We were promised by the developers an “Impossible AI to beat” for AoE4, hinting that the AI will have a machine learning capabilities.
Looks like nobody is talking about it, is it still coming? Will it never arrive? Did the devs say anything at all about it after making such claims?
I was super looking forward to this, its one of the reasons I bought the game. Yet seems like it was tossed aside, correct me if Im wrong.
I believe it’s still in development but it takes time, especially the data gathering of it.
Look how much time it took google to do something similar for starcraft (only 3 civs) and it still not perfect.
But i would like to see a roadmap , news for it from time to time.
Maybe implement an A.I. vs A.I. mode in game to speed the data gathering proces.
Couldn’t that result in the AI learning the incorrect play style?
No, it’s actually a very good way for it to learn. The Starcraft AI developed new techniques that hadn’t been used by humans and have since been adopted by human players.
Yeah, I’m also eager to hear more about it. AI hardest is too predictable. I would love a non cheating AI challenge but unfortunately, I also couldn’t find anything related to that aspect of the game, since they mentioned it pre release.
Let’s be realistic here: The game doesn’t even let you pick a color or play ranked matches yet. I think ML-driven AI is a bit of a pipe dream.
i even read pentagon was interested in that aoe4 AI
Aoe 4 has (for now) 8 civs with different mechanics so it is a bit harder to make an A.I.(with Machine learning) good at all of them especially at pro level.
But this is a good thing because if it is succesful the lessons can be used in other fields, alot more proffitable than video games.
That happened with google when theey made AlphaGo.
Thats why i’m optimistic in this particular thing. But time will tell as always
Did they really “promise” it though? From the interview I read they said: “Down the road, not at launch, we’ll probably look into having a merciless AI”.
Part of the reason I bought AoE 4 is also because of the future A.I, even if they don’t success in making it really “impossible” I’d just be happy if they managed to make it really hard, at least a lot harder than AoE 2’s extreme A.I, maybe even close to PRO-level.
One thing worth noting is that they already improved the A.I a few patches ago, it became noticable harder, so they are obviously still training it. I just found it a bit strange that there was no mention of it in the patch notes.
According to the devs AoE 4 already use machine learning, may that be why the A.I, for example, is harder as Delhi than English? They perhaps gave it more training time for Delhi, or maybe Delhi is just easier for the A.I to play because it do not need to manage gold economy for technologies?
I am not so familiar with machine learning, from what I have heard it requires real time processing, so how does that work in AoE 4? Relic servers can not possibly control your A.I opponent as you can play VS it offline. Is there a technique to “compile” all the data gathered into an A.I-script that just downloads with the game? Would be highly interesting if someone with more knowledge with machine learning could explain, maybe an AoE 4 dev with insight.
Stop the Ram and/or Tower Early Rush and just wait for Hardest AI to knock on your walls, the AI could make enormous production to overwhelm you. Just pretend the game has no Rams or Towers until the AI reach Imperial Age. To me, that’s when Vs Hardest AI becomes very interesting.
I can beat the Hardest AI without building a single ram, tower, and going for 5 minutes to drink coffee. Its that bad.
I wanna see that… You play French and you play against Hardest AI Delhi on any land maps. And share your History so I could watch the replay. And make sure you have that 5 min coffee break before you attack.
Yes, if we’re talking about a neural network, you can see it as analogous to a human brain. It takes a lot more work to train it than to run it. You spend a huge amount of time training it, but the end result of all that training is embodied in the resulting structure. Nonetheless, depending on the complexity of structure permitted, it can be more expensive to run than an expert system approach, where you try to more explicitly capture human knowledge of how to do something. Indeed, I’d guess that for a given rating of play by the AI, a neural network is likely to be more computationally expensive to run than an expert system that plays at the same rating. One advantage of a neural network is it requires less person hours of a human to create it, and it can probably also ultimately reach a higher skill ceiling for complex activities, by accumulating learning beyond that of even the most skilled humans.
Can we get a response on this please?
It was teased in media before release then no mention of it since. Can we at least get confirmation it’s coming/ the ideas has not been abandoned? Some people will have bought the game with this in mind.
thanks 
@MISTERSMELL this is what I read in my mother’s voice: “Hey, guy who is certainly not one of the bosses—please comment directly on something the bosses said.”
Nice try! I like my job 
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No promises, but I will see what I can dig up. I do know that AI work is ongoing and will likely be ongoing for a long time. That may ultimately be the only answer I am able to give, as there will never be a nice shiny ribbon cutting and bow tying for this type of thing.
hahahha I know the feeling sorry. Thanks!
I dont think the A.I. we have right now use machine learning.
They mostly (because of the maps and resource randomisation) use the same strats independent of what you do so you can learn the patern after some games. And no matter how powerfull your computer is it does not change its dificulty.
Machine learning A.I. is resource hungry. The more resources you give him the better it plays.
So i believe if it will be made available for general play it will be online (on a server).
Thanks for the link. I skimmed, and I do not see that the developers themselves promised this AI. I believe that the author falsely turned a potential feature discussed in the body of the article into a promised feature as stated in the headline. If so, that’s some very sloppy journalism.
No, resource hungry while learning , after it has nothing with difficulty.
Devs confirmed before AoE 4 was released that they have indeed used machine learning for the A.I already.
We also got some informative posts here (thanks!) telling us that the A.I (after the heavy resource gathering) is not demanding at all since it’s just (if I understand it correctly) compiled into a file that your game just download and use for the A.I players.
Even if the A.I will never be impossible to beat, I can’t wait to the day when it’s at least trained enough to kick my ass