This game is fantastic and is one of the best strategy one, if not the best. But what I notice is that I am extremelly strong in comparisson with the AI empires. I can see their units have habilities form the right level, but could this habilities be given by iron equipement?. I would like to know if AI equips with armor and weapons made of strategic resources. Thanks.

TaPelé wrote:
This game is fantastic and is one of the best strategy one, if not the best. But what I notice is that I am extremelly strong in comparisson with the AI empires. I can see their units have habilities form the right level, but could this habilities be given by iron equipement?. I would like to know if AI equips with armor and weapons made of strategic resources. Thanks.

This is one of my current concerns with the AI in the latest version. It does really well keeping up with (and in some cases surpassing) the player quite well strategically. But it seems to neglect upgrading its armies to keep up as well (seems to concentrate mostly on its main army). Even Dust equipped armies would be better than just plain old iron in the latter stages of the game IMO.



I have raised this issue with the devs so we'll see if they are going to tweak the system a bit more in the next update. The good news is that they do listen to the players!

Slashman wrote:
This is one of my current concerns with the AI in the latest version. It does really well keeping up with (and in some cases surpassing) the player quite well strategically. But it seems to neglect upgrading its armies to keep up as well (seems to concentrate mostly on its main army). Even Dust equipped armies would be better than just plain old iron in the latter stages of the game IMO.



I have raised this issue with the devs so we'll see if they are going to tweak the system a bit more in the next update. The good news is that they do listen to the players!

So, actually the AI does not use strategic resources on it´s armies?

TaPelé wrote:
So, actually the AI does not use strategic resources on it´s armies?

It does yes - the unit design include strategic equipment when available, currently the concern is that they may not be putting enough dust towards retrofits.

wilbefast wrote:
It does yes - the unit design include strategic equipment when available, currently the concern is that they may not be putting enough dust towards retrofits.

In my current Ardent Mages game I attacked the Roving Clans and was pushed back by them. It seems like their units were decently outfitted. The fight was me trying to take a city (I had a hero-lead army of 6 units level 5-6) plus the Guardian Skoros. They had 2 hero lead armies plus militia and a single unit of level 5 Ended.



I managed to kill 4 of their units but lost 3 of mine before the rounds ran out and I fled back to my own territory. My Guardian almost died as well.



This may well be a Dust issue since the Roving Clans are absolutely rolling in the stuff. They have at least 5 heroes. In my previous game, the Necros and the Drakken weren't quite as rich.



I'll try to post some saves when I get home.

Yeah, the personalities really helped the RC AI: it no longer tries to play aggressively by default and instead focuses what it's good at, rolling in dust. I wish I could get Ardent Mages with that many heroes but they tend to spend their dust on pillars which, I suppose, isn't too bad a thing.

wilbefast wrote:
Yeah, the personalities really helped the RC AI: it no longer tries to play aggressively by default and instead focuses what it's good at, rolling in dust. I wish I could get Ardent Mages with that many heroes but they tend to spend their dust on pillars which, I suppose, isn't too bad a thing.

What about incantations? Does the AI utilize these in battle? Because I am convinced that these incantations are the key to making the mages a formidable military force. They almost seem to weak without it.

UnknownAspect wrote:
What about incantations? Does the AI utilize these in battle?

If dust allows then yes, they do.

wilbefast wrote:
If dust allows then yes, they do.

Dust should never really not allow it for Mages except for very early game. Pillars are your life as AM and their combat units are fairly fragile in comparison to other races. To not have 30 Dust to cast in a fight is pretty bad if you're an AM player.



I've attached my 3 latest saves. I think I may actually lose this game judging by how well the WWs are doing. I meant to quickly hammer the Roving Clans and then start in on them but the RC are not trivial right now.



Couple of other things. The AI really uses espionage a lot. Its annoying and can be crippling...good job on that! Round-up doesn't seem to do as much as I thought though.



Last thing is cooperative quests. Do you always get the same ones each game? So far I have gotten the Quest that increases the build costs for all strategics which requires 100 adamantian to finish twice in two games.
Ardent Mages - Turn 223.zip
Ardent Mages - Turn 228.zip
Ardent Mages - Turn 232.zip

Slashman wrote:
Last thing is cooperative quests. Do you always get the same ones each game?

You don't but there isn't a huge number of cooperative quests, so the same ones will tend to pop up from time to time.



It's also worth noting that questions quests have specific spawn conditions, so if you play two games in a similar manner with similar opponents on a similar map and the game plays out in a similar way then you'll have a higher chance of similar events and quests spawning.