Age of Empires 2 HD: Difficulty Glitch

[Gi.Doughboy]

I have been playing Age of Empires 2 for almost 10 years, and as soon as it came to Steam I grabbed it. Everything seemed fine until recently. All of a sudden, difficulty settings seem to mean nothing. Even setting it to "Easiest" the computer players still play as if it is set to "Hard" or even "Hardest settings. Is anyone else coming across this issue?

[Cysion]

The new AI update really brought the AI to a new level, however, we tried our best to scale it down on lower difficulty levels.

Could you tell us the settings you played at, it's possible we need to scale it more on certains combinations.

[Kharne]

Well, I don´t think the AI is that good. The last time I played the HD Version (about a month ago) the AI used to Petard Rush me, even on moderate, after 40 minutes it attacked me with trebuchets. Now it comes with a good infantry mix, which dies on my walls, no petards, no canon galleons, trebuchets come after 1 hour play time.

[Promiskuitiv]

"Even setting it to "Easiest" the computer players still play as if it is set to "Hard" or even "Hardest settings."

I agree we still need to scale it more down on lower difficulty levels but this quote here is not true, if it would be possible to let a "hardest" AI play vs an "easiest" AI then it would take at least 5 of them out alone. There definitely are lots of differences between these difficulty levels.
The AI on easiest is way slower than the one on hardest.


Edit: My text was about non-deathmatch, on deathmatch the several difficulty levels are more similar to each other. Did you play on deathmatch?
I'm already working on improvements on the scaling of the different difficulty levels for the next update.

[Nightwolf]

Could be possible to have a difficult where AI is set to "none". So he didnt do anything? Also, could be possible to set some kind of play, where you can share the civ controlled by AI? Actually it works, but only for single player. With multiplayer, that could be very fun.

[Big Rudy]

Originally posted by Promiskuitiv:

"Even setting it to "Easiest" the computer players still play as if it is set to "Hard" or even "Hardest settings."

I agree we still need to scale it more down on lower difficulty levels but this quote here is not true, if it would be possible to let a "hardest" AI play vs an "easiest" AI then it would take at least 5 of them out alone. There definitely are lots of differences between these difficulty levels.
The AI on easiest is way slower than the one on hardest.


Edit: My text was about non-deathmatch, on deathmatch the several difficulty levels are more similar to each other. Did you play on deathmatch?
I'm already working on improvements on the scaling of the different difficulty levels for the next update.

I feel like it's a bigger issue, since switching the difficulty seemed to have not changed it, what-so-ever. Maybe it's a client side issue with me, but it still seems iffy.

[fractiousperson]

Originally posted by Cysion:

The new AI update really brought the AI to a new level, however, we tried our best to scale it down on lower difficulty levels.

Could you tell us the settings you played at, it's possible we need to scale it more on certains combinations.

I have been playing random maps on standard which are pretty easy levels. Since I downloaded an update I have found that after certain triggers (maybe building a castle or producing galleons) I get a huge swarm of enemies and just get annihilated. First time I escaped to an island and built a wonder but second time my enemies had found all the relics and there wasn't time to mount a defence of any kind.

[Promiskuitiv]

"I feel like it's a bigger issue, since switching the difficulty seemed to have not changed it, what-so-ever. Maybe it's a client side issue with me, but it still seems iffy."

Again: There are definitely noticeable differences. Try playing a game on "easiest" difficulty, stop it at 20 minutes, take a look at the end-game stats, do the same on "hardest" difficulty and you'll see that the AI is way stronger on "hardest" difficulty. This is only an example, there are also lots of mid-lategame strength restritions on the AI on lower difficulty levels.
And again: With the next AI update the differences between the several difficulties will even be a bit bigger than it is right now.

@wisemans.hilltop: A trigger like that doesn't exist, but it is likely to attack when it thinks that it would have the upper hand in a fight. In other words: If you have a big army then the enemy will be more reluctant to attack (but he will still attack at some point).

[xenopharb]

Well, thank you for breaking the game with your hubris for making the smartest AI.

What cheats are the AI given at each level? On hard, there is no way to keep up with the massive spam attack the AI brings. If the AI now mini-maxes and gets the cheats, the game is no longer functional.

[fractiousperson]

Ok I get that but the strength of attack is significantly different than it has been up to now - something has definitely changed and the game is almost unplayable. Perhaps it's just me?These are single players games by the way.

[Promiskuitiv]

"What cheats are the AI given at each level? On hard, there is no way to keep up with the massive spam attack the AI brings. If the AI now mini-maxes and gets the cheats, the game is no longer functional."

The AI does NOT cheat on ANY difficulty level.

"Ok I get that but the strength of attack is significantly different than it has been up to now - something has definitely changed and the game is almost unplayable. Perhaps it's just me?These are single players games by the way."

Yeah, as mentioned in the patchnotes the newer AI is much stronger than the old one. If the new AI is still too hard on the easiest difficulty level then just go back to the old "Conquerors AI" until you feel like you improved enough to take on the new AI again.

[Djuntas]

You people just need to practice. What you all whinning about is like me, if I booted up Warcraft 3 and played vs AI on hard. I have played that game a fair bit vs AI, but I never got around to learn key-binds, good build orders and all that.

Basicly, practice. It took me a month when I started playing AOE2 again, before I could even somewhat handle old AI on hardest. Best advice is: Learn hotkeys and go on youtube and watch pro's play and see guides.

[fractiousperson]

All I'm saying is why change the skill level so radically?

[Promiskuitiv]

Snowdrop59: Stuff like this requires extensive testing by people with all different skill levels, now that i received the feedback from all you guys (not only the ones who said that it's too difficult) i can work on making it easier (which i actually already did in my internal version).
So relax for now, the next version will be a lot easier on its easy difficulty levels, on higher difficulty levels it will still be as hard as before.

[fractiousperson]

Sounds fair

[Korvo]

I'm about to return to playing it, should i do it on the easy mode?