OT - Strategy games with GOOD AI

[DakaSha]

Dominions 3 is of course the hands down best strategy game ever created but the ai is also hands down brain dead...

Does anybody know of a good strategy game with some good AI that i havnt heard of? I doubt it as i think ive played them all :P but one can never know...

I have played C-Evo which has some decent AI. just need an AI mod that uises everything.. (Seti is very very good for instance but no ships... hate that.. an ai that doesnt utilize everything)

Please do not say GalCiv... although decent and better than many that games ai is just not as good as its made out to be.. ive seen it do the most retarded stuff...

anything else??

[statttis]

Hate to dissapoint you, but GalCiv's AI is miles better than any other strategy game out there. If you want a smarter opponent than that you need to do multiplayer.

[Sombre]

Yeah I don't think I've ever seen an AI as good as galciv in a strategy game.

[DakaSha]

as i said i think its waaaaaaay over hyped. im not saying its bad as AI's go... but its not really as good as everybody acts. ill try it again i suppose.. maybe i just had bad luck in my 50 games :P I'll report ^^

C-Evos ai seems better to me

[calmon]

I've to agree with DakaSha i'm also not that satisfied with the GalCiv II AI. Like most games the AI has no "global plan" to defeat human. They always have sometimes really stupid weaknesses and i often ask myself do i just exploit the game when using more effective building/fleet combinations than AI does?

I gave it up to find a really good AI for pro-strategy players on turnbased games. Only other solution is to play MP (dominions like) or with some RTS elements.

[Calahan]

Originally Posted by calmon

...I gave it up to find a really good AI for pro-strategy players on turnbased games...

Please let us know if you find one

It was actually during a long, and mostly fruitless hunt for a good TBS game three years ago that I managed to find Dominions 3. Maybe there's something else lurking out there waiting to be discovered?!!? Although I did go through a lot of time and money before managing to find Dominions 3. I shudder when I think of some of the stuff I bought. So I can't say I'm hopeful of there being lots of undiscovered gems out there.

[Calahan]

Originally Posted by DakaSha

...ill try it again i suppose.. maybe i just had bad luck in my 50 games :P I'll report ^^

Don't do it. It's a trap! One which I've fallen for many times in my attempts to force myself to like GalCiv II. I've easily spent over 200 hours on the game, and can't say I've enjoyed any of them if I'm honest.

I've come to the conclusion that you either like the game or you don't, and you either find the AI to be good or you don't (I find even the highest level to be very easy to beat personally). And this usually happens within the first few games you play. As at least in my experience, no amount of extra games or time (or money foolishly thrown at expansion packs) will ever change your impression after those initial games (ie. once you start winning all the time).

One of my biggest 'gaming' regrets in recent years is the amount of hours I've 'wasted' on Gal Civ II. And I'm not someone who considers 'gaming' to be a waste of time in any respect (like some people do). But it is a waste trying to like a game just because it is considered good by so many people. Even if it's a game you know in theory you should like, because you mostly always like all 'those type of games' (this latter point was always the bait that made me fall for the Gal Civ II trap repeatedly).


Not sure if I know of any good AI's for any strategy games. Although I find the CivIV AI to be better than most. At least I know I can't always beat the top AI level every time. Although that's almost entirely due to the bonuses it gets, so not really correct to say it's a 'good' AI I suppose.

[Raiel]

Originally Posted by Calahan

Don't do it. It's a trap! One which I've fallen for many times in my attempts to force myself to like GalCiv II. I've easily spent over 200 hours on the game, and can't say I've enjoyed any of them if I'm honest.

I've come to the conclusion that you either like the game or you don't, and you either find the AI to be good or you don't (I find even the highest level to be very easy to beat personally). And this usually happens within the first few games you play. As at least in my experience, no amount of extra games or time (or money foolishly thrown at expansion packs) will ever change your impression after those initial games (ie. once you start winning all the time).

One of my biggest 'gaming' regrets in recent years is the amount of hours I've 'wasted' on Gal Civ II. And I'm not someone who considers 'gaming' to be a waste of time in any respect (like some people do). But it is a waste trying to like a game just because it is considered good by so many people. Even if it's a game you know in theory you should like, because you mostly always like all 'those type of games' (this latter point was always the bait that made me fall for the Gal Civ II trap repeatedly).


Not sure if I know of any good AI's for any strategy games. Although I find the CivIV AI to be better than most. At least I know I can't always beat the top AI level every time. Although that's almost entirely due to the bonuses it gets, so not really correct to say it's a 'good' AI I suppose.

I really could not have said it better myself. The only difference for me was that I was done with it after a few dozen hours. If I could thank you twice for that post, I would.

Sombre: I think you do spreadsheets everywhere a disservice.

[Executor]

Chessmaster 7000?

[Agema]

Try a computer chess game. They usually have good AIs.

All AIs have flaws, and any decent human will eventually spot those flaws and exploit them. My experience is generally that the more complex the game, the weaker the AI, so you could try looking for pretty simple games. It's often best looking for pretty hardcore gaming devs who mostly use internet dealing these days, as they tend to pay more attention to AI as it's more valuable to their customers than mass-market releases.

Some developer names I could suggest - although some do games where you only chuck troops around on a battlefield - with pretty good AIs I've experienced or had recommended are Gary Grigsby, SSG, Panther Games and AGEOD. Frankly, you should beat the AI on any of them as soon as you've got a hang of the game, but hopefully they'll keep you busy for a while.