That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons bring us some web forums whereupon we can gather
http://www.octopusoverlords.com/forum/
Pyperkub wrote:Question regarding difficulty levels and the Strategic AI - does upping the Difficulty make the AI better (Especially on the Strategic maps and in regards to aggressiveness), or does it just give them statistical boosts?
I pretty much stopped playing on the 2nd/3rd Elven campaign scenario as it didn't seem like the AI was doing anything on the Strategic map.
I don't have anything definitive, but from what I've read anything below hard and the AI plays with kid gloves and won't make all the best moves, but hard lets them play as well as they can, and levels above that add more and more economic boosts to aid the AI.Pyperkub wrote:Question regarding difficulty levels and the Strategic AI - does upping the Difficulty make the AI better (Especially on the Strategic maps and in regards to aggressiveness), or does it just give them statistical boosts?
I pretty much stopped playing on the 2nd/3rd Elven campaign scenario as it didn't seem like the AI was doing anything on the Strategic map.
Same problem. I even saw your post on the GoG forumsColdSteel wrote:I bought the DLC but can't install it. When I run the installer it says the base game is not detected. I have my GOG games, including AoW3 installed on my D: drive. I even tried putting the installer in the main AoW3 directory and it still doesn't detect the base game.
tgb, did you have any issues installing it?
Yes, I did. There seems to be something going on with the installer. When I got that message the first couple of times I uninstalled and reinstalled from my original download. This time the installer stopped working about 75% of the way through - except the base game was installed and ran fine. I tried the DLC and got the error message again.ColdSteel wrote:I bought the DLC but can't install it. When I run the installer it says the base game is not detected. I have my GOG games, including AoW3 installed on my D: drive. I even tried putting the installer in the main AoW3 directory and it still doesn't detect the base game.
tgb, did you have any issues installing it?
Sepiche wrote:I don't have anything definitive, but from what I've read anything below hard and the AI plays with kid gloves and won't make all the best moves, but hard lets them play as well as they can, and levels above that add more and more economic boosts to aid the AI.Pyperkub wrote:Question regarding difficulty levels and the Strategic AI - does upping the Difficulty make the AI better (Especially on the Strategic maps and in regards to aggressiveness), or does it just give them statistical boosts?
I pretty much stopped playing on the 2nd/3rd Elven campaign scenario as it didn't seem like the AI was doing anything on the Strategic map.
I only just recently started playing this again after playing quite a bit right after it came out, and on hard now the AI is night and day better than what it was. I won't say it always makes the very best moves on the strategic map, but it's definitely capable and aggressive now. Das24680 has a fairly recent let's play on Lord difficulty I've been watching lately, and after a strong start he thought he had the game wrapped up, but the last few turns he's really been shellacked by the AI.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuQuR-3R ... BJmUFNdsKd
Thanks! Grabbed the expansion - the game was amazing but then just kind of petered out from the AI doing nothing on the Strategic map. Hopefully I can boost the difficulty to Hard midstream.
That's from about 2 months ago and it doesn't even include the most recent large patch.
I think I'm convinced to never buy from gog.com again. In fact, I'm thinking about dropping another 20 bucks on the game just for the convenience of having it on Steam.ColdSteel wrote:I finally got my GOG version installed and working properly. Here is what you need to do:
1) Download the new 2.2 version of the base game, the 2.2 versions of any previous DLC you have (Elven Resurgence, Dragon Throne) and the 2.2 golden realms DLC
2) Uninstall the base game
3) Install the 2.2 base game
4) Install the new 2.2 versions of the older DLC
5) Install the Golden Realms DLC
6) If you are seeing two copies of the Elven Resurgence scenario and the Dragon throne scenario is missing, you need to delete just those two maps (Heartlands and Dragon throne) from the \age of wonders III\contents\title\maps folder. Then it should show up properly. The installer mistakenly puts those two maps into two different folders.
