They said it would be, but I can't verify that it has. Their word should be sufficient.

Edit: Beaten to the punch, with a source no less! My forum-fu is degrading.

I performed an analysis of how the AI gears their sovereigns, spouses, and champions in 1.19a here:

https://forums.elementalgame.com/404914

Summary of Observations:

• The observations are clear: the AI is not gearing sovereigns, spouses, or champions despite available tech levels and gildar.
• Furthermore, a number of anomalies were noted where the AI did gear beyond observable tech levels. Something is weird there. Unknown if due to a programmed handicap.
• Gearing armor is especially weak, in fact almost non-existent. The anomalies observed were minor slot improvements, not entire sets.

Recommendations:

• AI needs to agressively check and gear sovereigns, spouses, and champions. Reasons are self-evident. I believe this is a fundamental reason why the more hardcore players are able to rush early and dominate the game - its easy to take over an enemy capital when the AI is fighting in their birthday suit. The AI needs to spend like a woman with a credit card (sorry women!). The AI is fighting players with normal units - not heroes. That's a serious gimp.
• In addition, the AI needs to do what us players do: if a unit/stack is about to engage in combat, buff the unit/stack with arcane weapon and then dispel when no longer needed (please note arcane weapon is a 1 mana spell with unlimited cast range and 1 mana maintenance). If the AI geared their heroes and also buffed with arcane weapon, I guarantee it would help counter the early rush and make the games more competitive.
• As noted in my strategic AI thread the AI needs to agressively hire champions and explore/level their sovereigns and spouses. The combination of gearing, leveling, and buffing/dispelling arcane weapon would be a serious early game threat to players.
• Let's put some meaning behind the ridiculous in ridiculous AI setting!
• Brad, Derek and crew (and you too Jon), thank you!

[e digicons]:cylon:[/e]  

Brad or Derek,

Can you please share the formula for how both faction power and unit/stack power is calculated? This could help the community understand how/why the AI is making decisions around going to war or deciding if battles are winnable. We might be able to help out here.

Thanks.

[e digicons]:cylon:[/e]  

great to see all of this stuff being seriously documented and hopefully worked on.

1.19b Strategic Analysis here: https://forums.elementalgame.com/405148

Summary of Observations:

• URGENT PROBLEM: apparent broken xml tags with Capitar, Pariden, Gilden, possible Umber (unknown if Umber has problems since played as Umber)
• Great improvement on goodie huts since 1.19a - but I noticed ungeared sov's exploring and getting smacked around by mobs (that's dangerous since the entire empire will collapse if they die, no fun for your enemy to just go "poof!")
• Some spouses remain stacked on city but not within city
• Altar is the only spouse that left the capital
• Recommend giving sovereigns and spouses xp per turn or have them explore the world (being careful of course)
• Cursory pass - spouses or sov's are still not being geared per gildar and tech levels
• AI doesn't seem to weight housing as much as it should - i.e. on ridiculous why does it need a workshop or other improvement before housing when it has 10+ prestige a turn and all the other bonuses? Recommend AI on ridiculous is hardcoded to build x number of housing units or get population to y value before building anything else.
• AI seems to randomly leave the unit or improvement queues empty on occasion - they should be building nonstop on ridiculous due to the resource buffs. Recommend some kind of check is done to ensure those queues never remain empty.
• Tarth's pioneers just sat there next to city and wouldn't settle (pathing?)
• Other than the serious problems with apparent broken xml tags, I had more "nones" this go around and it appears the AI is hiring champions more often. If the AI would just keep the sovereign, spouse, and champions geared it would go a long way to making the AI competitive.

Brad - thanks for the work on the goodie huts. Can you please figure out what's wrong with those factions noted above and help the AI gear the champions? Thanks! [e digicons]:cylon:[/e]

I started a thread about tactical combat (https://forums.elementalgame.com/405229) which turned into a discussion about ways to improve both tactical combat and how the AI behaves there.  One of the respondents pointed out that this related thread would be a good place to have the discussion, so I am posted a link here.  (Apologies if this is not standard forum protocol - I'm new.

