The AI feels very weak in the PUP. Here are my observations

Age of Empires III: DE III - Report a Bug
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:arrow_forward: GAME INFORMATION

:point_down: These details are CRITICAL; DO NOT skip them or your issue may not be reviewed.

  • GAME BUILD #: March PUP
  • GAME PLATFORM: Steam
  • OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows 10

:arrow_forward: ISSUE EXPERIENCED

:point_down: DESCRIBE THE ISSUE IN DETAIL (below). LIMIT TO ONE BUG PER THREAD.
In theory, the changes to the AI look really great! But after trying out the new AI since yesterday, I find that the new Extreme (30% cheats) feels weaker than the old Hardest (20% cheats). Previously, the AI wasn’t great at pushing into your base etc, but it was great at defending its own base against my attacks. Now it falls relatively quickly.

But it seems that the AI now has the following problems (Game files attached below):

  1. Unlike the previous patch, AI seems to focus a lot on expensive arsenal and market upgrades. These are great in theory but it used to focus more on unit training in the previous patch, which made it more challenging. Market upgrades take a while to pay back. Units pay back as soon as required. The AI also does all sorts of upgrades even for units it doesn’t have on the field. I think arsenal upgrades and expensive market upgrades should be done a little later.

  2. AI will send groups of 5 to 10 units to attack me when I already have a large army. Sometimes even lone falconets. It is nice to send raids on my eco or unguarded villagers away from the base. But trying to raid my main base with that few troops isn’t great.

  3. When I attack the AI base, it brings villagers from safer locations further away to garrison inside the TC. (They should be gathering and working unless they can’t help it). It means that the AI cannot keep up a good defense. In the previous builds the AI defended its base really well, to best of its ability.

  4. I haven’t noticed the market being used to balance eco yet. But, maybe on this point, I’m missing something.

  5. AI now goes up to Fortress Age after training some troops, which is nice. (Needs to train a little bigger commerce age army but that’s just my opinion). But in some games it did try to go industrial without a big army to defend during aging up. I go to its base and it’s an easy win because it just made a 2000f 1200c commitment and has a small defensive army and all villagers inside the TC.

  6. AI still loses a lot of units because of its crazy obsessions: Musketeers chasing hussars despite being gunned down by other units. Units desperate to kill an explorer. 25 Longbows retreating from 3 Sowars and sacrificing 10 of themselves before doing anything etc.

I really appreciate the devs putting a lot of effort into AI and hopefully I was able to offer constructive feedback.

:arrow_forward: GAME FILES (SAVE / RECORDING)

:point_down: Attach a SAVE GAME (.aoe3Ysav) or GAME RECORDING (.aoe3Yrec) of the match where you encountered the issue. Link it below if using an external file service.

  • Here’s a few games you can look at. They highlight all of my observations above.

Record Game 2022-03-08 00-13-15.age3Yrec (12.6 MB)
Record Game 2022-03-08 01-18-52.age3Yrec (14.0 MB)
Record Game 2022-03-08 09-29-19.age3Yrec (12.7 MB)
Record Game 2022-03-08 09-56-39.age3Yrec (12.3 MB)

4 Likes
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Also floating plenty of resources - wood in this case:

Screenshot (206)
Screenshot (206)1920×1080 387 KB

should probably use this wood to build a mill now - since food sources have run out.
Record Game 2022-03-08 16-41-16.age3Yrec (13.6 MB)

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Thank you for fixing the AI gathering too much of one resource.

It can put up a much better fight now.

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Hello @DiplexBoss6, I’m happy to hear! Let us know if you find any other issues. :+1:

5

Hello again!

Can anything be done about AI units moving around a lot but not really killing units? AI units tend to retarget a lot, and change targets before they finish something off. Sometimes they also just walk through my units and take damage but don’t engage or attack anything.

I’ve killed much bigger AI armies with smaller armies because the AI just moves around a lot…back and forth and don’t deal any damage.

2 Likes
6

Allied AI pleas to resign much more frequently despite how the game is going. They’ll also just stop producing military units altogether in some cases.

the enemy AI does a good job coordinating attacks but allied Ai does not. It’s almost like allied and enemy AI is playing on two different difficulties.