Point of order, can we please take the extra D out of Claresden?

So where is the random event to throw everything into a tailspin?

Just kiddn'.

Your mastery is that you make people feel your pain in trying to code that "perfect" AI.  I feel for ya' and wish you the best.

hope this was still beta 4 AI.

Something you should have checked is what items is he using. In my games, I noticed he wasn't very smart in that regard.

Also, I just want to say that this map is fucked up, and you had a huge advantage. Kraxis had no room to grow. If he went south (which I believe he did) he had nowhere to place his first city for roughly 30 turns, with a lot of fighting at the start. Not only that, his only alternative was to head back and go north, which is usually no better than the first direction.

If I was in his shoes, I would most likely lose as well for these reasons. Something he might have been able to do to solve this issue was to create a scout and go north. This might not work, though, due to monsters, and being unable to dodge them in such a narrow path.

I would like to add that, if I would ever start in a position such as Kraxis, I will ctrl+n for a place not stuck in a corridor.

Continuing with the map:

From what we can see, roughly 50% of the map is impassable, and 70% of the remaining land is covered with trees/swamps/rivers. This leaves us with quite a bit of land we can move "normally" on. I would really like it if it would be possible to reduce the amount of impassable land, and maybe somewhat the amount/effect of the "slowing" areas, allowing greater mobility around the map.

For quick reference, the CIV games we all know and love, and MOM, had roughly 20-80% of the land covered by large water bodies (which are passable by boats), and about 50% of the land with forests (which were cut down in civ) and hills, letting troops move around much more efficiently. The land is usually either a continent, large island, or small island (depending on choice), so nearly 100% of the near area for expansion is reachable, and only 50% of it slows you down. In a similar 1v1 game in CIV, the amount of impassable land will be insignificant.

Another solution is to allow the sovereign to level the area for his needs, and not in a crazy manacost.

That's right they didn't! They are being paid to do a good job (or well, we are paying you to make an AI that does a good job).

What I tried to say is, in a "perfect world", I will play against an AI and feel like I'm struggling to beat him. When I win, I will believe I won because I'm better than him. I will know that I didn't have to limit him (easier AI levels) or to grant him bonuses in order to beat him. If a player (or AI) starts in a bad location (read- unacceptably bad location), that player has high chances to lose the game, before he made a move.

Playing, winning and realizing that in truth your enemy was handicapped do not grant true gratification, thus I believe it shouldn't happen.

Also, you raised an important question- what will happen in a game where the AI can do the same minicheats a player can (re-randomizing the map, taking saves)? I think I should remember this for when/if I do a doctorate and needs something to research.

After the first few dozen turns of the game, this strategy is going to be almost always wrong.  The only case where it matters is if you're attacking a low-defense target with one or two low-defense units.  That is, if getting hit before you can attack will reduce (or eliminate) the units ability to attack. 

If you have more than two units of any defense, it doesn't matter, since when your opponent lands that first shot, the other units will be able to get theirs in.

By the time there's any real warfare between empires, most units can generally take a couple shots before becoming ineffective, and there are generally more of them.  So they shouldn't be angling for the first strike as much as they are attempting to anticipate how the opponent will attack.

A standard strategy is to move your highest defense units (or most expendable units) out in front to take the hit from the first line attackers and then bring your more fragile/expensive/powerful attacking troops in behind to counterattack.

I learned a lot from playing this game. I'll put up more of these if people would like.  I did a lot of work on this.

With regard to unfair starting conditions -I think players who use Ctrl-N should play the AI on one level beyond challenging to make it fair. Because those who hit Ctrl-N to get that good starting spot are getting a pretty huge advantage. 

Thanks again for posting these.  Love seeing the thought progression. 

The AI should get the same start location the player does. I don't care if you Cheat your way to that, Frogboy. It matters so much, and why should a massively random variable decide the entire difficulty of the game when we have settings to do that?

If anything, give an option at map start for even or uneven start locations.

I understand the strategical balancing aspect for competitive players but I personally love the randomness to unbalanced start locations.

After all, life is not fair and is random and I love the challenge that brings and the outcomes that can come from having good and bad start spots. It keeps it interesting and alive so please do not put an end to random start locations!

In 0.95, I did a game on hard and squashed the AI like a bug. I ignored the cities by midgame, and just walked around with my sovereign. It was, to me, really really sad (note I used ctrl-n, but in the end it mattered little).

While I'm sure that it might not be as easy in 0.952 due to sovereigns having 5 picks instead of 6 (always using costumes), the general concept of my tactic didn't change.

A link to my encounters with the AI that you ought to check in order to improve it are found in my report:

https://forums.elementalgame.com/430064

Making sure every player gets the same 3/3/2 (or whatever) is not an issue, as much as making sure everyone got room to expand into and such. 

Example for imbalanced start: A starts with a 3/4/3 city with forest and river, no impassable terrain, and a couple of rare resources and B starts in a corridor with 4/2/1 with no resources or room to expend... We already who will win.

How do you know they don't already?