"Your", Mr. Frog, your... bring it!

I hope we do get MP some day just so I can kick Brad's arse.    Until then, I will be pretending that every one of the AI's that my meat brain stomps is actually him.

i'd love to see an ai that can actually stand up to my elite lv30 henchman stacks

imo to stand a chance, they'd need to be making use of strategic spells before the battle. I'm not even sure the ai uses strategic spells at all, aside from Curse City occasionally. i've never once been hit with a tidal wave or tremor (And once the AI DOES start using it properly, i'm sure everyone will suddenly realise how overpowered tremor really is)

They also need to start building Strike Garrison fortresses, and training ranged units there.

They need to have better understanding and priorities regarding their champion traits

When it comes to combat, the ai needs to understand that standing in a big clump is bad, and endeavour to avoid being fireballed to death. it'd be nice if they could learn to exploit the zone of control rule, and position their tough melee units a space apart to protect the squishy archers at the back.

Just for the Record, for my part, I am not actually a meat brain.  I am really a Silicon-based life form, and the natural inhabitant of a star system in the nebula that you Terrans identify as Messier 42 (M42).   I just enjoy taking 20 year vacations, once every couple centuries or so, on this pretty little planet of yours.  Incidentally, there is a dynamite little red-yellow planet in the Alpha Centauri system, that I am thinking of visiting, in another 10 years or so ... Anyone there, that you'd like me to say: "Hi!' to ?  ...        

Mr. Frog, I would like to see the AI use Freeze and/or Tremor against me in v1.1.  I also want the AI to cast Fireball and/or Blizzard against me in v1.1.   And finally, I want to see the AI use Tidal Wave on me.

Freeze? Tremor? Tidal Wave? Psh, a child's playthings. I want to see the AI use Curgen's Volcano against me, only then will I fear it.

Seriously, though - I want to see the day when the thought "Ah man, it's Yithril, I'd better rush him before he gets Juggernauts" is supplanted by "HOLY CRAP IT'S MAGNAR! I've gotta get that guy before he erases my sovereign from the face of the world with molten rock." I just tried it on myself, and apparently volcano + sovereign => instant loss, regardless of how many cities you have left. The units are erased, no injuries, no respawn at capital, game over man. The forums shall wail when the AI learns to use that spell.

Bring it on! You're nothing but 1's and 0's!

1) Please make the AI always value constructing metal-producing improvements and upgrades whenever possible. This is crucial to making sure the AI can build stronger troops.

2) For the middle game, also make sure they improve crystal-producing improvements for the same reason.

I am tired of facing leather-wearing spearmen on the highest difficulties. These things are all I face because the AI gets insane research bonuses, gets the highest level armor/weapons unlocked, then can't build them for 150 turns because they lack the resources to use the auto-upgrading unit designs.

Other than that, I strongly agree with the previous posters that Strategic spellcasting is what needs to be improved. Tremor and Freeze are excellent opportunities for improvement, tidal wave also. These things should happen automatically as soon as I step inside AI territory. It will give the AI a huge boost, since it means it will get 2-3 more turns to gather up the defense. I haven't had these spells used on me since beta 3.

I would also love to see the AI use the high-end strategic destruction spells such as Shadow World and Curgen's Inferno more reliably. I have several times seen AI sovereigns running around with these spells unlocked, but I have never seen them used. I respect that they are very costly to use, and obviously it should not be a simple case of "if I have the spell, always save up mana to use it". But they are sooo devastating in power that they really should be put to use if you can.

PS. Please do add notifications for when the AI targets my city or my units with any spell. Unless I am actually looking at the place in 3d mode, I will miss the effect play and that is all the notification that currently exists.

Limit it to higher difficulties if you have to, but I want to see it used on me, just as I can use it on enemies. Fun is getting a challenge, not winning by using mechanics the AI does not.

Please make a random ai that copies every move the player makes sort of a whatchamacallit doppleganger is it? But, with just a pinch more power so when the smarty pants come waltzing over with their power stacks or using their power spells this ai will also. That would be sooooooooo awesome and I would just love the cries on the forums of how the ai is cheating. lol

There's two great games I've seen developers do this with so far and one was a recent MMO "Guild Wars" and Ascending you had to fight yourself. Same skill bar same class same equipment. It was a blast and I had to laugh at so many that couldn't beat their own character. lol The other game was an old Commodore 64 game called "WindWalker" I believe was the name of it. It was a side view ninja combat rpg game and the final battle you had to fight yourself with your moves that the game had saved up as you played the storyline out. What a blast that was too.

In my opinion, the AI should be built to play the game without bonuses and without regard to difficulty level, and then nerfed/pumped from there with resource penalties/bonuses to provide the level of challenge desired by the player.  But maybe I'm over-simplifying it.  There should not be a spell that it only uses at higher difficulties.

I would agree that the AI needs to be able to use all the mechanics of the game; if the AI cannot use it, it shouldn't be in the game.  Otherwise the human is playing a different game than the AI.

Volcanoes are a messy way to take out an AI player.  Plus there's not a hotkey for Lower Land.