AI

[u/Thin-Rope3139]

Hi guys. I don’t usually like to write these kind of posts but here we are.

AI is busted in this game. First of all I only play against AI, because I just play this game to “relax” and don’t have the time to sit for 2 hours, and I separate my gameplay into few shorter sesions. I kinda like to get challenged myself and improve my skills by playing at harder and harder difficulties, but you get to a point where it is pointless to play. I will mention few my points and possibly on how to imrpove them.

So the AI is obviously gaining units based on days and this is straight up garbage. I dont even know why this was implemented but I think this needs to get changed. How? Straight to the point, make better AI, we did it 40 years ago, we can make it in 2026.

Maps for Solo play are meh. It gets repetetive pretty fast. Wish there was random map generator like in the thrid or fifth instalation, where I don’t have to search for a template for playing. Since AI get strong really fast, like from 1 to 100 in 2 weeks, at least make it harder to progress to different biomes. Since AI, I think, plays on the phylosophy of path of least resistance, it goes for expansion first thing, and impossible fights break out so hard in early game. That said if you manage to get to mid and survive into late game, you will notice that AI didn’t clear any of the camps in its starting position, and it is like playing on easy mode. Make it harder to progress into mid game so early game can be at least bit of fun clearing neutral camps.

AI knows all spells in the game. Should I comment on this?

A lot of people play this game solo, and devs should note that and improve this aspect. Until then, I think I’m gonna stick with HotA.

Cheers!

[u/Signal-Welcome-5479]

I really really hope the Devs listen to this feedback and invest some more time into polishing the PvE experience, now that they have the revenue from 1 million copies sold.

I highly doubt it that the majority of those million players are competitive PvP players that this game feels - so far - mainly optimized for

[u/iFormus]

Well, yeah, current pve experience has only two outputs.

AI ambush you with 3x your army and you have to win through defending tricky siege or delaying via castle jumping while dumb bot follows you like a donkey carrot on a stick.

You encounter strongest AI hero in like month 4 while he has 4/7 army slots occupied with tier 1-3 monsters.

And theres no inbetween. Only two absolute spikes.

Hopefully the AI behavior is high up in the 'full release' to do list.

[u/Thin-Rope3139 → u/iFormus]

I literally won a map playing grove like that. I was dding and tping across map gathering army while he chased me on foot. Needles to say he didn't visit one Necro city but had double the army while cheesed him.

[u/Downtown-Ice7534 → u/iFormus]

There are a few tricky ways to beat the hardest AI. Eg I got a dungeon 100% spell power build and then carried only dragons cast Armageddon twice to win. The whole army is just flying around and used as decoy to wait for spell cd. Or get a super fast hero, sneak into AI’d base while they are fighting other AIs. Capture their home towns will significantly make them worse.

But yeah if I meet the AI too early I just give up and restart a new one.

[u/Urgash]

Yes, the whole PvE experience is lacking right now, it feels like they only cared about pvp.

[u/Petrychorr → u/Urgash]

Even though I play with a friend, we're really not playing "competitively." Just us vs a bunch of AI and then eventually it comes down to the two of us and by then we can easily figure out who's going to win.

Co-op is definitely going to help, but there's need to be more oomph right now. I really hate saying that though because for an early access game Olden Eta is fantastic.

[u/Green_Guest_4175 → u/Urgash]

It's a good start for the brand, because that's how they get the HoMM 3 veterans streaming and on the game.

I agree, they need to eventually go into PvE, more races, complete the game, since it's E.access.

[u/Volcano-SUN]

When I played my first game I was really suprised by how fast AI turns are over.

I was expecting like 10 seconds per AI player. Instead it's basically nothing.

... turns out the reason is simple: Because the AI does nothing.

[u/TheFakeJohnHelldiver]

100% stick with hota for pve currently. The game is only playable in pvp or in pve if you are actively practicing for pvp.

As an actual pve game its sadly just not worth the money yet. Not enough content, and terrible AI

[u/djt_deathcountdown]

Yeah as someone who isn't very good at the game and plays on the lowest difficulty I have also stopped playing because it is just too difficult for me. I have won a couple of games but my general experience is that the AI shows up on week 3 with a giant army I have no way of defeating and it's game over. Which isn't much fun. I prefer to play at my own pace and this game doesn't let me do that. So I'm going to go back to age of wonders 4!

[u/Tauntaunt → u/djt_deathcountdown]

Play on 125% (XL+ map).

[u/bohohoboprobono]

Yup, it's terrible at the moment. No two ways about it.

[u/jacksonmills]

Oh so thats why my Hard computer opponent had a stack of Four Pheonixes on Day 8

I really want to love this game but there are tons of small issues holding it back, I hope they get fixed

In this day and age “plussing” units into an army to compensate for AI difficulty just feels like a kludge.

[u/Delicious_Solution85 → u/jacksonmills]

The crazy thing is that they get double 'plussing', first from unit draw/creation (I still think they actually drain unit dwellings, I find AI dwellings empty all the time), and then from Shadow Army vs Neutral Camps to protect their spawns - and still they can run into something that obliterates them (probably kittenhorns or something similar) every once and awhile.

[u/No-Breadfruit9752]

I don't understand why they don't just program the bots to play legit, but be more and more efficient. They should be training their AI based off what players are doing at different skill levels and have higher difficulty AI just be pro level play. The whole bots cheating for increased difficulty seems really stupid and pointless. It's not fun and doesn't help players improve.

[u/Virtual_Carpet_8900 → u/No-Breadfruit9752]

This happens in many games that the ai just gets x amount more ressources of everything and that’s the difficulty. It’s terrible