Please help a newbie with some questions
 

I have SEIV Gold and the TDM modpack. I only have time for single player games (as I am a father of 2 toddlers and work full-time) and want to make it the most challenging deep experience possible.

I noticed several mods here, esp. Proportions and the AI campaign - but also was overwhelmed with the amount of reading (the AI Campaign post has over 60 pages of Posts!) and was wondering if someone could guide me through in terms of what I should download and play with to get the richest single player game possible.

I consider myself a thoughtful wargamer who desires a slow, realistic challenge from the AI especially mods that improve its tactical and attack abilities (i.e. ground invasions, use of large fleets)... I have yet to ever be invaded by the AI or see it use large fleets and then stay committed to attacking my systems.

Also, is the AI Campaign and Proportions able to be used alongside the TDM modpack? Or are these stand-alone?

I only have email/connection at work so I can only use so much time scanning the internet - thank you all in advance for your help with these questions and anything else you would like to tell me in order to have a challenging, single player game - thanks!


Jason

[ November 02, 2003, 19:35: Message edited by: hickmanj ]

Re: Please help a newbie with some questions
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">AIC uses Proportions as a base. TDM is stand-alone and does not directly align with AIC or proportions. With modification to key AI files they could be used (I thimk).

Others could probably give you some better advice.

Easy way to get a challenge is to set AI difficulty to high with high bonus.

[ November 02, 2003, 19:50: Message edited by: pathfinder ]

Re: Please help a newbie with some questions
 

Thank you for the info.

In terms of setting the AI to high bonus (I already use High Difficulty with Low bonus) - it bothers me to lose simply because the AI is given more stuff ... I was hoping to find things (hence my search here) that would make it smarter and more versatile over overt cheating.

Thanks!
J

Re: Please help a newbie with some questions
 

Devnull mod has more effective AIs because there are a number of added components that make them function better.

You can use the AI converter program SJ made to convert the TDM AIs to work in the Pirates and Nomads mod, which could give another way to play against challenging AIs.

Re: Please help a newbie with some questions
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">You can have a chalanging AIC game without giving AI any bonuses. AIC "cheats" by having separate racial traits for humans and AI (the later gives better facilities and components).

Re: Please help a newbie with some questions
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Enjoy TDM, it is a fine mod.

= = = = =

AIC attempts to make up for some se4 AI shortcomings.

I am proud to present, there is a lot of neat stuff in AIC that was learned from PvK and Proportions; that has a lot of neat stuff learned from... and AIC also has a lot that is learned from Fyron, SJ, PTF, MB, Mephesto, Tampa Bay Gamer, Geo, Oleg, GLV, Desdinova, Mottlee, Alneyan, QB and so many-many others.
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Call it what you will, you may be surprised but AIC does get replayed (ALOT). http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ November 03, 2003, 16:00: Message edited by: JLS ]

Re: Please help a newbie with some questions
 

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. I have downloaded AIC and look forward to trying it out! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif The TDM-Modpack will always be a favorite as well. Thanks for the replies!

Jason

Re: Please help a newbie with some questions
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Agreeed, the TDM-Modpack will always be my favorite as well http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif