Posts from AI cheating on single-player maps.

Then he would be on equal footing with a human in that regard. But for now, he has an undeniable advantage.:(

I sincerely disagree with this.

Before, when I played against the computer, I often managed to obtain the Grail with only 2-3 obelisks. There were rare cases when the Grail was found on the first try from a single obelisk.

With the advent of online play, this ability atrophied and was lost. Now I'm searching for Shambhala...

What advantage are you talking about? I don't know, because there's always an autosave, there's always the possibility to take over a computer-controlled town and make it your own, and in general, what are we even talking about - it's a game against the computer!

Lider1, I repeat: the AI has an advantage precisely in terms of finding the Grail as quickly as possible, using the minimum number of obelisks, compared to a human player. You are likely judging based on standard or random maps, where the landscape is rather monotonous and not very rich in objects. But there are large custom maps where the landscape is such that it is difficult to understand where a particular area is located, or where the obelisks are on the map, sometimes even after the entire map has been revealed. For example, the map may be too uniform; or, conversely, the map may contain too many different types of terrain elements, and in this variety, the eye wanders, not finding the right place. If I give an example, it will become clear.

Just a couple of days ago, while playing the Podarok_2001 map, I observed the villain Diablo using a town portal from cursed land to his own city. Apparently, this is a bug-feature, allowing computer-controlled heroes to use non-combat spells on cursed land.

Yes, and this is a well-known bug/feature: according to the game rules, the AI shouldn't do this, but it does!

The day before yesterday, around midnight, I suddenly encountered another instance of AI cheating! Here's what happened: during Arlash's (green) turn, he landed on the island, entered the seer's hut, and... shamelessly flew around the white border gates, capturing my 2 Portal of Glory! After a little investigation, I exposed him: according to the rules, he couldn't have done that!
On either side of the Portals of Glory, there are obstacles arranged in such a way that without Flight / Dimension Door / Angel Wings, you can only reach them through the white border gates. But:
1) There is only one white tent on the map, on my starting location, and no enemy has visited it yet!
2) The Flight and Dimension Door spells are prohibited on the map!
3) There are artifacts on the map that grant the ability to fly, but I already knew that Green hadn't reached them. And two days later (he was stuck on the island the whole time: the poor guy ran out of mana:)), I reached him, defeated him, and obtained proof: he only had the Amulet of Clairvoyance!
4) The seer is also not involved: he requests the Angel Alliance, which Arlash does not have.
Here, I offer everyone who wants to see for themselves:
1) a screenshot of the island (for clarity, I removed the magic clouds) with highlighted paths;
2) an autosave, from which the described outrage occurs when the turn is passed;
3) a save made two days later: you can defeat Arlash yourself, and his artifacts will become yours.

I haven't looked at the save yet, but there's a bug with the tents. If you restart from a late stage of the save, it can happen that all tents have been visited by all players. This bug was observed in the recent First Blood 2.4 tournament.

Dirty_Player, the bug with the tents needs to be "caught" and reported to baratorch for fixing! If anyone can create a save file demonstrating this, please post it in the HD mod thread! I haven't encountered this myself yet.
But in this case, it's definitely not that: Arlash didn't go through the gate, but flew around it, even though he "didn't have the right to do so"!

I managed to create something strange! I and the AI swapped cities and heroes (this happened after loading a save) – I don't know how to post links, so I can't provide proof. By the way, Marmut, my AI also had a flying unit that "took off in a hot air balloon, dropping its army behind." It unexpectedly took off, flew over the water and mountains, and left its entire army behind, meaning all seven types of creatures were left standing in the sea and on the mountains. And it itself was running around without them!!!!!

He unexpectedly took off, flew over the water and mountains, leaving the entire army behind, meaning all seven types of creatures were left on the sea and in the mountains. And he was running around without them!!!!!

Good job with the execution, fantasist. Which version of In the Wake of Gods?

Yes, based on the description, it sounds like WoG: there you can pass through forests and mountains if you enable the corresponding script, and you can leave troops on the map, and a hero can move around with just one commander without any troops at all.

Yes, based on the description, it sounds like WoG: there you can pass through forests and mountains if you enable the corresponding script, and you can leave troops on the map, and a hero can run around with just one commander without any troops at all.

Personally, I've never left troops unattended in WoG... I don't think the AI can even do that...

I don't know about the computer version, but your hero can move around without an army, with just one commander (who only appears on the battlefield).

Yeah, I've seen it myself – a computer with no army, just a hero, but it can't spread troops around. By the way, I noticed a strange thing: the computer doesn't need to lose one unit to turn it into a squire...

On a random map (XL, 8 slots, no underground, islands), one of the AI opponents, without a single obelisk on their island (out of approximately 20!!!) and only 1 day's travel from the city to the teleport on the island where there were only 2!! obelisks and the Grail was stored, somehow managed to dig up the Grail on the 1st attempt and bring it to their city in just 3 weeks, as witnessed by my observation (I was located nearby). This involved 2 heroes with 7 Phoenixes each + 2 Firebirds in the castle for 4 weeks (2 in the first week, +4 in the second week, +4 in the third week, and only with the Grail +6 in the fourth week – they couldn't hire any more, as the necessary buildings were missing). And that's not even considering the economic aspect...

I am a human, and I dug up the Grail from two obelisks in the second week.

The AI seeks the Grail out of boredom. If forced to defend, it will search for resources, troops, and upgrades. In general, the AI does cheat quite a bit. It breaks through blocks of 100 defense with a small army without losses, flies on the wings of imagination, and recruits troops on the map that, by definition, should not be recruited by anyone. Our weapon against it is "save-load." That's quite something. :D By the way, if you play against multiple AI opponents who are "fighting for themselves," the AI's cheating is almost reduced to zero. It's as if it "doesn't attack its own." :D P.S. In WoG, I noticed that the AI almost always pulls out flight and teleport spells from chests containing scrolls when they are tactically needed. Moreover, it pulls them out in any case, even if these spells are prohibited in the WoG settings and on the map. And if prohibited, the AI sometimes even stops spending mana on these spells. :D