Of all the default factions, which do you find the AI doing the best at?

from Elemental Forums

Curious question, which factions do you find consistently do very well?

 

Right now I'm finding that the factions that emphasize physical combat seem to do better than the other types of factions.

 

My rankings:

 

Are there any particular traits that you find do very well?

 

Splitting them into tiers:

Yithral and Gilden do very well in my games

 

Altar, Magnar, Kraxis, and Capitar are better than average

 

Tarth and Umber do so-so

 

Pariden and Roseln are usually under-performing

 

Dead is well usually "dead last" so to speak

9,678 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

In my experience, the base game AI factions that do best tend to either be militaristic, or expansionist (or both.)  The expansionist ones build cities, while the aggressive ones capture them - either way, the other AIs expand too slowly and can't compete.

That said, by late midgame, on difficulties where the AI doesn't get overwhelming bonuses, these initially successful AIs start stalling out because they can't manage unrest, allowing the other AIs to start catching up (or, more usually, let me start taking them over.)

The AI construction/research priorities don't seem to mesh well with a "tall not wide" strategy.

As far as Mod factions, I find that CoS's Frost Giants can sometimes do well without one of the above traits as the way their unit design works (single initially expensive but powerful units become more relatively efficient to build as tech increases) tends to compensate for some of the problems with the way the AI prioritizes.  That's only if they luck into building a decent fortress or two, though.

That said, I'm probably going to start trying some of the recently developed AI mods to see if those improve things...

 

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Right now I'm finding that the factions that emphasize physical combat
End of quote

Tends to be the case in my experience also. 

Presumably because it is easiest for the AI to make use of passive type bonus, eg. like Gilden and Yithril stuff... as opposed to something like Pariden.... I don't think the AI can even use the arcane outposts.

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Gilden usually comes out on top.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top


Yithral and Gilden tend towards the top. I've taken to enjoy having them in every game so that I can have some AI challenge...

Relias, Kraxis, Capitar, and Tarth follow behind, able to put a decent fight until midgame.

The rest seem to be too dependant on unique aspects of their faction, without any coding on how to properly use those unique aspects.

 

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting GFireflyE, reply 4


Yithral and Gilden tend towards the top. I've taken to enjoy having them in every game so that I can have some AI challenge...

Relias, Kraxis, Capitar, and Tarth follow behind, able to put a decent fight until midgame.

The rest seem to be too dependant on unique aspects of their faction, without any coding on how to properly use those unique aspects.

 
End of GFireflyE's quote

 

I'll post my experiences.

 

Edit:

 

We agree on some, but not all.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Great thread.  I hope the Frog sees it.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting cardinaldirection, reply 6

Great thread.  I hope the Frog sees it.
End of cardinaldirection's quote

 

Yeah we should have a dedicated report and suggestions thread in this forum.

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

Lately Altar has been average. I'm going to downgrade it a tier.

 

Edit:
What the AI needs to do really is to make the most use of the Altar Henchmen which it has not been doing.