Extreme AI has gotten much worse - house walling is probably killing it

:arrow_forward: GAME INFORMATION

  • GAME BUILD #: Latest build as of the time of writing this. Will update when i can.
  • GAME PLATFORM: Steam
  • OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows 10

:arrow_forward: ISSUE EXPERIENCED

Extreme AI in the latest version plays 1v1 arabia much worse than how it did a year ago.

I think this is in part due to the fact it started trying to wall its map with houses. Therefore it wastes a lot of wood for houses it doesnt need, and also the walling villager is exposed to raids at the front, essentially giving the attacker a free villager.
After that villager’s death, the AI will just send a new villager to finish that wall, essentially sending it too to its death.
The house walls are also never actually finished so all those vils wasted and wood spent dont actually amount to anything.

It now also heavily delays getting fletching for its archers in feudal age. Im not sure when this has started, but I remember fletching used to come up faster. So its archers do much less damage and die in feudal wars. This is potentially caused due to the wood wasted on house walls, but i cant be sure.

:arrow_forward: FREQUENCY OF ISSUE

  • 100% of the time / matches I play (ALWAYS)

:arrow_forward: ############ STEPS

Play 1v1 arabia tiny map standard settings against the extreme AI, and give it an archer civ to make it more likely to go archers.
You will see it do the house wall almost every game, and it will delay fletching a lot almost every game.

:arrow_forward: EXPECTED RESULT

The AI should not play worse than it used to.
It should not make ridiculous house walls, it should not delay fletching when it makes archers in feudal.

:arrow_forward: GAME FILES (SAVE / RECORDING)

Will upload when i can.

3 Likes

Hi @BubblyMango3400
I talked with the team about this, thanks for your report :slight_smile:

I can attest to this, AI is weaker by trying to wall like human which they won’t take full advantage of.

1 Like

Hi. This is still relevant. I can kill 5-6 of its vils in feudal by just standing where it tried to build its feudal walls.
It also still takes too long to build a blacksmith so its archers are much less effective. I think it lacks the wood for a blacksmith due to building too many house walls.

1 Like

I didn’t play Aoe 2 for months and after a couple sessions yesterday I immediately recognized this.Extreme AI is my go to difficulty and its annoying that it performs worse than it used to.

Because of the house walling early raids that are supposed to be "early"are quite late now.It hampers military production of the AI.

Also all feudal rushes are archer based which wasn’t case before and it makes it very predictablen and quite easy to stop.

There is a reddit thread on this as well.

I do see it go for a drush or scouts sometimes, i think 50% of the times its just straight archers. it does go for archers after the initial drush/scouts though.
Maybe if you give it a scouts civ it encourages it to go scouts. not sure.

1 Like

This is still a problem in version 101.102.12638.0 (#78174) 10714595. Here is a replay displaying this:

extreme_ai_bad_house_walling.aoe2record (12.6 MB)

The AI was on 105% “handicap” here. In feudal it sent multiple villagers forward to try make house walls, so it gave me some very easy kills. It then didnt have wood for a blacksmith for a long time so its ranged units were very weak. When it finally did place a blacksmith - it placed it forward as a part of the wall so it didnt go up for a long time, rendering its ranged units weak for a long time.
Ironically the walls never even finished so all those losses were for nothing.

I just think it would be better for now to simply revert this behavior if possible.

what makes all these worse is that sometimes if u attack the vill they cancel their foundation and wasted wood. repeat this a few times and they are destined to be doomed early with all the resource loss.