Matrix Games Forums

One of my main gripes about Pacific War was the fact the AI cheated constantly. It was able to teleport units all over the map and didn't lose ready aircraft if it transferred air groups.

It cheated in many other ways as well, but this particular cheat irritated me the most because a human opponent could capitalize on it by relegating HQ's to computer control for a turn or two to get units to warp to Australia from the US, Warp Japanese air reinforcements into a critical theatre from rear area bases, etc.

So my questions are:

1. Can UV AI and ultimately War in the Pacific's AI cheat in a similar manner?

2. If so can a Human PBEM opponent turn on AI HQ control and use these cheats to his advantage similar to what occurred in Pacific War?

3. Are there any AI cheats built into the game?

I'm not trying to bash the game, I'm just curious about what cheats we will be facing against the AI. Knowing them in advance will help when facing unscrupulous human opponents who try to capitalize on them when you might otherwise not be aware of them.

Jim

Hi Jim

Don't Mike Wood hear you say this..... he will hurt you <G>. Mike and Gary have gone to great lenghs to make the AI good without cheating.

David

Jim,

Good to see you here. The AI does not cheat at all, which is a big plus in my book. It does coordinate well and could be described as a careful planner not afraid of decisive operations. More than once, I've thought I was making good progress when the AI launched a powerful combined arms operation to unhinge my plans. I have not been disappointed playing against the AI. It has beaten me quite often in the short scenarios, twice in the long ones and usually keeps things close even when losing.

While there is no AI that cannot be mastered, once you beat this AI regularly I would say you have achieved a very high level of UV skill and would also beat most human opponents.

Regards,

- Erik

Originally posted by David Heath
Hi Jim

Don't Mike Wood hear you say this..... he will hurt you <G>. Mike and Gary have gone to great lenghs to make the AI good without cheating.

David

Great News! Thanks for posting David. I never meant to imply that built in AI cheats were the problem, I was mainly worried about human opponents being able to utilize them if they were in there.

AI's are inherently easy to beat and cheats simply help them play better games in my opinion. I and most others will use the AI mostly as a training tool I'm sure, but most play will be PBEM when we are all ready for a serious challenge.

Now if we can just come up with a cheat that allows pre-ordered gold CD's to ship sooner...

Jim

I can honestly say that UV got more development time on the AI than any other game that I have ever worked on (which is most of Gary's previous games). This is mostly because while Mike and I were creating the interface, Gary and I were constantly reworking the AI as we were able to test it over and over again (and I was able to put in significant time playing against it). Gary had a prototype of UV working by mid 2000. Although the interface was virtually non-existent, it was playable. Heavy duty interface work began in early 2001, and although Gary did some work on WitP and Eastern Front during 2001, a lot of his time (and mine) was spent improving the game combat modules and the AI. While Mike, David and Keith spent a lot of time on the look and feel (and sound) of the game, Gary kept improving the AI.

With that said, I still expect the serious gamer (which is most of you) to beat up on the AI pretty quickly. The only cheating (at the "historical difficulty level") I can remember that we put in the game for the AI has to do with the way ships are committed. We give it a slightly easier time getting trasports committed to the theater so it won't totally run itself out of supply. Of course, we provide 2 harder difficulty levels which does add some AI cheating. For most of you, the AI will keep you busy for a few games at the historical level, and then I strongly suggest bumping the AI up to at least the hard level to keep the challenge. Unlike WitP, UV does not have theater HQ's that can be turned over to the AI, so there is nothing that I know of that the human player can do to cheat. Although WitP uses theater HQ's (currently 7 per side), hopefully we can keep the cheating to a minimum.

The bottom line is that although we spent more time on UV than we had intended (and maybe more than was justified financially), you should see the pay off in the game, especially in the AI. At least we hope you will.

Joel

Originally posted by Joel Billings
Although WitP uses theater HQ's (currently 7 per side), hopefully we can keep the cheating to a minimum.

Joel

Hi Joel,

Perhaps you can work out a PBEM toggle that players can optionally turn on or off at the beginning of a game/scenario that locks all HQ's to human control for the duration.

Another solution might be to make HQ control public knowledge similar to the double asterisk next to HQ names used in Pacific War. I doubt whether the AI or your human opponent controls any particular HQ is vital FOW data, but I guess some people might prefer total FOW.

Granted most players are trustworthy opponents, but in tournament play you'd want to be sure no one person can screw up the tournament results because he is caught secretly toggling AI control of HQ's to garner some hidden advantages.

Anyway just a few thoughts, thanks for your reply.

Jim

Joel and company - thanks for the game development info. With over 2 years invested by GG and company this makes me even more confident this will set a new standard in wargaming. I am also quite thrilled to hear of Gary's time spent on WITP AND an Eastern front game!!! When can we pre-order those? !
Just kidding!