New to the forums: How is the AI so good?

[Decimvs]

Hello, Been playing SRCW for over a month now, and I've finally just reached the point where I am actually able to play and know what I'm doing without getting angry and starting over. (Learning curve that requires repeat campaigns but thank God that phase is over now)

My question is, well, I busted my nuts as the USSR (I play with a united USSR mod/annexed colonies) for like 3 years becoming self sufficient and finally I became the riches country, just surpassing the US and Japan... I played another campaign as Portugal just to kill time and realized that USSR surpassed the US in treasury with ease as well with the AI... does the AI cheat? How come if I set my ministers to run the show for me(which I dont cause they are all dumb so I play manually) they never ever come close to even putting me in the possitives, never mind making me the richest?

Thanks in advanced, and thank God I found this game, it's awesome.
Total War games seem so primitive now.

[Anthropoid]

AI does not get mathematical boosts in this game. And yes, in my expeience it is one of the best strategy AI's I've seen! I have actually been surprise attacked by Israel at EXACTLY the worst point in time, just when I had my Egyptian military far overstretched after annexing Chad and Sudan.

As far as the Ministers: I only used them very briefly in SR2020 (haven't really played that much myself, but enough to feel like I got a handle on the game) and my observations were also that they didn't seem to be too 'efficient.' However, if you leave them running for a longer period of time, they might actually start to show a gradual positive trend. I did a test where I played as USSR (with SRCW) and just left it running on auto for about 5 in game years, and the AI did a great job of building up my treasury to about 50 billion. Not sure if SR2020 is the same, because I never let it run that long.

Anyway, manual is the way to go for the real strategy gamers

Ask away if you have any questions!

[Madman]

AI does not get mathematical boosts in this game. And yes, in my expeience it is one of the best strategy AI's I've seen! I have actually been surprise attacked by Israel at EXACTLY the worst point in time, just when I had my Egyptian military far overstretched after annexing Chad and Sudan.

As far as the Ministers: I only used them very briefly in SR2020 (haven't really played that much myself, but enough to feel like I got a handle on the game) and my observations were also that they didn't seem to be too 'efficient.' However, if you leave them running for a longer period of time, they might actually start to show a gradual positive trend. I did a test where I played as USSR (with SRCW) and just left it running on auto for about 5 in game years, and the AI did a great job of building up my treasury to about 50 billion. Not sure if SR2020 is the same, because I never let it run that long.

Anyway, manual is the way to go for the real strategy gamers

Ask away if you have any questions!

Was the your income 50 billion or only cash? Also how can i learn others countries daily or annualy incomes ?

[Anthropoid]

AI does not get mathematical boosts in this game. And yes, in my expeience it is one of the best strategy AI's I've seen! I have actually been surprise attacked by Israel at EXACTLY the worst point in time, just when I had my Egyptian military far overstretched after annexing Chad and Sudan.

As far as the Ministers: I only used them very briefly in SR2020 (haven't really played that much myself, but enough to feel like I got a handle on the game) and my observations were also that they didn't seem to be too 'efficient.' However, if you leave them running for a longer period of time, they might actually start to show a gradual positive trend. I did a test where I played as USSR (with SRCW) and just left it running on auto for about 5 in game years, and the AI did a great job of building up my treasury to about 50 billion. Not sure if SR2020 is the same, because I never let it run that long.

Anyway, manual is the way to go for the real strategy gamers

Ask away if you have any questions!

Was the your income 50 billion or only cash? Also how can i learn others countries daily or annualy incomes ?

Okay, looks like either my memory of the amount was an overestimate, or I spent a bunch of cash (unlikely as I was just letting this run on Auto to see what happened with the Blue Spere growth.



Treasury if 13.8 billion as of June 1953.

But that is letting the AI ministers run on full auto, not building anything, and not turning off any fab (which would've saved a lot).

It is also SRCW, not SR2020.

To see other nations income, etc. click on the State tab and then click on the Regional Atlas



When you click that, you'll have a screen that can switch between half-dozen or so different tables where columns can be sorted. In one of those tables, is their treasury and whether it is going up or not.

[Aragos]

ok Arth, the Dr Evil pic for yourself is awesome. I have to steal that.

Back to AI: Economically, et al, it seems to do a pretty decent job.

Some hints: If you want to conserve or control resources for consumption, lock the resource then raise or lower the domestic cost as needed. I tend to do this with petrol and electric at the start as those are either big money makers or expenses.

The tactical AI needs some work. Just like in 2020, if you can hold over the first wave you can take over anyone. The AI sends merchant marine ships out without escort. A few well placed submarines can really clean them up. Learn to use garrisons where you actually need them (border towns, the capital, and ports). Not much need for them elsewhere.

[Decimvs]

How come the ussr does better with the ai when i play another country, then when i play ussr myself its super hard or even not possible to do just as good if the ai doesnt cheat?

[Aragos]

Human players will do stuff the AI doesn't do all the time. Example: Tech research. The AI will not fill up the research list with items at start (which is expensive) but humans always do. AI will optimize expenses, etc. as well, where humans will spend as much as they can while building up.