Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition - Easy AI?

OpenToSuggestions · 16 Nov 2019 at 11:27

Hey all,
Bought AOE 2 HD edition back in 2013 and loved it. The AI was not the most intelligent but on hardest they were a beast!

The Definitive Edition came out this week and has an all-new graphics overhaul.

I am finding the AI a little on the easy side. I am trying games on harder difficulties but the AI has been pretty easy so far.

Anyone else bought it? If so, thoughts so far?

AWPC · 16 Nov 2019 at 15:10

Its free on Xbox game Pass for PC right now been playing 1 & 2. 2 also has a UHD 4K gfx pack as well. AI is very easy its more of a casual gamers title than hardcore strategy.

OpenToSuggestions · 16 Nov 2019 at 16:54

AWPC said:
Its free on Xbox game Pass for PC right now been playing 1 & 2. 2 also has a UHD 4K gfx pack as well. AI is very easy its more of a casual gamers title than hardcore strategy.

Such a shame. The AI in the 2013 edition could be brutal, albeit not the smartest.

MouthBoy · 16 Nov 2019 at 18:13

AoE2 has quite a large, but oddly, fairly unknown community unless you're in the know. Yes, you can play against the AI but it's mainly about PvP. There is a lot of meta gameplay in it too, even more with the new Civs in DE. Easy to learn, very hard to master.

Pawnless Endgame · 17 Nov 2019 at 00:04

From what I heard, the original 1999 AI needed to cheat in order for it to give the player a challenge. In the 2013 update, some cheating was still required. Then in 2019 for the very first time, the updated AI has become good enough so it doesn't need to cheat. This is probably why seasoned players are finding it on the easier side.

It's a similar dilemma to writing a chess AI and it's now got to the stage where some chess computers can beat the players. The AI will keep improving

OpenToSuggestions · 29 Nov 2019 at 17:57

Anyone else still playing?
I tend to lose sound randomly when I alt+tab out.

Kerplunk · 29 Nov 2019 at 23:20

Does anyone find the text really blurry in this game, also the building panel aswell, doesn't seem crisp like the original

kitkat9933 · 1 Dec 2019 at 19:57

I still play the HD version now and again so this was a no brainier.

If anyone wants to play sometime my steam tag is kitkat999333.

unwashed potato! · 2 Dec 2019 at 12:14

the ai is incredibly easy on this latest edition.

I like to play when there is 8 players, and I will do 4 teams of 2. I set each team a different version of the AI, and you always see the AI from the HD edition kicking everyones butt, even if they are on their own against 2 they will do well.

I think the difficulty setting on the latest AI must require the hardest setting else it's not hard.

my biggest annoyance is that if you survive the initial rush, after a while when stone and gold run low, the ai just becomes useless. they can't seem to figure out how to chop wood and convert it to the supplies they need. They just become an almost dead team

unwashed potato! · 2 Dec 2019 at 12:15

Pawnless Endgame said:
From what I heard, the original 1999 AI needed to cheat in order for it to give the player a challenge. In the 2013 update, some cheating was still required. Then in 2019 for the very first time, the updated AI has become good enough so it doesn't need to cheat. This is probably why seasoned players are finding it on the easier side.

It's a similar dilemma to writing a chess AI and it's now got to the stage where some chess computers can beat the players. The AI will keep improving

interesting. can you expand on this?

LewisRaz · 22 Dec 2019 at 10:39

I just had a game vs 3 AI on moderate and after stomping them way too easily at the end screen they all maxed out at 7 villagers. I am going to raise the difficulty (I am just trying out some of the civs I did not play with before) but surely that must be some sort of bug?

OpenToSuggestions · 22 Dec 2019 at 10:54

I get spanked on Hardest though! I just find the AI either very hard or super easy. Very odd.

unwashed potato! · 23 Dec 2019 at 02:02

OpenToSuggestions said:
I get spanked on Hardest though! I just find the AI either very hard or super easy. Very odd.

Yep terrible in balancing. Early on AI can be quick and hard for a short while, but it seems once they've researched everything and used up their local gold they then just go ultra dumb and have few workers, minimal building of an army

spook2575 · 14 Jan 2020 at 21:51

is this unbalanced AI also the same for campaign? When i tried the beta i found the AI a bit smarter (at medium levels) than the 2013 version - unless my memory of the HD had faded...

LewisRaz · 14 Jan 2020 at 22:18

I have found that any settings under "hard" the AI is really bad, at moderate they might catch you out with a rush but thats it. If you can survive to castle then you will win easily.

As for the campaign the few levels I have played have been so heavily scripted its hard to judge how the AI is handling things