Nervous about the next patch?

[Izmir Stinger]

What difficulty do you play at now, and what difficulty do you think you can handle when these AI improvements come out? I play basic FFHII on Immortal, and I'm nervous. Will I get bumped down to Emperor? Monarch? Are you scared? Excited? Whats gonna happen the first time a DOW comes after "patch H"? I'm all tingly with anticipation.

 

[Johnar]

I'm excited about an improved AI and is really looking forward to the new patch because of that. I hope the AI now will be able to plan large invasion and build a well mixed army. Not just send 3-4 swordsmen and an archer, when it could have sent 1o times more by waiting a few more turns with the attack. Building the right type of buildings and researching techs appropriate to what nearby resources it start with would also help a lot, and is probably one of the main issues with the current AI.

 

[Calavente]

well, playing a bit of wild mana from where some of the AI changes comes, I lost 1 level. But I don't play to win... just to struggle and overcome the difficulty... so maybe the game became much more harder that 1level.
and it is not really comparable... you replace boni for the AI (xp, buildings, production) by a better use of the game...

But I've seen a stack of 60 axemen with rantine attacking my capital !! it was a bit late as I had SoK, archer, AirII mage and swordmen (Baleseraph)... (3 tierII techs..+ 1tier III) but the idea was there.

but I should really have lost my capital and I only survived because of luck and some of those units, mutated, had gained canibalize and all had hill II (plus the maelstorm)

so it is worth it !!

 

[Turinturambar]

I regularly easily beat deity in normal FFH and it's actually very boring/easy to do so assuming you don't get killed by an early bronze rush. With my mod enabled I feel challenged at Emperor (i.e. I will win, but not easily) and immortal is only doable with very strong civs.

 

[UNIT 666]

Turin, your mod really makes FFH a challenge for me at Noble. I really need to play intelligently to stand any chance at all. I love your mod!

I've never gotten far enough in Wild Mana to really fight with them on a large scale, but they kept up with me score-wise, and I'm sure they'd be tough to beat. The AI actually using spells is a little disconcerting.

--

I hope these AI improvements are integrated into Orbis and Fall Further, somehow.

 

[Bill Bisco]

The AI is still dumb unfortunately. However, now you'll see most civs make big stacks of Archers, making it harder to invade them, and the Sheaim will make big stacks of Pyre Zombies which are very scary. Unfortunately the AI can still be baited to have a stack of troops leave one city, whereupon you simply rush that poorly defended city and take it.

Another trick is to harass an outlier city of an enemy AI, the AI will feed a continuous supply of new archers to it, while you just pick them off, 1 by 1 and grow your forces to take their main cities.

Third, the AI still has a problem rush killing you, if you're in their territory, my Horse Archer spent several turns in Sheaim territory killing adepts, stealing workers, and pillaging.

 

[JonathanStrange]

I use the WildMana mod now, from which I understand much of the AI changes will come from.

It's very hard to assess whether the AI changes are significant improvements or simply changes. Since I've frequently change map types, I go from easy Deity wins to crushing Deity losses and once I take into account bad starts, different difficulty levels, different civs, I'm baffled to say anything about the AI with confidence.

 

[Onionsoilder]

I generally played on Emperor, but recently I've transitioned to Immortal. One thing that annoys me to no end is how on Immortal, it is quite simply impossible to get a settler for before the AI, so if you're crowded in, game-over. With the new AI improvements, I'll probably just be playing Emperor again.

 

[loffenx]

I prefered Turinturamabars AI changes to the ones in Wild Mana myself, atleast in the state i last played them (~2 weeks ago). But if the new patch comes close to either one of them (it is more or less a straight "port" of Wild Mana, is it not?) I'd say your nervousness is well motivated

I don't play to win either, but the deity-style of challenge (AI xp bonuses, raw production bonuses etc.) feels quite stiff an undynamic so these AI-mods has really rejuvenated my interest in FFH

 

[Bill Bisco]

Everyone plays to win, its just a question of how much effort they go into optimizing, and how much builder style they feel like doing first.

 

[scutarii]

"better economic AI" crushed me easily at deity, at immortal I was able to hold fort for a while and emperor was actually playable.

 

[Emptiness]

I'm definitely excited. The AI will probably still need some work, but this definitely sounds like a step in the right direction. I expect that I'll be playing at a lower difficulty, at least until I get used to the changes. Ultimately I hope to be able to play using the Erebus mapscript without feeling like the AI is incapable of winning. I don't know if these upcoming changes will be enough to do that (I suspect not) or if that will remain a challenge for the future.

 

[Turinturambar]

"better economic AI" crushed me easily at deity, at immortal I was able to hold fort for a while and emperor was actually playable.

Glad to hear it . But yeah on deity you can expect tier4 units at turn 200. Combined with 2-3 promotions on building this is rather nasty.

 

[Neomega]

I'm excited. Unfortunately, when I was playing Wild Mana, AI civs were not picking up spellbooks (will not be in standard FFH), but also were not building nodes. So for now I am waiting for patch H. I hope to stay at the same level, since at Monarch, I tend to be able to hold my own now on a trajectory for victory. It would be nice to be back to the olden days when victory was hardly ever a foregone conclusion.

 

[Tholal]

You'll almost certainly be bumping the difficulty level down a notch.

 

[Jenaelha]

Wild Mana is unwinable... for me... at my accustomed difficulty. I keep trying, though. As good as I think the AI improvements are, I'm sure there will be room for improvement. It's is really exciting to see an AI adept with Spring sowing a desert green.


edit:: I like Random civs. Early tech is dependent on starting resourses and later tech is geared toward the Civ strengths. Map is always Continents and difficulty is Monarch

 

[Bill Bisco]

Wild Mana is unwinable... for me... at my accustomed difficulty. I keep trying, though. As good as I think the AI improvements are, I'm sure there will be room for improvement. It's is really exciting to see an AI adept with Spring sowing a desert green.

What's your civ, tech strategy, and military strategy, map settings and difficulty

 

[Tielby]

I upgraded from Warlord to Noble a couple months ago. I suck.

Anyway, I suspect I'll have to go back to Warlord, at least for a while. Really looking forward to having a more capable AI though!

 

[Delenn]

I should try the economic enhancement..
Deity seems easier than on normal civ. The real key is to get one 'uber' unit of warriors to 80-100 xp early on - something that can take out archers, ect. Every other unit of warriors just acts as softener to boost this one up.
Well and then the usual development of good tech (cartography, cottages, ect, ect)
Right now I'm playing the Svart Alfar and having a load of fun

 

[Senethro]

Patch H now includes build orders and some other enhancements from Turin's Better Economic AI. congratulations to him and isn't this patch getting scarier all the time.