Warzone 2100 Forums

In challenges and skirmishes, What exactly does the Hard / Easy sliders do for your opponents?

In SK-Rush I tied playing default (norm/center) for enemy.
I was over welmed in short order.
Tried moving the sliders right to make it harder for them. NOT! Made it even worse for me!
I then tried half way between norm and easy, That made it a some what level field.

Does this sound backwards to anyone?

Also, In the challenge 'hide behind me' where should I put my allies slider to make them tougher?

You've pretty much answered your own question. Move the slider to the right, and the AI/bot/comp get's harder. Move it to the left and they get easier.

If you're playing in Challenge mod you can't set the sliders, or any other game option. If you want to set up a similar match in Skirmish mode, move the slider to the right.

The slider actually control a cheat for AI on research speed that goes to 1x (normal) to 5x(harder AI). You'll see that harder AI always get lancers before it's actually possible for you. Without that the AI is stupid and not much of a challenge.

It also power cheats like crazy so it can tank spam on low oil maps.

Of course its attacks and defense are so poorly executed that they are just throwing power away most of the time.

If it was a low oil map, and they didn't power cheat, it would be ridiculously easy (ie, set the slider just high enough that they aren't turned off, see how poorly they do)

Thanks everyone for your replies!

I have also been curious about the slider and the AI cheats. Are these documented anywhere? If not, would anyone be kind enough to post some clarification?

Having read what Iluvalar posted earlier in this thread, I understand that the AI gets a bonus on research speed that ranges from 1x to 5x. Does this bonus change linearly with the slider? (i.e. is the bonus 3x when the slider is at the default middle position?)

I've heard that the AI gets a power generation bonus also. Is that true? If so, what is the bonus? Is it 1x to 5x like the research bonus? And if the AI doesn't get a power generation bonus in general, does it at least get a discount on power costs for its accelerated research?

I spent some time looking at the AI scripting commands, and I noticed that many commands allow the AI to do things human players can't do. However, I looked rather closely at the Semperfi AI, and I didn't see any instances where it used those commands to cheat. (Actually, I did notice that Semperfi will create repair units before it has researched the repair turret, but I think that was an oversight, not an attempt to gain advantage.) Do other AIs play fair, like Semperfi, or is it more common for them to gain an edge by intentionally breaking the rules? What about Nexus in particular?

-TC

I've heard that the AI gets a power generation bonus also. Is that true? If so, what is the bonus? Is it 1x to 5x like the research bonus? And if the AI doesn't get a power generation bonus in general, does it at least get a discount on power costs for its accelerated research?

They just get some fixed bonus power every X seconds; you can use cheats to observe how much power they have in the player list (numpad enter).

The cheating is linear. For the exact algorithm, see the source code. I do not have it at hand now. (Note that in master, setting the difficulty to "Insane" will also make the AI start with full bases, even if no or partial bases is specified for the game.)

It is true that some of the scripting functions that the AIs use can be used to cheat, but except for the obvious one (skDifficulty, which gives bonus power and research speed depending on difficulty slider), they are not meant to exploit that, and if they do, it is a bug. (BTW, Semperfi does not use the skDifficulty cheat. It is meant to be an entirely non-cheating AI, except on 'Insane' difficulty, where it should get some starting bonuses.) There are some issues that I'm aware of, like the Lassat firing based on a fixed timer instead of respecting the recharge time, but those are just hacks due to programmer laziness that should be fixed.

Note that the AI knowing about the position and existence of all starting buildings and features is not considered cheating, since this is something human players also know. Usually.

Per wrote:The cheating is linear.

To be exact, the AI get a reduction from 0% to 80% of their research duration. This is the value that is linear. An AI in mid path will get 40% research duration off. Which is not the same as saying that the speed bonus (1x to 5x) is linear.