If you're beating up on the AI already, and can't hold out until Pocus has time to optimize it further, the first option you should look at isn't the difficulty level, it's the AIs fog of war settings. I know, I don't mucy like an AI that cheats, but increasing this setting just a single notch seems to produce a much more aggressive AI. I get the feeling that the regular AI is too easily intimidated by regions it can't see. That might be why (As the South) taking Lexington, Cairo, and Louisville means a near complete cession of Union activity in the west. If you decrease the FOW a bit for the AI, it becomes more aggressive and tries to retake the areas rather than just sitting back and building forces.
I just tried this, and despite having beta tested since they released the first code for this, I'm currently getting whipped. I tried my usual routine of taking Kentucky out, but instead of limiting the US forces to Cincinnati and St. Louis, I've now been pushed back, completely out of Kentucky, and in the process, lost every bit of one army aside from a lone artillery unit that somehow managed to escape. So, if you're looking for a bigger challenge, and don't have someone to PBEM, give that setting a shot, I never really thought about it before, but it has made quite a difference for me so far.
Sounds interesting. Will try. Thanks 
Forrest said something about killing a Yankee for each of his horses that they shot. In the last days of the war, Forrest had killed 30 of the enemy and had 30 horses shot from under him. In a brief but savage conflict, a Yankee soldier "saw glory for himself" with an opportunity to kill the famous Confederate General... Forrest killed the fellow. Making 31 Yankees personally killed, and 30 horses lost...
He remarked, "I ended the war a horse ahead."
He remarked, "I ended the war a horse ahead."
Spharv, this is helpful and based on all of your tests, what's your opinion of some other tweaks:
1. Effect of making some of the changes that speed up processing time but hinder the AI. How severe is this impact?
2. What settings would you adjust to compensate for #1 and keep the difficulty levels up to challenging?
I forget what the other settings are but it's something like AI think time and processing time, etc.
What I'm wondering is if I can speed up processing time and simply adjust the level of difficulty through FOW.
Some of these turns are taking more than 3 minutes to process. However, the way I view it, is it takes me a whole lot longer than that to figure out all of my moves and my turn. Imagine how long this game would take if we were back to the old days of a board game. And so far, our cat hasn't figured out how to knock the keyboard or monitor off the table and mess up the game moves.
1. Effect of making some of the changes that speed up processing time but hinder the AI. How severe is this impact?
2. What settings would you adjust to compensate for #1 and keep the difficulty levels up to challenging?
I forget what the other settings are but it's something like AI think time and processing time, etc.
What I'm wondering is if I can speed up processing time and simply adjust the level of difficulty through FOW.
Some of these turns are taking more than 3 minutes to process. However, the way I view it, is it takes me a whole lot longer than that to figure out all of my moves and my turn. Imagine how long this game would take if we were back to the old days of a board game. And so far, our cat hasn't figured out how to knock the keyboard or monitor off the table and mess up the game moves.
Spharv2 wrote:If you're beating up on the AI already, and can't hold out until Pocus has time to optimize it further, the first option you should look at isn't the difficulty level, it's the AIs fog of war settings. I know, I don't mucy like an AI that cheats, but increasing this setting just a single notch seems to produce a much more aggressive AI. I get the feeling that the regular AI is too easily intimidated by regions it can't see. That might be why (As the South) taking Lexington, Cairo, and Louisville means a near complete cession of Union activity in the west. If you decrease the FOW a bit for the AI, it becomes more aggressive and tries to retake the areas rather than just sitting back and building forces.
I just tried this, and despite having beta tested since they released the first code for this, I'm currently getting whipped. I tried my usual routine of taking Kentucky out, but instead of limiting the US forces to Cincinnati and St. Louis, I've now been pushed back, completely out of Kentucky, and in the process, lost every bit of one army aside from a lone artillery unit that somehow managed to escape. So, if you're looking for a bigger challenge, and don't have someone to PBEM, give that setting a shot, I never really thought about it before, but it has made quite a difference for me so far.
AI is much more agressive now. Really impressed.
