AI difficulty differences.

I was just wondering if there was a break down anywhere of the exact differences between Normal / Hard / Relentless / Absurd AI? is it just an economic bonus? do they play differently?

Thanks.

They play better with each version, not sure how they are now as I've heard they've been getting a bit dumber for some unknown reason, but they used to get quite evil!

However, you can edit their resource generation how you'd like. This allows you to easily mess around with difficulty even further.

Yeah I've seen the resource handicap, which is why I become unsure whether that was for fine tuning or because the difficulty doesn't effect resource income at all. Just always nice to know what you're getting.

Right now I can't really tell much of a difference between absurd / relentless. Normal and hard seem fairly easy then there is a big jump to Relentless where the AI seems to go into overdrive in how fast it expands etc but if something is happening going to Absurd I'm not seeing it as it feels the same.

/media/ui/main/game/new_game/js/ai.js

Many of the fields are still shrouded in mystery.

Code:

    /*
    {
        percent_land [0 1],
        percent_air [0 1],
        percent_naval [0 1],

        metal_drain_check [0 1],
        energy_drain_check [0 1],
        metal_demand_check [0 1],
        energy_demand_check [0 1],

        micro_type 0:none | 1:platoon | 2:squad,

        go_for_the_kill: true | false,
        priority_scout_metal_spots: true | false,
        neural_data_mod: [0 ... )

        economy_scale: [0 ... )
    }
    */

    return {
        'Normal': {
            percent_land: 0.65,
            percent_air: 0.25,
            percent_naval: 0.05,
            percent_orbital: 0.05,
            metal_drain_check: 1.13,
            energy_drain_check: 1.25,
            metal_demand_check: 1.33,
            energy_demand_check: 1.40,
            micro_type: 0,
            go_for_the_kill: false,
            priority_scout_metal_spots: false,
            neural_data_mod: 1.3
        },       
        'Hard': {
            percent_land: 0.65,
            percent_air: 0.25,
            percent_naval: 0.05,
            percent_orbital: 0.05,
            metal_drain_check: 0.93,
            energy_drain_check: 1.05,
            metal_demand_check: 1.13,
            energy_demand_check: 1.20,
            micro_type: 0,
            go_for_the_kill: false,
            priority_scout_metal_spots: true,
            neural_data_mod: 1.2
        },       
        'Relentless': {
            percent_land: 0.65,
            percent_air: 0.25,
            percent_naval: 0.05,
            percent_orbital: 0.05,
            metal_drain_check: 0.73,
            energy_drain_check: 0.85,
            metal_demand_check: 0.93,
            energy_demand_check: 1.0,
            micro_type: 1,
            go_for_the_kill: true,
            priority_scout_metal_spots: true,
            neural_data_mod: 1.1
        },       
        'Absurd': {
            percent_land: 0.65,
            percent_air: 0.25,
            percent_naval: 0.05,
            percent_orbital: 0.05,
            metal_drain_check: 0.53,
            energy_drain_check: 0.65,
            metal_demand_check: 0.73,
            energy_demand_check: 0.8,
            micro_type: 2,
            go_for_the_kill: true,
            priority_scout_metal_spots: true,
            neural_data_mod: 1.0
        },
    };

My understanding is that the skirmish AI does not by default have any economic bonuses or handicaps. I think it is mostly a matter of APM limitations, build orders, aggressiveness of unit platoons etc.

would be nice if @sorian could do a "geek" post like varrak's graphics updates.

Unfortunately the AI has become super easy lately even on absurd difficulty. It used to be very different from that.

Maybe you've just been playing too much and have learned to beat the AI? ;-)