AI's performance depends on the human player's?

[Solmyr]

From my games, I seem to have detected a trend that the AI nations do better when the human player is also doing well. In my hands-off games as Zimbabwe, doing nothing, most major AI nations also seem to be doing poorly - the Ottomans barely make any inroads against the Mameluks, Spain barely gets a foothold in the Americas. In my current game as Austria, I'm spreading across southern Europe; and the Ottomans have already conquered the Mameluks, Spain is totally trashing every pagan nation in the Americas, my neighbor Poland is still strong (and doesn't get crushed by Russia like usually). So the question here is: coincidence? Or does the AI have some sort of "incentive" to do better if the human is also getting strong?

 

[Castellon]

Just a couple of possibilities
1) When you actually play, do you save and then reload more?
Because it has been noted that when you reload a save game the AI seams to "wake up".

2)When you play do you lead in tech, if so this is a benefit to your neighbours at least.

 

[JohnMK]

Part of the cause is that AI inflation is tied to the human players.

 

[Orm]

Originally posted by JohnMK
Part of the cause is that AI inflation is tied to the human players.

What does that mean exactly? I've had games where I had no inflation, while several of the AI nations had over 20%, some much more than that.

 

[unmerged(8320)]

I think Castelion is probably right.

The AI goes to sleep effect is very pronouned. If you don't stop every few years save the game and reload the AI is out to lunch and nothing happens. As soon as you restart "things" will start happening again in a big way. In a way this is the ultimate "cheat" for the human player. Want to conqurer a neighbor or fight a large alliance? Simply play for an hour, wait for the AI to nod off and go to town.

 

[unmerged(5459)]

Has this "Gone to Lunch" thing been fixed in 1.04 or before?

 

[unmerged(6603)]

neither... I reload every 10 years... keeps things interesting

 

[unmerged(5459)]

Ah, screw... It'll be probably be quite inconvenient on my less-than-speedy laptop (64MB RAM, Celeron 366MHz), but then again by the time I get EU2, 1.05 might be out!

 

[unmerged(7160)]

Yea I've noticed this also and I've come to the conclusion that it's because the AI nods of and when your playing some backwater nation you tend to go through the years very fast and don't reload as much so the AI falls behind on what it's supposed to be doing. Reloading every 10 years is the thing to do I suppose even when playing on high speeds.

 

[ulmont]

Originally posted by JohnMK
Part of the cause is that AI inflation is tied to the human players.

Which makes Zimbabwe a bad choice for a hands off game, since
you have uncontrollable inflation from the gold province.

-Richard Campbell

 

[unmerged(6603)]

Originally posted by Skullcrusher
Yea I've noticed this also and I've come to the conclusion that it's because the AI nods of and when your playing some backwater nation you tend to go through the years very fast and don't reload as much so the AI falls behind on what it's supposed to be doing. Reloading every 10 years is the thing to do I suppose even when playing on high speeds.

I play as Euro nations which are involved... but still reload every 10 years... I dont get about 1=8... and most of the time i am at 1=4

 

[unmerged(1302)]

I also noticed that playing at higher resolution slows the game dramatically, I'm mostly playing at 1024x768, but when I tried 1284x1024, it just slowed down to a turtle. Plus, don't forget that AI oftentimes tend to follow a human player, so if you ally to Austria and don't do anything, they won't either.

Reload every 5-10 years and you'll see a lot of countries doing what they're supposed to.

 

[unmerged(7041)]

I have noticed that just about everytime I reload the AI declares a bunch of wars.

 

[Castellon]

Originally posted by Cambronne
I have noticed that just about everytime I reload the AI declares a bunch of wars.

Also Pirates spawn somewhere.

 

[unmerged(3408)]

Originally posted by beowulf


What does that mean exactly? I've had games where I had no inflation, while several of the AI nations had over 20%, some much more than that.

But if you had high inflation it would have spilled over.

 

[unmerged(6603)]

Originally posted by Crook
I also noticed that playing at higher resolution slows the game dramatically, I'm mostly playing at 1024x768, but when I tried 1284x1024, it just slowed down to a turtle. Plus, don't forget that AI oftentimes tend to follow a human player, so if you ally to Austria and don't do anything, they won't either.

Reload every 5-10 years and you'll see a lot of countries doing what they're supposed to.

I wouldn't say "do what they are supposed to do"... but they do something

 

[unmerged(5459)]

Originally posted by Lord Joseph



I wouldn't say "do what they are supposed to do"... but they do something

Hey, they're being treacherous, warring, bloodthirsty and powerhungry bastards. Isn't that what they're meant to do?

 

[JohnMK]

Originally posted by Crook
I also noticed that playing at higher resolution slows the game dramatically, I'm mostly playing at 1024x768, but when I tried 1284x1024, it just slowed down to a turtle. Plus, don't forget that AI oftentimes tend to follow a human player, so if you ally to Austria and don't do anything, they won't either.

Reload every 5-10 years and you'll see a lot of countries doing what they're supposed to.

Performance is dependent upon system specs. I myself have no problem playing at 1280x1024. Anyway, I haven't noticed my allies acting just like me, and I play a lot, so I think it's safe to conclude that's not an accurate observation.

 

[unmerged(7580)]

Originally posted by Solmyr
From my games, I seem to have detected a trend that the AI nations do better when the human player is also doing well. In my hands-off games as Zimbabwe, doing nothing, most major AI nations also seem to be doing poorly - the Ottomans barely make any inroads against the Mameluks, Spain barely gets a foothold in the Americas. In my current game as Austria, I'm spreading across southern Europe; and the Ottomans have already conquered the Mameluks, Spain is totally trashing every pagan nation in the Americas, my neighbor Poland is still strong (and doesn't get crushed by Russia like usually). So the question here is: coincidence? Or does the AI have some sort of "incentive" to do better if the human is also getting strong?

You might be seeing the infamous "power vacuum". When i was Eire and annexed england it created a huge vacuum of power that had to be filled, so what happened was the larger nations all expanded west with minimal resistance (Frence expanded west because no England, Austria because France went west, Poland because Austria went west, etc.) This made all the majors huge, because something had to fill that vaccuum afterall.