I did start like more then 30 games and since I usually play Yanks I had a routine. Rebs would sit, I would attack and so on.
Now, first turn July 1861. rebs move north. Attack D.C. and that kind of stuff. Like playing completely new game.
It is amazing how much AI got better with just giving him some aide on fog of war.
Great tip Spharv2
Forrest said something about killing a Yankee for each of his horses that they shot. In the last days of the war, Forrest had killed 30 of the enemy and had 30 horses shot from under him. In a brief but savage conflict, a Yankee soldier "saw glory for himself" with an opportunity to kill the famous Confederate General... Forrest killed the fellow. Making 31 Yankees personally killed, and 30 horses lost...
He remarked, "I ended the war a horse ahead."
He remarked, "I ended the war a horse ahead."
Wilhammer wrote:Decreasing the FOW for the AI is fair, after all - we humans have a much better feel for the geography and the war than she does.
I agree and with the best (for the AI) FOW setting , there is no FOW at all for it , so the challenge is maximum in this case.
And I think that the setting "give more time to AI" doesn't give it a significative bonus ( as Pocus said if I remenber , it was the setting I used to check) but augments more significatively turn computation.
La mort est un mur, mourir est une brèche.
it does slightly improve her performance, but the price to pay can be one more minute of processing time... if you really want to boost the AI, a FOW bonus is the best thing you can do. It compensates a bit the beforehand knowledge all players have on the ACW, don't you think?
So play fair, give her +1 FOW bonus, and see how the game is
So play fair, give her +1 FOW bonus, and see how the game is
Hofstadter's Law: "It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's law."
rasnell wrote:Spharv, this is helpful and based on all of your tests, what's your opinion of some other tweaks:
1. Effect of making some of the changes that speed up processing time but hinder the AI. How severe is this impact?
2. What settings would you adjust to compensate for #1 and keep the difficulty levels up to challenging?
I forget what the other settings are but it's something like AI think time and processing time, etc.
What I'm wondering is if I can speed up processing time and simply adjust the level of difficulty through FOW.
Some of these turns are taking more than 3 minutes to process. However, the way I view it, is it takes me a whole lot longer than that to figure out all of my moves and my turn. Imagine how long this game would take if we were back to the old days of a board game. And so far, our cat hasn't figured out how to knock the keyboard or monitor off the table and mess up the game moves.
As Pocus said, the increased time helps, but if you're looking to cut down on the time, the FoW bonus with no additional time is your best bet. You can increase the difficulty level, but to me, that's too much like cheating since then you're getting into giving the AI units and generals bonuses on their rolls. So, you're not going to cut the AI time down too much, but leaving the "Give the AI more time" option unchecked shouldn't affect it too much. I leave it on, but that's because I don't care how long the turns take because I'm usually reading the forums while the computer thinks.
I have played the full campaign and got an easy victory with CSA by early August 1862. Settings for the AI were no FOW, agressive, all strategies on and extra time on, but difficulty level to normal (I don´t like the AI cheating in combat, I would prefer that option to give the AI only more resources)
In my experience, the AI seems to have gone sleeping since mid 1861.
1) Both Blockade box remained at 0%
2) I took early in the game Alexandria, and there was no reaction from the AI
3) Union armies were always at 35% command penalty, and brigades were very rarely joined in divisions.
4) Washington DC was very lightly defended, there were several Union large forces in other regions, and one of them marched to the sound of guns when I attacked Washington, but it was not enough to stop my army.
5) The AI launched very few raids, that was a surprise because in previous games the Union AI had launched a lot of raids with a medium agresive setting.
In my experience, the AI seems to have gone sleeping since mid 1861.
1) Both Blockade box remained at 0%
2) I took early in the game Alexandria, and there was no reaction from the AI
3) Union armies were always at 35% command penalty, and brigades were very rarely joined in divisions.
4) Washington DC was very lightly defended, there were several Union large forces in other regions, and one of them marched to the sound of guns when I attacked Washington, but it was not enough to stop my army.
5) The AI launched very few raids, that was a surprise because in previous games the Union AI had launched a lot of raids with a medium agresive setting.
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