If you are a glutton for punishment and love playing Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition, then the latest update might entice you. That’s because, in Patch 5.2.131, Relic Entertainment has implemented several improvements to the “Hardest AI.”
As the name implies, Hardest AI in Age of Empires IV was made to somehow mimic the best players out there. However, some in the community have requested that the company make the AI so much more challenging and that is what Relic Entertainment did in Patch 5.2.131.
To make things increasingly more difficult than before, the Hardest AI now gets double the resource-gathering bonus. This not only applies to resources gathered from sheep and trees, but it also affects passive sources, such as sacred sites and relics.
With so many resources acquired in a short time, the company has improved the Hardest AI’s military production as well. This means that it will start amassing units earlier so it can attack you when you least expect it.
You can read the other AI changes below:
- Easy AI will now build fewer defensive structures and will raid less.
- AI early resource gathering has been adjusted:
- Reduced the preference for early stone gathering when the AI is not being defensive.
- Increased wood gathering preference while transitioning to the Feudal Age.
- Malian AI starting economy changed to prefer to gather more wood to afford an Open Pit Mine earlier.
- Delayed when the Malian AI will start to produce cattle to prevent the AI from overspending on them too early.
- Adjusted the AI logic for producing anti-building siege units to improve the AI’s production of rams and trebuchets when faced with enemy walls and defenses.
- Adjusted the AI logic for producing fishing boats to lower their priority when the AI has a stronger need for naval military ships.
- Adjusted the AI to prevent it from desiring to build a wonder if its team or the enemy already has one.
- Adjusted the AI logic when it has an allied Wonder on its team to prevent it from going overly defensive too quickly. The AI will now consider the time remaining on its team’s Wonder victory timer and its comparative military strength before deciding whether it should be defensive or to continue aggression.
- Improved how the AI uses multiple Fireships at once to attack enemy ships.
- Fixed a bug that was preventing the AI from performing one type of its harassment attacks.
- Fixed a bug where the AI would allow its Villagers to fight back against enemy harassment that would still end up not being in its own favor. The AI will be less tolerant of how many Villager casualties it would take if it decided to fight back instead of fleeing.
- Fixed a bug with the AI distributing its Fishing Boats among many deep-sea fish deposits instead of prioritizing assigning them to the closest sources to the dock as much as possible.
So, what do you think of the newly improved AI in Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition after updating to Patch 5.2.131?
