[1.0] BUG - Unlimited metal for AI opponents

from Elemental Forums

AI opponents do not need metal to build armored units, or to be more correct, they need metal, but they can still build them when at 0 metal, resulting in the AI having a massive negative amount of metal. Most games tend to be dominated by AI's that prefer warfare research (Gilden or Yithril), thus enabling them to build endless numbers of heavy armored units and steamrolling everyone else. Similar things can be noted with gold mana reserves.

 

http://i.imgur.com/pvfpSfP.jpg

 

To put things in perspective, the amount of metal I have in the screenshot is everything I have mined so far on 4 iron mines.

4,490 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Yithril also has -1747 gildar. Wouldn't all of his armies have abandoned him by now, too?

Yithril is always the lead AI. If this is happening, that would explain why!

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Another bug with metal, probably related: selling it to AI players sometimes doesnt give you any gold at all.

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

It's been reported by other people that the AI doesn't need resources to build units. Which is not great, but I guess that might have been the only way they could get it to give an effective challenge. It does seem to give a pretty massive advantage to AI nations which rely more on troops. It would be nice if they could fix this so the AI is playing by the same rules as the player (or closer, anyway). Even if they gave the AI a few thousand of each resource at the start of the game on higher difficulty levels, it would feel less like cheating than just having the AI not need resources to build units.

I've also seen the AI offer zero credit for resources such as metal, however I don't think this is a bug. In all the examples I've seen the AI gives zero credit for a resource it has lots of. So in other words if it has 400 surplus metal it will give you zero credit if you offer more metal. Why exactly would you expect it to give you credit for offering something that it already has more of than it knows what do with? It will offer credit for a resource which it doesn't have much of. I don't know exactly what the cut-off is, 50 or 100, maybe.

 

 

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Is this confirmed about A.I not needing resources as WAD or just speculation.

 

I am not a fan of such immersion breaking cheats.I also think it hurts strategic gameplay play too.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

I think it is important to also note what difficulty levels were you playing on when you noticed this problem. Higher level difficulties are given the opportunity to cheat, while lower level difficulties are to be given a more equal experience.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top


Yeah cheating AI is not a bug in this game. Especially if you play higher than challenging difficulty

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Hmmm, thank you for posting a screenshot.  I had seen people reporting this but didn't know you could look for that information on the Foreign Relations screen.

In my game Hard/Hard, turn 161 I see that Yithril has -210 iron, Magnar has -21 Mana, Pariden has -30 Crystal, and the three other AIs (Tarth, Kraxis, and Resoln) have all their stats above 0.  That explains how Yithril's power level got so much higher than mine (even though I am in second).

It's interesting to see that all the AIs aren't cheating with resources; and that the ones that are are cheating in different ways.

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

The screenshot above is from an expert level game. 

 

Quoting merlinme, reply 3

It's been reported by other people that the AI doesn't need resources to build units. Which is not great, but I guess that might have been the only way they could get it to give an effective challenge.  

 
End of merlinme's quote

 

Other games manage the ressource management just fine, Civ V or Endless Space for example. These games give the AI advantages on higher difficulties too, but don't let them ignore ressource caps. Because those kind of cheats only lead to problems down the line, like we see here, where one or two AI's (Gilden and Ythril) dominating all other AI's and wiping them out. 

 

I did a little test and excluded both Gilden and Ythril from a game and started a new game. While it took a lot longer for the problem to surface, it did again, this time with Kraxis.  As soon one AI puts their research focus on warfare, they wipe everybody else out because the one can just spam metal units. Kinda useless to play such a game. 

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

On top of that, I have found out that the AI keeps buying (rushing) units and buildings - since it does not have to care about gildar, why not. That's what creates the problem of overdeveloped cites surrounded by swarms of units. The actual rules of the game (i.e. earning what you spend first) would never possibly allow an actual player to accumulate such assets in such a short time. 

Reply #10 from Elemental Forums Top

I agree that giving the AI resources bonuses on higher difficulties,  e.g. two/ three/ four times what the player gets from the same resource, and maybe giving it a few hundred of each resource at the start of the game, seems a better solution than just having it ignore limits. It rather breaks the resource gathering side of the game if the AI can ignore limits and build what it wants. It also sounds like it causes balance problems, with nations who concentrate on troops destroying everyone else.