Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: harley

Not really. Combat is clean - no bonuses either way, production is true - the AI gets the same FACs with the same potential output, I took out the AI routine to sweep occupied airfields, (yes, that was a cheat from the old game) and replaced it with a weighting system based on spotted units on the ground, spotted flak and the age of the recon.

I can't think of anything that could be considered cheating. If you have something you think might be, please let me know and I'll investigate.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Hard Sarge

well for one, I think Gary is the master of making a program that is "only" reacting, look like it is thinking/planning what it is doing

but, will admit, once you figure out how it is reacting, the easier it is then to beat it

quote:

ORIGINAL: Time Traveller
the AI totally cheats in War in the Pacific AE (teleporting convoys, massive production advantages, god eye intelligence, etc). All that AI cheating has turned me off from purchasing WITP AE.

Erik Rutins
CEO, Matrix Games LLC



For official support, please use our Help Desk: http://www.matrixgames.com/helpdesk/

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Time Traveller

Hi all. Enjoying this game a lot. Brings back old memories. But I have a question. Does the AI in EDBTR cheat with production numbers, intelligence, etc? The reason I ask is because from what I have read, the AI totally cheats in War in the Pacific AE (teleporting convoys, massive production advantages, god eye intelligence, etc). All that AI cheating has turned me off from purchasing WITP AE. I am really hoping there is no AI cheating going on in EDBTR.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

quote:

ORIGINAL: Time Traveller
the AI totally cheats in War in the Pacific AE (teleporting convoys, massive production advantages, god eye intelligence, etc). All that AI cheating has turned me off from purchasing WITP AE.

Too bad to hear that, as the WITP AI does not cheat except where necessary to make the improved AI work. The points you mention are exaggerated, from what I know, but each contain some truth. Players want a good AI, but when it does too well and they find it has an advantage of some kind (which hardly makes up for the lack of a real "brain" and years of wargaming experience) they assume the worst. My guess is that you've also played any number of other games with AIs with some cheats that you simply never noticed.

In any case, it sounds like EDBTR will be more up your alley.

Regards,

- Erik

quote:

I can tell you what the response will be:

You wanted a harder AI, we gave you a harder AI.

We asked for a more challenging experience against the AI, and they delivered. Yes it comes by way of blatant AI cheating in many, many ways - but, thta makes up for all those unescorted TF's you sink with your surface ships. I have been making a mental list of all the 'cheats' that the AI is using, and the list is quite long by now. And by 'cheat', I mean having the ability to do something that a human player can not - such as the unlimited planes or the ability to have instant 100 planning points for anywhere on the map, or having no restrictions on restricted troops (was a hoot to see a division from Kwatung show up in Noumea! ) and so on.

*BUT*, they do not get full experienced pilots for free. All the planes in the world mean nothing is they are being flown by someone with 35 skill.

quote:

That I have been able to find out so far (and none of these have been confirmed by the devs):

1. Unlimited torpedo sorties from Carriers.
2. Unlimited aircraft production (for Allies also).
3. Instant 100 planning points for any target.
4. Absolutely no restriction on being able to move around troops (ie. any unit can be loaded and shipped across the Pacific regardless of its HQ).
5. Even on normal settings, the Japanese AI gets huge bonus's to production. For instance, my game is half way through February 1942 as the Allies. Japan has lost about two or three hundred AK's to surface raiders - mostly PT's and DD/CL combos. When I load up their game, they have almost no ships shipping resources to mainland Japan. However, they have three bases in mainland Japan with 999,999 resources, and all the others have well over about 500,000 resources. Again, this is on 'Historical' difficulty setting.
6. They can launch Betty/Nell torpedo sorties from just about any airfield (though this will be addressed in the next patch).
7. I dont know whether you want to call it a cheat, but the AI instantly knows when there is adequate CAP over a target. They will pound, say, Darwin relentlessly with their 2E bombers but the instant you move fighters there, it stops. And I mean the instant. They may start coming back, but usually it wont be until they have fighters or for some time.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Time Traveller,

You are jumping to conclusions. Player assumptions about cheating are not the same as developer confirmation. One of our policies has been to investigate player reports but not confirm or deny what the AI does because we don't want folks figuring out how to "game" it.

With that said, while some of the cheats do exist, most of the reports I've seen are either incorrect assumptions or significant exaggerations or bugs. Making further assumptions from the sidelines (you don't have WITP AE and have not played it, as I understand it) may be an entertaining pastime for you, but it's not appreciated, especially when you start posting it to other forums as well. Please keep your discussion on the WITP AE AI in the AE forum and until you've played it, please avoid assuming that you know how it works. Feel free to ask questions and comment, but please don't jump to conclusions.

As a side note, you may be shocked to realize that AI is not really "Artificial Intelligence" and the vast majority of games do require some crutches for the AI to have any hope of keeping up with a human player. Unlike WITP, most of these do not allow you to "switch sides" and peek to see what the AI is doing, so the crutches go unnoticed. Even so, the AE AI is much improved from a planning and execution standpoint, without any cheat assistance, over the original WITP AI.

Regards,

- Erik