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Short guide on AI difficulty levels
Topic Started: Dec 1 2016, 02:48 PM (2,721 Views)
DeFlow
*Spicy* Crew
So... I could not find a source on what changing the AI difficulty level actually does, so I ran some tests.

Research Question
What is the difference in resource availability for AI's set on different levels?

Test setup
- 6 nations, each on a different difficulty level.
- Experiment ran three times.
- Nations modded with specific gem-generating site for better granularity.
- Used command line switch '--compturn' to check the AI's resources every turn, calculating/observing both resources spent as well as gold and gem status.
- Observed pretender design.

Outcomes
I will not share my dataset here unless specifically desired, because it looks like a mess and would be hard to interpret for anybody that is not me.

Did some extra testing on resources, see AI resource bonus

The AI gets a bonus with regards to resources as follows:
Easy AI: 0%
Normal AI: 0%
Difficult AI: ~15%
Mighty AI: ~20%
Master AI: ~30%
Impossible AI: ~75%

The AI gets a bonus/malus with regards to gold and gems based as follows (blood slaves from sites not affected):
Easy AI: -30% (gems per turn (GPT) rounded up)
Normal AI: 0%
Difficult AI: 30% (GPT rounded down)
Mighty AI: 60% (GPT rounded down)
Master AI: 90% (GPT rounded down)
Impossible AI: 130% (GPT rounded down)

Both AI gold and gem increase/decrease based on difficulty level are not visible in the UI directly, but adjusted for during turn resolution.

The AI's design points for pretenders also vary depending on the difficulty level as follows.
Easy AI: 400 points
Normal AI: 500 points
Difficult AI: 550 points
Mighty AI: 600 points
Master AI: 650 points
Impossible AI: 700 points

Behavioral structure of the AI does not seem to differ between difficulty levels, except for the fact that a stronger AI will inevitably become stronger than a weaker one, and thus be more likely to declare war on it's neighbors.

Note about the reliability of the results
The sample size for this test was very small (3 games, first 3 turns of every game). Because it is highly unfeasible to exactly calculate gold income and expenditure due to turn order (for example, upkeep gets deducted from your treasury AFTER recruitment but BEFORE battle, which makes the number visible on the UI different from number used), the numbers for gold bonus/malus are quite unreliable. Because they were in the range of the gem boni/mali (+/- 10%), I assume they are equal in reality.

For pretender design points, the sample size is also very small (3 pretenders per difficulty level).

If anybody would like to generate a bigger dataset, so I can tweak above estimates, be my guest. :)

I hope above is useful for anybody looking for the right challenge level in single player. For me personally, I am still looking for ways to improve Dominions 4 single player and thus I try to understand how the AI functions. I am still on the fence about my next step: either finding out how the 'AI Hint'-commands influence pretender creation or writing an AAR of a three player AI-battle, just to shine light on some of the quirks of the AI, hoping to get some support to improve it.
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Red_Rob
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Dreamer of Dreams
Thanks for your testing DeFlow. I've always thought that there are more players of Dominions Single Player than most people on the MP focused forums realise, and efforts such as this are very helpful.
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Magic Enhanced v2 Over 900 new spells + items, National spells for every nation, plus nation and spell tweaks
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Extra Pretenders Over 100 new Pretenders
EA Fennoscandia A nation based on Sami and Finnish folklore
Fantastic Mercenaries Adds 57 new mercenary bands including Vanir, Abysians and more
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DeFlow
*Spicy* Crew
Thanks Red_Rob!

If you have any more ideas of what could improve single player through modding, please let me know.

EDIT: While going over my results again to post some suggestions in the steam forums, I found out I made a mistake when talking about resource availability. Testing now and will update the OP soon.
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