I don't know if this has ever been talked about, but either way, I want to bring it up. I find it something worthwhile to talk about.

I want there to be an AI difficulty setting.

Now before you shoot it down as ridiculous, let me tell you my reasoning. I play a ton of Real-Time games. They are my favorite to play, but I always see more Multi-Day games on the front page. I'm not the best at WarLight, so I like to play more experienced players, to get practice and become better at the game. If there is never anyone to play, then how do I practice and get better? Well, AI difficulty in Single Player.

So the concept is basically something that would be added into the settings options in creating a single player game, along with Initial Distribution, Armies, Cards, etc. I don't know how Fizzer would code different AI levels to make them harder to fight, if he would change their tactics to more defensive or aggressive, is beyond me. I just play the game, and this is something I know I would use almost every day if it were available to me.

Let me know what you guys think. I would really appreciate it.

Good idea in principle, but hard to implement probably - especially if you consider the fact that Fizzer focuses more on coins-based features of WL.

http://theaigames.com/competitions/warlight-ai-challenge-2/leaderboard/global/a/

so what's the use of joining a clan of 172 members when you get no one to play with when you want to?

A simple way to increase the difficulty of playing against the AI is to play against teams of them. I used to play lots of single player, and after a while it didn't matter if I was playing against 24 individual AIs, they are easy to beat. But if you set it up so that they are 12 teams of 2, then it's harder. 8 teams of 3 is harder still. 6 teams of 4, etc. For such games, usually larger maps are better to give at least one AI team time to 'gel' into a strong opponent.

You will also want to play around with the card settings, as the more players on an AI team the more frequently large reinforce cards will mess with you.

Other settings that are sensitive to multi-AI teams: Starting distribution (manual/auto, warlords/cities, number of starting spots), base income, etc.

This is a pretty good way of adjusting the difficulty of the AI to pretty much as hard as you want it to be.

One good thing of practicing this way is that eventually you'll get so good at out-playing the AI that you'll be able to beat it easily whenever it comes up in a multi-player game, e.g. after someone gets booted or surrenders, depending on the game settings. Also, you'll know you've mastered the AI completely when you can get a gold star on the Insane single-player level.

Edited 10/20/2015 15:16:57

i don't think there's any difficulty level that you can achieve playing such games
after a certain point(depends on the size of map and settings),the chances of you winning are only proportional to the reciprocal of no. of AIs in the game
for eg:-if you play 0 neutrals game on big USA auto distribution,it totally depends on luck whether you win a game or not against 3+ no. of AIs

I guarantee I could win against any number of non-teamed AIs on such a map. No luck involved.

ok then....prove it in a 39 AI auto 1 start big usa initial 15 armies, 5 income, 0 neutrals medium fog 0 luck SR game
if you win 2 out of 3 games then you're right
(also send us link before you start playing so we know you've not cheated)

Edited 10/20/2015 17:35:12

there is no link to single-player game, such games are stored only on your computer
also he states 'no luck involved' while '39 AI auto 1 start' depends much on luck, as every auto-dist game:P

Edited 10/20/2015 17:45:20

fine...........manual distribution on full distribuution then,it won't change your chances by much

there is no link to single-player game, such games are stored only on your computer

Make it multiplayer but only invite AIs.

I can only play up to 36 player games at this level, so if that's good enough.... Also to share the link it needs to be multi-player, which requires at least two humans, so I've added you; you can surrender first turn or something. So it'll only be against 34 AIs.... By medium fog, I'm assuming you mean normal fog. Since you didn't mention, I turned off reinforce cards, although I think it would be almost as easy with default reinforcements.

Here's the first link: https://www.warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=9683128

I made it multi-day since I have an appointment later today, but when I get back I'll play it more-or-less real time. Not sure how long it will take. Usually it's the early turns that are the trickiest; after a certain point I'll be able to steam-roll to the end.

there is no link to single-player game, such games are stored only on your computer
also he states 'no luck involved' while '39 AI auto 1 start' depends much on luck, as every auto-dist game:P

Only the beginning depends on luck, and with a big map such as big usa, it's much less likely to get stuck in an impossible-to-win starting position. So yes, technically there is a small element of luck, but it is very small under these map circumstances.

^
You dont need 2 humans for a multiplayer game...

@Cata But to be able to save the game and keep it as evidence, it needs to be a multiplayer game.

Cata, when I tried to start the game with only me and AIs, it said I needed 2 humans. If you know another way, let me know.

BTW, the game is pretty much over now. I've got my first bonus, and it's just a matter of time before I clean up.

Second bonus. The steam roller is now building up steam. You can see the pattern from here on out. Basically just expanding and steam rolling at this point.
[Edit: Oops, forgot no one can see the play until the end. I'll forgo the commentary then.]

Edited 10/20/2015 18:59:43

Upload screenshots!

You dont need 2 humans for a multiplayer game...

You do need 2 humans. Unless I miss something, it will pop up an error message when you press the "create game" button.

wct, I created a game for you with 39 AIs using your template (slightly modified). ;-)

How is it possible? I will surrender in the first turn (and I will turn into an AI).

Accept the challenge if you want.

https://www.warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=9690458

P.S. New link updated.

Edited 10/21/2015 20:11:11