gog.com is good for very old games that are unlikely to have new patches.Stuie wrote:I think I'm convinced to never buy from gog.com again. In fact, I'm thinking about dropping another 20 bucks on the game just for the convenience of having it on Steam.ColdSteel wrote:I finally got my GOG version installed and working properly. Here is what you need to do:
1) Download the new 2.2 version of the base game, the 2.2 versions of any previous DLC you have (Elven Resurgence, Dragon Throne) and the 2.2 golden realms DLC
2) Uninstall the base game
3) Install the 2.2 base game
4) Install the new 2.2 versions of the older DLC
5) Install the Golden Realms DLC
6) If you are seeing two copies of the Elven Resurgence scenario and the Dragon throne scenario is missing, you need to delete just those two maps (Heartlands and Dragon throne) from the \age of wonders III\contents\title\maps folder. Then it should show up properly. The installer mistakenly puts those two maps into two different folders.
Now that I'm home and actually looked in the game, I realize I completely misremembered what the difficulties were called.Sepiche wrote:I don't have anything definitive, but from what I've read anything below hard and the AI plays with kid gloves and won't make all the best moves, but hard lets them play as well as they can, and levels above that add more and more economic boosts to aid the AI.
AI Bonuses:
1) Squire – None, also has been disabled to make it more stupid.
2) Knight – None
3) Lord – Gets +33% gold and production. Starts with a slightly larger army.
4) King – Gets +66% gold and production, +25% mana and knowledge. Starts with a larger army.
4) Emperor – Gets +100% gold and production, +50% mana and knowledge. Starts with a larger army.
The AI does NOT:
– Get any bonuses in tactical combat
– Get anything for free after the game starts (except the Disjunction skill, which AIs get for free about halfway through the game)
– Get any extra abilities to cast spells
Patching is not GOG.com's forte. I have purchased many games from GOG.com and have been waiting until they have been fully updated before I install them. But I continue to purchase games from GOG.com (and wait before installing them!) because--to the best of my knowledge--GOG.com's games are the closest to DRM-Free of any games legally available via digital download and I want to do my part to help them succeed.Stuie wrote:I think I'm convinced to never buy from gog.com again. In fact, I'm thinking about dropping another 20 bucks on the game just for the convenience of having it on Steam.
It's being tested alongside that Witcher boardgame thingy that's coming out. I haven't been on in a few weeks, but last time I was connectivity was still an issue.Sepiche wrote:I've heard that gog is working on a new Steam-like client with much better support for DLC and patching, but no idea when it will start rolling out.
Yeah, same. One little thing I noticed is that dungeons now give random extra bonuses if they are explored and in your territory... bonuses to unit strength, armor, etc. Just all kinds of little improvements.ColdSteel wrote:I got to play some last night and I'm loving the changes I've seen so far.
You need the next one up from Knight. I read a dev post a few days ago that said the Knight setting is actually intended as the easy setting for new players and the next one up is intended for more of a challenge.dbemont wrote:I was only playing on the Knight difficulty level (second one up) but it had been my understanding that that utilizes the full AI, just doesn't provide the AI with bonuses.
Patch v1.430
We just made patch v1.430 official. That patch should resolve several - and especially critical - issues reported after the release of the Golden Realms Expansion and Patch v1.4.
Thanks everyone for reporting and thanks for providing us with the save games and information we need to crush them bugz.
Patch notes for this release are:
•Surrendering AI Leaders no longer duplicate items.
•Fixed an issue where a Ziggurat wouldn't give a reward for clearing in the case it had Naga inhabitants.
•Fixed a crash in Hot Seat mode.
•Fixed an issue in the first map of the Halfling campaign where the game wouldn't properly recognize you had won (use CTRL+ALT+C and type HEIN if this has affected you or start the campaign from scratch, as this fix unfortunately cannot repair saved games).
•Fixed Lesser Blight and Lesser Light elementals not appearing as often as they should.
•Fixed a rare crash in the city relation system that occurred after pressing the end turn button.
•Fixed a rare crash in Strategic AI code where it would try to scout to a player who did not have any cities and whose leader was in the void. Note that this would only occur in campaign maps.
•Fixed a crash associated with Halfling Martyrs while Exalted Martyrs is researched.
