The new AI is (still) (still) bugged on hard difficulty with a popluation limit of 500

Game Version:

  • Build (35209)
  • Platform (Steam)

Issue:

The issue is only present for the new AI that continues to be utterly confused on hard difficulty (or lower) with a population limit of 500 on a ludicrous map. It doesn’t boom, it doesn’t expand its military very much and for some reason it stays under a population limit of 175 despite the actual limit being 500. I cannot stress this part enough, it clearly doesn’t understand it can expand to 500.
Note that this issue doesn’t occur on hardest difficulty where the AI utilizes the population limit exactly as expected.

Reproduction Steps:

Based on my testing, I believe the issue is present for any standard game on any map with any civ and for difficulty setting at hard or lower as long as the population limit is set to 500 . But just in case here are some settings that I’ve personally verified to reproduce the bug on the newest patch (35209)

  1. 500 population limit
  2. Ludicrous map size
  3. Hard AI difficulty
  4. Arabia map
  5. Conquest victory
  6. Standard resources

@Chesqin Aware of it?

The AI caps it’s population intentionally on lower difficulty levels, some adjustments have been made recently so let me know if the situation got better. Besides that it is intended that the AI doesn’t go up to full 500 pop on lower difficulty levels.

-Promiskuitiv

So let me get this straight: It is intended that the new AI is far stronger than the HD counterpart on every setting except for 500 population limit on hard and lower where it suddenly is pathetically weak (again compared to it’s HD counterpart on the same difficulty setting).

How on earth does that make any sense?

The AI limiting it’s population on lower difficulty levels happens on every population cap and is not specifically related to the population cap of 500.

The linked video was played on the hardest difficulty possible where it is intended for the new AI to be stronger. On lower difficulty levels the challenge should be much more similar.

-Promiskuitiv

We are continuing to monitor feedback regarding the AI and still working on it. :slight_smile:

With all due respect, on the settings I have described it is not similar at all - it’s not even remotely close. Personally I can take on roughly 3 times (depending on civ composition) as many new AI’s as HD AI’s. I’ve also done some slightly more scientific tests simulating several 1v1 mirror matches and in every single one of them the HD AI has crushed the new one. It literally has a 100% win rate.

Certain deviations in difficulty are the result of adjustments based on feedback. As additional information the HD edition AI was frequently mentioned as being too difficult on certain difficulty levels (especially moderate).
The difficulty curve for each step from easiest to moderate (and up to extreme) is now smoother compared to before.

If the increase in difficulty still feels too steep between two levels then that can be helpful feedback for us.

The latest update made a few adjustments to difficulty scaling, definitely feel free to post here about your feedback again as I will keep monitoring this thread (and others).

-Promiskuitiv