[PvK]

Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:
My gosh... even a fanatic can't have played a game on 2.3 before this update. This update rate is far faster than even the betas coming out of Malfador. Is it stable now? Can we play some games?

Rollo's an impressive fellow!

Yes, I think the AI in 2.4 should play Proportions better than the AI in the standard game plays the standard set... which both is and isn't saying much.

I recommend starting a game versus the AI and then finding a PBW game. Humans will always be more interesting, and IMO Proportions gives many more options for humans to be creative in empire design, unit/ship design, colonial development, and maneuver and deployment than the standard game.

I do have plans for two more layers of improvement, though. One is to provide an AI that has some cheats to compensate for its inherent weaknesses, and the other is to add some things taking advantage of the new mounts in the impending Gold patch. Both of those changes will require me to break backward compatibility, though. Still, I think 2.4 is pretty polished and should make for interesting games. I'm imagine some people will find bugs from playing it, though.

Oh, and there is one issue with Proportions AI and Gold 1.67 that I couldn't fix without breaking backwards compatibility: In Simultaneous Movement games, the AI won't build any colony ships for about four years (40 turns). It seems to be a hard-coded thing under investigation, hopefully to be fixed for the next Gold patch. It does fine in Turn-Based Movement mode. Meanwhile, work-arounds for simultaneous mode include running the first 40 turns without human control, or running the first 40 turns with humans obeying a house rule to not build colony ships, or just give the AI a Low bonus, which should more or less balance it out.

PvK