Do you happen to have a link to this dev post? I am curious what the current AI levels do. All of my searches on AOW3 AI levels return results from when the game was new (and the AI wasn't as strong). Just curious what the current AI bonuses are for each level.ColdSteel wrote:You need the next one up from Knight. I read a dev post a few days ago that said the Knight setting is actually intended as the easy setting for new players and the next one up is intended for more of a challenge.dbemont wrote:I was only playing on the Knight difficulty level (second one up) but it had been my understanding that that utilizes the full AI, just doesn't provide the AI with bonuses.
The dev post is from the AoW3 thread on the Something Awful forums. There's a Triumph dev that posts there. He's known as Gerbyln on SA and Tombles on the AoW3 forums. He's the dev that does all of their Youtube vids and is the one that wrote the tactical combat AI (but not the strategic AI). He had a post on SA about 2 weeks ago taking about the AI and that's where he said to use Lord or Emperor for a challenging game. Unfortunately the SA forums have once again gone behind a pay wall (a stupid practice) so I can't quote it. I do remember he said that AIs above knight get bonuses. I think I remember that the Emperor bonuses were +100% production and gold, +50% mana and knowledge. I'm not sure about the rest of them. Lord may be +50% production and gold and +25% mana and knowledge. Knight has no bonuses.MadMarlin wrote:Do you happen to have a link to this dev post?
Found the dev post on the AOW3 forums.MadMarlin wrote:Do you happen to have a link to this dev post? I am curious what the current AI levels do. All of my searches on AOW3 AI levels return results from when the game was new (and the AI wasn't as strong). Just curious what the current AI bonuses are for each level.ColdSteel wrote:You need the next one up from Knight. I read a dev post a few days ago that said the Knight setting is actually intended as the easy setting for new players and the next one up is intended for more of a challenge.dbemont wrote:I was only playing on the Knight difficulty level (second one up) but it had been my understanding that that utilizes the full AI, just doesn't provide the AI with bonuses.
Just bought the game last week (after reading posts here that the AI was greatly improved) and am really enjoying it.
Cheers,
MM
That's the same dev and it's a similar post but not the one I'd seen on the SA forum. This one was from back in April but I don't think the bonuses have changed any. The SA one I saw a few weeks ago was talking about the recent AI changes with the new expansion and how you should play Lord or above for a challenge. Similar information though was in both posts about the AI bonuses so that's a very good find. For the lazy, here's the information he posted:Stuie wrote:Found the dev post on the AOW3 forums.
I'm playing a large random game on Lord right now playing as a Rogue and it's certainly testing me. I currently have wars on two fronts with a Theocrat and another Rogue. I'm systematically wiping out the Theocrat but the Rogue is a monster. I'm going to have to have trouble dealing with him, I can see. I'm trying to quickly end my war with the Theocrat so I can turn my full attention and forces to the Rogue. I really love this game now after the patching and expansion. It's just a whole lot of fun.1) Squire – None, also has been disabled to make it more stupid.
2) Knight – None
3) Lord – Gets +33% gold and production. Starts with a slightly larger army.
4) King – Gets +66% gold and production, +25% mana and knowledge. Starts with a larger army.
5) Emperor – Gets +100% gold and production, +50% mana and knowledge. Starts with a larger army.
Knight is basically easy mode (it actually was the easiest mode, we added squire later because people wanted an AI that literally did nothing and let them play very slowly). Lord should be the goto mode if you want the AI to pose any sort of challenge, though really I'd recommend king or higher if you actually want an AI that comes after you with significant armies and things. Of course, since I wrote a lot of the systems I'm pretty good at the game, so it's very hard for me to judge how much challenge any level offers.
So try King or Emperor for a serious challenge I guess. Also here's some very interesting info about the Triumph team and his role on it he posted there:Yeah, in hindsight those descriptions should probably be changed... Knight is basically the normal AI with no cheating at all. Since the AI doesn't really have a cohesive plan like a human does, and since it tends to lose more units to autocombat while creeping, a human player is at a pretty significant advantage to it.
Lord gives the AI just enough extra resources to make up for it's shortcomings. King gives it a definite advantage over a human and emperor gives it so much that it's a nightmare to play against, unless you catch it early before it can really pick up steam.
The company rents a few rooms in an old, converted hospital in the middle of Delft, which is the oldest city in the Netherlands, and also one of the most touristy. We get all the art tourists coming to see Vermeer stuff, history tourists coming to learn about William of Orange, and monarchists coming to visit the church where the royal family is buried. It's a very pretty city with lots of trees, canals, and shops selling cheese and blue china. Our office looks out over an enormous building site, because they're putting in a new rail tunnel.
We're split into 3 main groups, Code, Design and Art, each based in their own room. I'm currently sitting with the designers. Since I wrote a lot of the code that holds the core gameplay systems together, I'm the most familiar with what it's capable of. I spend half my time working on design things, mostly units, abilities and spells. I designed the new elementals for example, and was responsible for putting together all the wild magic stuff (though not designing it all).
I also do a lot of balance stuff. Quite often a balance change happens with a conversation with 2 or 3 people like:
- "Killer Instinct seems kind of worthless"
- "What does it do?"
- "+3 damage bonus versus core races until end of combat"
<10 minutes of arguing and bickering>
- "Ok, it needs buffing, any ideas?"
<10 minutes of arguing and bickering>
- "So, it adds more critical damage, like, the unit sees an opening an instinctively goes in for the kill"
- "Cool."
The other half of my time is spent working on gameplay code things, I implemented a lot of the logic behind how the seals work and how the empire quests work, for example.
We mainly work using a bug tracking database that keeps track of all the different tasks we're supposed to be doing, like bugs that need to be investigated, and new features that need to be added. The tasks are ordered by importance and we're fairly free to choose in which order we want to do things, unless some factor means something needs to be completed soon. We all had to drop everything at one point to write all the dialog for the campaign, for example, since it needed to be sent away for translation.
Generally it's a really nice place to work. We're organized enough to get everything done (mostly), but not so organized that it feels like we're all cogs in some weird, unknowable machine.
The art teams is probably the busiest team. Making all the models, textures, animations, and 2D graphics in the game is an enormous undertaking. The new expansion and patch added another 150 or so icons to the game alone. Generally, there is only downtime in the week or so before release, when most people simply sit around and test the game looking for crashes and issues. At other times they'll be working on stuff for expansions, or fixing visual glitches for patches (mostly the former)
Don't feel badly, knight is very tough for me as well. I keep thinking I'm doing well and then lose badly to multiple stacks of computer AI.MadMarlin wrote:Stui and ColdSteel, thanks for the replies. This confirms what I have been suspecting all along:
I'm not very good at games!
Cheers!
MM
Undead Cities: Necromancers can convert whole city populations into Ghouls. The population of these cities does not increase naturally over time, and doesn’t get population growth from farms or normal city upgrades like store houses. Undead Cities are also not subject to standard rules about city happiness, instead they get a permanent boost to their income, representing the fact that the undead require no rest or food to continue their labors.
We are replacing city upgrades for which the undead clearly have no use. For example, instead of a Hospital an undead city has an Embalmer’s Guild which restore hit points for garrisons. Undead cities can be made to grow again by constructing Breeding Pens; where the undead breed mortals to expand the ranks of the living dead. (sort of like revenge for the classic zombie pens seen in horror flicks).
And it's been confirmed that the new race is Frostlings!!RMC wrote:And there is a new race coming with the next patch as well.
It's the next expansion unfortunately, not patch:RMC wrote:Love this game. And there is a new race coming with the next patch as well. So get in now for a great price!
Today we reveal the first information on the Frostlings, who return as a revamped, fully loaded playable race in the upcoming Expansion
Ruh, Roh!Pyperkub wrote:Yeah, the game is much better. I'm having fun again with the challenge on normal for the campaign levels.
Oops , I meant expansion. Sorry...ColdSteel wrote:And it's been confirmed that the new race is Frostlings!!RMC wrote:And there is a new race coming with the next patch as well.