H4: Differences in (esp.) battle AI between difficulties.

[Steven Aus]

I've noticed that the AI is more likely to advance shooters and less likely to use (esp.) creature spells when on the lowest difficulties, but it also advances shooters sometimes on Advanced. What are the differences in the AI between the different selectable difficulty levels, esp. the battle AI?

Not related to AI so much, there is a big difference in the size of stacks between Novice and Advanced, but that was known already. Which is more important, getting more experience from bigger armies, or not being able to secure funding sources early in the game? I would probably guess the latter.

I've been playing the new "Tolkien's War of the Ring" map from February this year, and I wonder how much I'm handicapping the AI by choosing the easiest difficulty. A lot of the stuff in this map depends on timed events, so it may not make much difference in the scheme of things. Gold and resources are important in this map, so I'm wondering what the tradeoff is in AI (esp. battle AI) when I am on the easiest couple of difficulties.

[GreatEmerald]

As mentioned in other threads, when it comes to adventure map AI, the higher difficulties actually do more harm to it because the AI is slower than it should be when trying to take over mines and whatnot. The battle AI does improve, though, I believe. And yes, even on Advanced the AI will sometimes move their ranged troops, though almost always only if the shot is really bad from where they are (1/4 of the damage or less). Last I saw that surprised me was that the AI had a whole bunch of Fire Elementals and moved them instead of attacking.

[Steven Aus]

What happens if mines are pre-flagged to their colour, and certain armies come in scripts and heroes are placed already at high level (say 20)?

[GreatEmerald]

Then they won't bother with the mines, obviously.

By the way, a good way to explore how adventure AI works is to play an allied map with an allied AI.

[Steven Aus]

No, I meant that if they are already getting resources from the mines, and have a good amount of scripted armies and high level heroes, can they provide a good challenge? The ultimate victory condition in the map is to return the Ring to Mount Doom, rather than beating up all the other players (apart from Saruman of Isenguard, I'm not sure if it is even possible to beat up the alliance of Sauron and the Easterlings - Sauron for example has very powerful non-removable troops guarding his garrisons for starters). They are there to provide a challenge on the way to the goal, but do not have to beaten outright (apart from Saruman perhaps). Has anyone played this map on the higher difficulties to see if it is still a challenge? I might do that at some stage.