Have the campaigns gotten easier?

[Velensk]

I've recently started playing campaigns again and I don't know why, but it seems to me that they have gotten easier since last time I played campaigns frequently. I do not think that my skill has increased that significantly since last I played.

Have the campaigns been reworked to be easier and I just didn't notice, or is it just my imagination?

EDIT: another thought occured to me, has the newer more defensive AI made campaigns easier?

[TheGreatRings]

Yes, they seem easier to me. Its one of my main issues with 1.6 (another being the silly over-flashiness of some of the new graphics). I hope its in my head, because I'd hate to think that Wesnoth is being dumbed down.

[Max]

EDIT: another thought occured to me, has the newer more defensive AI made campaigns easier?

i think it must be something else. there's been a bug in 1.5 where the AI got really defensive, attacked just if there was a very good chance to kill one of my units - and this made some scenarios incredibly hard to win. one of the reasons you're able to beat an AI that has much more resources is that it's usually quite aggressive.

[JW]

EDIT: another thought occured to me, has the newer more defensive AI made campaigns easier?

I'm pretty sure this would be the answer.

[silent]

I reckon it would also depend on which particular campaign he's playing

If it's son of the black eye, for example, that would explain a lot
If it's the rise of Wesnoth, I'd be surprised.

[Ken_Oh]

EDIT: another thought occured to me, has the newer more defensive AI made campaigns easier?

I'm pretty sure this would be the answer.

Agreed.

[Velensk]

The two campaigns that gave me this impression were Son of the Black Eye and Decent into Darkness.

Last time I played DiD I was breaking myself of save-loading habits so whenever I started it up I would turn on nosaves. It was incredibly frustrating and most levels took several tries, but eventualy I succeeded. This time I decided I wanted to play it again, but I wasn't realy trying to beat anything so I'd not turn on nosaves on, but as it turned out this was hardly nessisary. Now last time I played DiD was a long time ago, so I figured I'd just gotten better.

I then played SotBE, I'm not all the way through however I am to the great horde section and the previous section seemed to have gotten so much easier. Last time I played through the first part gave me troubles and I lost enough leveled units that I was worried about later, however once I got to the great horde section I was easily able to replace my leveled units and more than double their number. It hasn't been that long since I last played the campaign I think the game was in the 1.2-1.4 area (though even if the campaign has gotten easier, the art has gotten allot better).

[thespaceinvader]

I think that it's partly that, and partly that the new gold carryover system has led to a need for some balancing tweaks. Nothing insurmountable, though.

[palloco]

All campaigns that use default AI were balanced with an AI that expanded quickly and threw everything at you.
Now the AI is scared to expand, this causes that players economy is much better than AI economy, when it should be the other way around. And since it is still unable to attack properly, the result is an AI easier to beat.

[silent]

I think some changes to make it easier were needed.

Best example I can think of is scenario 1 of northern rebirth. In 1.4.7 Al'Tar abandons his keep and heads straight for your peasant army, killing anything in his path, regardless of ToD.

Also SotBE, in particular to the harbour of tirigaz as the base income for both liches was ridiculous.

I'm also confused about the AI scared to expand. I've found they're still throwing everything at you, although it may be different for certain campaigns (I haven't bothered with EI or DiD since I don't consider myself good enough to play either, and gave up on northern rebirth upon learning the bad guy was yet another ancient lich)

[Velensk]

Changes to make things easier were not needed.

In the first level of northern rebirth I've never had either orc leader come strait at me, I always found it quite possible to get to the point where I was recruiting 3+ units a turn and overwhelm. It was even possible to do this back before woodsmen were introduced to your side.

Base income translates into units a turn. Once you defeat their main army you should have no problem dealing with a steady trickle of units. In the level with two liches a skeleton are two per side per turn shouldn't be to hard to kill. Later on during the later part of the great horde an enemy with a base +50 a turn shouldn't be much of a problem after you've routed his army because that is only 2 level twos a turn and you should be able to deal with that by then.

The big bad for Northern Rebirth is not an Ancient Lich, you just kill one along the way.

I'm not sure that AIs not expanding is the problem. As I mentioned above I don't think that enemy income is that big a deal.

[Joram]

I'm also noticing things are easier, but I attributed it partly to my new resolutions and increased attention to what I was doing.

I tried TRoW on hard several years ago, and after slogging through almost the whole thing, I was 2 scenarios from the end with a hundred gold and went down.

I took a break for a year, and came back at it. I haven't noticed that the AI is more defensive, but I have noticed that I usually have a lot more gold. I attributed it to my practice of rarely recalling lvl 3 units, and using mostly recruits. I suppose it could be the AI though. I don't usually notice details.

[palloco]

Well, I have just done a quick game against AI, although it is not a very good example of what I saw it shows some of the serious flaws in AI behaviour.
-Totally careless about right side of the map: This is what may have lead me to conclude that it does not wanna expand.
-Spam of HI.
-Erratic movements. Well, I know previous AI was erratic as well, but now it has no idea whether it should advance or no, it sends units into water for no reason...

[Velensk]

The loyalist AI has always done that kind of stuff.