The great official AI thread

[107zombiekiller]

Given the large number of players who play at recruit level and the small number who play at Veteran it is hard to argue the average HOI IV player is looking for a much tougher opponent.

though on the other hand a majority do play on regular (and this number becomes a larger % of the total as the number of hours increases) which could be pretty easily chalked up to not liking the idea of giving themselves debuffs that, at least to me, make the game less fun but not that much more difficult
personally i'd love to see much better AI that can give a challenge of some kind without having to nerf myself and give them huge buffs
not to say i think the AI is actually broken as it is now but i think you're ignoring the other possibility's of why so many people play on regular but not vet

 

[seldon]

I agree I don't like the debuffs either and don't play Veteran because I find losing PP screws up my strategy. On the other hand I don't understand the issue with giving the AI buffs to production and combat like the sliders do. If the problem is you steam roll over the opponent make them tougher. I can defeat the AI with max sliders with Germany, US, or USSR, but not Japan, France or Italy. Or do as I do use the Expert AI mod all you lose is the achievements.

 

[ThuderLizard2]

Or do as I do use the Expert AI mod all you lose is the achievements.

Again - Expert AI mod does NOT fix these issues. If England is left undefended giving the AI more buffs won't help.

 

[seldon]

My last game has sliders on very hard/veteran mode, reduced attrition, with desperate defense for Poland/France and UK. Still wiped out Poland/France and low countries by mid-39 and completed Sealion by end of '39. Not much challenge there. The Expert AI developer has said these problems are not fixable by his mod.

Admittedly UK sealion defense is hit or miss some game well-defended others not. I get around by simply not invading. England. My last game as Germany I had similar buffs, but I also buffed Russia . I attacked them in spring 41 and while I was able to capture Leningrad on a cheap naval invasion. I also managed to capture Moscow, but they captured in back in the winter. In the south I made little progress and the infrastructure was so destroyed I had trouble keeping the troops supplied. I quit by the end of 42 with the east front basically a stalemate. All in All a satisfying WWII experience. Now it is taken some experimentation to find the right level of balance between Expert AI options and the sliders to find a competitive game.

I agree with you that Civ IV AI is better, and your opinion that EU IV is better is I believe common. But that is two games out of thousands of strategy games. To me I've reached the point with HOI IV AI that I was at with Civ IV. I could generally win at Emperor, generally lose at Immortal, and winning at diety relied on getting lucky and scum saving.

The HOI IV AI certainly has room for improvement. But I think it is important to acknowledge that is has been improved significantly. I just really object to the term "broken" if the HOI IV AI is broken than what do say about Civ V and Civ VI AI. To me trash AI sounds better than broken.

I'm looking forward to the new feature in the DLC in the same way that I looked forward to the new features in CIV expansions.

 

[KalypsoKirin]

Consider the fact that EU4's units are vastly different from HOI4. EU4 and Vicky 2 both use some very basic army structure because war is not the main goal of those games. Or, at least, you should be able to enjoy yourself without being always at war.
Because most of Paradox's games use the same large stacks for their armies, it's much easier for them to make an AI that works for all of their games, but Hearts of Iron 4 is a complete departure, even from other Hearts of Iron games.
This means the AI had to be made almost entirely from scratch, which means that some things might not have been given proper consideration when making the AI.

 

[NightRider]

Interesting thread about AI. Does SteelVolt still monitor this? Interesting to see if any of these suggestions make it to next patch.

 

[JerkyJerry]

Interesting thread about AI. Does SteelVolt still monitor this? Interesting to see if any of these suggestions make it to next patch.

I'm not sure he would have to. Not a single new thing has been posted about the AI in months and months and months. Same old complaints made by new players.

 

[Had a dad]

Same old complaints made by new players.

same old complaint made by a soc puppet you mean....