version definitely does not play the same as the old AI from the original Age of Empires 2, although the CD version should be the old AI.
It does things the old AI couldn't do, like boar hunting.