Does the AI cheat?

Woopsy I was searching for an AOE 3 blog. Yes I failed english. I love AOE 1 and 2. I don’t like 3 or 4. I just don’t like the way AOE 4 layout or gameplay is. I guess I’m just old school. Thanks for pointing out that I need new glasses and that this is AOE 2 blog.

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lmfao you cant be serious right?

If the AI does not cheat, then how does it have 4+ castles and it never mined any stone?

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It could have used the market. AI tend to love the market.

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Check your kill / death ratio at the end of the game screen. I imagine you didn’t make enough onagers to deal with his siege. Also if you watch the replay I bet you were stockpiling a ton of unspent resources, most likely thousands of food. Remember each resource should never be more than 1,000 - unless you are pop capped / maxed out at 200 population

You can check the recorded game to see that the default AI doesn’t cheat. If it gained any stone without mining/receiving tributes/feitoria or similar then only through trading in the market, paying for it with gold (for exactly the same price as humans would pay).

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I think the AI in the latest DE update cheats its ask off. I have played it on the same map, a dozen times. Every time it’s able to out-boom me, has 2x the villagers, 2x the military and 2x resources, despite my producing vills, non-stop, except for age advances. There is literally never a time I’m not producing vills and it still has 2x what I have. Even if I lame it, the AI can still pump out vills, soldiers, knights, spearmen and javelins. Even if I beat it to all the ages, it’s still producing more units. At one point, I had 4 TCs pouring out vills and it still had 2x. 30 on food, 30 on wood, still gets double the food.

Watch the replay, there you should See If it Cheats

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Indeed, the replay will show how the AI was able to achieve this. In general it’s likely related to the AI’s great multitasking abilities, it doesn’t cheat any resources/units or similar.

The default AI on Extreme difficulty builds/researches/trains/gathers at the same speed and doesn’t know which units/buildings you have or even where your base is located until it scouts that.

We’re not planning to add any cheating capabilities to the AI in the future either, but we are still constantly working on improving the AI; As we have already done since release of the Definitive Edition.
If the AI is performing well then that always makes us very happy to hear. :slight_smile:

If you prefer you can also add some AI allies and enable the “Shared Exploration” option in the Lobby to have visibility over your AI allies’ bases to see how exactly they build up.

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Nah, when I can throw 60 skirms, 15 knights and 40 hussars at maybe 10 pikemen , 10 skirms, 3-4 archers, 5-10 monks and they shrug that off like they are da vs imp units, something’s not right. Yes, I had all my blacksmith upgrades. I had so many skirms I could not select them all. 60 is just what I went in with and they were melted by a handful of AI units.

So you afforded all this off 85 villagers and wonder how your opponent shrugged off your attack? Better eco.

Post the replay. Something suspicious about your claim.

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No, that was a whole other game. I have played 12 games against the new AI, in the last 3 days and they all had the same result. I had 128 villagers in the last one. 38 on food 42 on wood, the rest on stone, gold and buildings. Vills producing from 4 tc’s, almost constantly. 21 stables, 16 ranges. I have been playing AOE2 since it was owned by Ensemble and I was beating the AI on hard/extreme until the update came out. I also went back and played the AI on hard, using the older versions I own and beat the AI with no issues. I consistently out-score the new AI by 2-3k, until it decides to attack. I have tried every strategy I can think to try. Attacking in dark age, keeping it off gold and wood, castle age rush with knights, pikes and cav archers. I am constantly on its resources, then it suddenly finds gold, food and wood. It always seems to find resources and upgrade, when its resources are somehow under constant pressure then it melts the fully upgraded units that are supposed to counter the units it’s producing.

Maybe you accidentally gave an handicap boost to the AI and now it’s beating you because it does most things X% better?

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Yeah, I thought about that, too. I went back to make sure and I wasn’t giving myself a handicap.

When I went back and played one of the older versions, I had trouble with the first game, because I could not remember all the hotkeys and the AI actually got to my wall. lol. I’ve been playing this since 2000 and I can remember the vils would not auto-collect resources, after a resource building was created. You had to listen for the sound and manually assign them. Farms would not auto-reseed, vils would randomly stop chopping wood. There was no action que. I found the HD version almost unplayable. Units would run up to an enemy and sit there for 2-3 seconds, before attacking, IF they’d attack at all, or completely ignore orders to attack and run off in an entirely different direction. I wish I could roll back to the previous version.

show us a replay and we will all believe you

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Not asking for validation.

then why are you posting?
most players have said that the AI doesnt cheat, even the devs have confirmed that the AI doesnt cheat

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Because something has changed with the last upgrade. I am making an observation, just like other people are making observations, on other posts and what I’m observing is that either the AI is cheating, outright, or it has been given an unfair advantage by using its ability to multitask in an unbeatable way. I am also observing that when I attack a unit with 5 counter-units and my counter units melt, while the enemy unit stands, something is off. I am going to try downgrading to see if I still have issues. I have tried using the older variants, HD, CD, etc, and they don’t have this problem. I’ve been playing this game since 2000, throughout all its upgrades. I know how it’s supposed to behave.