1.19c Strategic Analysis here: https://forums.elementalgame.com/405436

Summary of Observations:

• URGENT PROBLEM: apparent broken xml tags with Umber. They'd rather smoke weed instead of conquering the world. Kraxis, Tarth, & Capitar all looked like they were puff puff givin' but then amazingly decided to get off their butts in the later seasons. They must have had bills to pay.
• All sov's are grabbing goodie huts. Yay!
• None of the spouses are sitting on a city but not in a city. Yay!
• Recommend giving sovereigns and spouses xp per turn or have them explore the world (being careful of course)
• Cursory pass - spouses or sov's are still not being geared per gildar and tech levels. If the spouses are just going to camp the capitals (which is fine with me as a defensive unit) then please max gear them based on gildar and tech levels.
• Still recommend weighting housing higher on the priority list, at least until their cities hit level 3.
• AI seems to randomly leave the unit or improvement queues empty on occasion but this appears to happen less often than prior builds. Yay!
• It also appears that the FP calculations may have been tweaked down a bit - not sure since I have no idea how previous or current FP's are calculated. I have a feeling the resource buffs on ridiculous may have contributed to previous builds FP being really high, thus causing the AI to do stupid diplomatic and warfare decisions. When I start a real game I'll see if my assumptions are correct.
• The "nones" have improved further from 1.19b. A few factions looked like they were completely pop locked at 5 but then recovered. Only saw one instance of an available champion not hired which is another positive.

Brad & Crew - Please get those memory issues fixed and start gearing sovereigns, spouses, and champions. Thanks![e digicons]:cylon:[/e]

Heh, I'll do another test this weekend and advise to see if there's consistency across factions or if issues vary across games.[e digicons]:cylon:[/e]

Brad - here's a save of a real game I'm playing. Note Capitar pop locked at 5 and not doing a daggum thing. Consistent with my above test game. This is random medium map, ridiculous across the board, custom sov, normal pacing, max players. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19969679/Elemental/119c/79.EleSav[e digicons]:cylon:[/e]

+Karma to Mandragoran for his continuous (and painful) dance with the AI.

Brad - Season 208 of the 1.19c real game. I have yet to turn my attention to Magnar but Capitar is now dead (put them out of their misery) and cleaning up remaining wastelands before turning my attention to Magnar and the rest of the map. My mid to end game steamroll is about to begin.

Please look at my 4 hero stack near the Food7 settlement and the latest weak Magnar stack sent my way. Power of my stack is 152 while his is 72. The fact they are building quality units is good yet they are not consolidating enough units in a stack to make a viable threat. A Magnar human player would consolidate units at Odoma and then push forward. It appears the stacks are deciding to prioritize something in my kingdom but ignoring the quadruple hero threat about to ram some metal up their behinds (this might also explain why Kraxis sovereign committed suicide earlier in the game). Can you please review what the AI is considering a priority here? Are they "seeing" something weak behind my perimeter and ignoring the more powerful perimeter units in their way? This seems to be a trend across games - I know I've seen other folks post similar concerns.

Anyway, something to look into to help make the AI more competitive. Thanks!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19969679/Elemental/119c/208.EleSav

1.19d Strategic AI analysis here: https://forums.elementalgame.com/405730

Summary of Observations:

• URGENT PROBLEM: Capitar was dead by season 24 due to monsters and ruffians. Stupid ninny must have tripped, hit his head, and then got eaten by a bear.
• Pariden was acting completely retarded in two ways: spouse was sitting on a city but not in a city until season 48 and they looked completely pop locked (i.e. not doing a thing) until sometime between season 48 and 60. It must have been that time of the month for Procipinee.
• Capitar & Gilden had not founded kingdoms by season 12. Capitar bit the big one, Gilden made a nice recovery.
• Recommend giving sovereigns and spouses xp per turn or have them explore the world (being careful of course).
• Cursory pass - spouses or sov's are still not being geared per gildar and tech levels. If the spouses are just going to camp the capitals (which is fine with me as a defensive unit) then please max gear them based on gildar and tech levels.
• The AI is now hardly leaving any build queues empty! Yay!
• The "nones" improved alot from 1.19c. In fact, it's now more common to see a "none" than the alternative. Yay!

Brad - great work, the "nones" are looking way better! Still have something going on with broken xml tags as Pariden should not have sat there for 10-12 years before doing anything. Capitar gets a Darwin award for dying by season 24. The housing criticism in season 12 across all factions is probably a bit unfair as I know they can't build housing until they have the mats and farm (900% bonuses to everything when they do, however). Overall looks like great progress. Thanks for the efforts!

P.S. - please gear the sovereigns, spouses, and champions. I don't remember if I mentioned that in prior posts. lol

[e digicons]:cylon:[/e]