Barbarian AI Questions

The mod page says there are a few civs that won’t work on Barbarian. But there seems to be a lot. Are there more than what is listed? Also, it doesn’t seem to work ever on hardest and Extreme. Is this working as intended? I am trying very hard to find a capable AI that doesn’t cheat (ie: give itself free materials). I thought this was it as it but trying to find a way to get it to work consistently it tough.

Also, does anyone know of a good AI to play against that doesn’t “cheat”. Back in the day I recall there were a number of decent AIs. Thanks!

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The DE Ai doesn’t cheat, and from what i remember the HD Ai doesn’t cheat either.

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Just play the DE AI on Extreme. It is decent, and it doesn’t cheat.

I didn’t say the DE AI cheats. I said I am looking for another AI that does not cheat.

Yeah I do, but that’s too easy, hence I am looking for a better one. Years ago there were much better AI’s available for these games.

Are you sure it isn’t just that you improved? Rehoboam is also a pretty good AI, other than that, Barbarian is one of the best. In one of the AI scripter tournaments, Rehoboam destroyed pretty much everyone and came 1st, Barbarian came second, DE came 3rd.

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Thanks for the info. Well, I used to play a LOT more than I do now, so I really don’t think I’m better now. I will definitely look into Rehoboam. Thanks again!

Adding onto that, Immortal is also a new AI to look out for. I don’t know how available it is to the general public yet (mod workshop availability), but I personally see it as a Barbarian 2.0.

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I didn’t say you said the DE AI cheats, i’m saying it doesn’t cheat in case you thought it did. :rofl:

Do you play Ranked btw?

I’ve had really fun games against barbarian AI but I’ve had a lot of games where the AI bugged out. It would be great if someone knew all the conditions where the Barbarian AI works.

  • Hardest or extreme AI?
  • Arabia only?
    etc.

Cool, thanks. Will keep my eye out for it!

Hah.

No not yet. Just getting back into the game and finding it hard to play enough to get to the point where I would feel I have a remote chance of winning ever hah.

Yeah I am having the same problem.

Lol if you can win vs the DE Ai on extreme it’s time to go ranked! :wink: You’ll have a lot more fun than playing vs the Ai.

https://aok.heavengames.com/blacksmith/showfile.php?fileid=11085&f=&st=10&ci

I found this.

I used to use Heaven as a resource a LOT. From what I’ve read the old Barbarian had to be reworked for use on the new releases. I think that work might have been done only relatively recently. It’s the new version that has issues, especially with some civs not working at all.

As a note on that, the original creator II2N (also known as TheMax) never adapted Barbarian for use in the Definitive Edition (including its DLCs) and specifically wished for other people to not modify and/or reupload it. II2N was planning to do it themselves, whether that’s still on the table I do not know.

Reuploads by anyone else should not be expected to be fully functional / of the same quality.

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Shows what I know hah. Thanks for the clarification.

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I need to work more on different strats I think, I really only have one hah.

There you can find tons of really good AIs:
https://forums.aiscripters.com/viewforum.php?f=8

Not sure if you have to register to see/download the AIs but it is an AI Heaven. I have played against most of them and some are stronger than the DE AI but the DE AI is still the most compatible one which plays every single Civ while still being a very good AI at extreme difficulty.

Most of the other AIs support only certain civs but there are a few which are really good.

  • Barbarian updated for DE Compatibility: Barbarian v2.18 - Page 63 - forums.aiscripters.com on page 63 on 2nd last post could be the Version for DE where you can play on extreme difficulty (not tested from me). But it was not adapted for the new civs
  • Immortal AI is a very strong AI which plays a lot of tactics and most (if not all) civs. It just can’t handle fully walled bases
  • Rehoboam is insanely strong if you don’t fully wall but it wants Franks as civ.
  • Shadow is also a very strong AI which wants to play Vikings
  • Odette and Pharaon AI are also good and there are many others which I didn’t test yet

Install them into:
…\Steam\steamapps\common\AoE2DE\resources_common\ai\

I get errors with Campaign AI - maybe its because of mods or it is because I installed like 20 AIs and the Promi AI into this folder - so best make a backup of the AI folder before you install all the AIs :slight_smile:

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