Re: Have you ever been beat by the AI?
 

I've been beaten by TDM AI. People who are very proud about being head&shoulder (P&G tm) above AI probably never played TDM at highest settings. If you are unlucky with starting position, it may be absolutely impossible to win. Does not matter how good you are.

Re: Have you ever been beat by the AI?
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yeah, this is what I've heard. That's why in my next game I'm using TDM races with the highest settings. I think it'll be a fun game. I'll get beat probably but hey, nothing wrong with that!

Re: Have you ever been beat by the AI?
 

Just a little life history ...

I was in severe withdrawal from my favorate game Galactic Civilizations because I didn't have OS/2 anymore. So I searched CNET and downloaded the demo of SE3.

And was rapidly whipped to a froth by the AI.

Seriously... I couldn't do anything. Oh so many stories. I couldn't understand tactical combat so ship design was random. My best story? I designed a ship with boarding parties... AND IT GOT BOARDED AND CAPTURED BY THE AI http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon8.gif I'm still at a loss for how that happened. Once I won, by turning on all ministers. Neat trick it had -- building spaceyards in the asteroid fields and sending ships everywhere from there.

So I went to the MM website and found out about SE4, waited for the demo to be ready and downloaded it. Lots of eyecandy, good interface, new rules. And I got mysleff royally spanked yet again from the AI. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

I paid for and ordered the full game before I ever was able to even survive 100 turns. Boy, wouldn't it have been stupid to own a game you couldn't play well at all? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Soon I figured it out. Pay attention to each planet, adjust ship design to what you see around you, the AI is heartless and wants nothing less than complete galactic domination -- and those are the peaceful ones. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif (that is the biggest diffence between SE4 and GalCiv)

Long story short, if the AI is too easy for you MoO geniuses, it's because MM wrote it for people like me.

Perhaps in SE5, there could be different sets of AI files -- low dificultly would use a simpler AI files, high difficulty would use very efficient TDM modpack-like files.

[EDIT] Com'on newbies. 'Fess up. Some people have mentioned that they were losing and needed serious help. Anyone else just pick a race that looked good in the quickstart menu, start playing (just what dificulty does it usewhen you do that), and just fail to build enough of the right facilitys and ships and just lose all planets and ships to a AI assault?

[ July 20, 2002, 14:24: Message edited by: Arkcon ]

Re: Have you ever been beat by the AI?
 

This happened recently; I was trying out Fyrons Quad Mod with high tech and TDM races. I was hell-bent on colonising every planet in my home system before spreading out. I had managed to do it and built-up some kick-*** defenses. I started sending out some survey ships to start spreading out. The new turn started and I read that a star had been destroyed. Oh no! The AI had the same idea as I did (I had two star destroyers being built). It wasn't until moving further down in my Messages that it clicked in my head, That was my home system's star!! I had forgotten to build a system shield! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/blush.gif

Whether I was defeated by the AI or my own stupidity is your call! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Have you ever been beat by the AI?
 

Nope, never been strategically defeated by the AI, although it can win the occasional battle here & there. It's just too simple-minded, and never presses the advantage when it has it. That's why I think we need more game features to keep human players busy. Space monsters, pirates, etc. When life gets more complicated you'll have more trouble using your superior thinking skills to whip the AI. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Have you ever been beat by the AI?
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">A Quick Start game always uses the same default settings that you see on New Game/Set-Up. It doesn't remember the settings you started the Last New Game with.

Re: Have you ever been beat by the AI?
 

I actually had to concede defeat once; I had an AI race on either side of my starting systems (Ukra-Tal on one side, Xi'chung on the other). Life was pretty good at first; I set up trade & research alliances with both, I had colonies everywhere I could get to without going through the AI's space, and then the AI decided to claim the systems I'd colonized. And backed up their claim with warships. Since I'd been playing fairly peacefully, I hadn't bothered to mine the warp points or build weapon platforms. Well, the AI came through with warships and started glassing planets. And not just one per turn, the AI would actually hit every colony in a system in one turn (sometimes it would take two turns to hit ALL the colonies, but the AI was following through on that second turn!) Anyway, I spent a number of turns building up minefields and had minelayers constantly replenishing the minefields, but the AI eventually had enough minesweepers to make that tactic useless. I did manage to get a plague-bomb-armed ship to a Xi'Chung colony, and the population was wiped out by the plague, but that was a minor victory. I eventually got tired of fighting a defensive war, and conceded defeat.

I think that was my one and only high-bonus game. I've stuck with medium bonus since then. (Always use high difficulty, of course; large (254 system max) galaxy, large number of both AI and neutral races, 5000 racial point settings).

I've also gotten in the habit of putting minefields at every warp point entering my territory (and the more strategic warppoints within the territory as well). I'm still pretty lax about weapon platforms, but I haven't had my head handed to me in a while, so it hasn't hurt me much.

Re: Have you ever been beat by the AI?
 

Actually, I got to thinking, although I've never been beat by the AI. I was getting beat once in a game. I was using the Devnullmod with Space Monsters. I was about 2 systems away from the home of the Monsters and they started coming at me with their - for lack of better word - "things" http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif . I probably would've lost that game, but I accidently saved over it with another game I was playing. Which stunk because I was enjoying that game alot. It was a great challenge. Maybe after I finish the game I just started with the TDM races I will start another Devnullmod game and see how that one goes.

Re: Have you ever been beat by the AI?
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Suggestion: If you really like the challenge, don't play with Large galaxies against the AI. And don't forget to select AIs vs Humans.

Re: Have you ever been beat by the AI?
 

The toughest situations I've encountered (and yes I've lost a few of them) are when I've encountered an aggressive AI early. At that point in the game the AI doesn't get as confused about what it is doing, so it seems to be able to focus on you more, while you have less depth to use as defense. Once an aggressive AI with any kind of a bonus is in your home system with a fleet early in the game, you are hurting.