Hi all,
Ok, I've just finished my 5th game. Well, finished it as far as the game would have been remotely interesting...nothing left but a few hours of mop-up.
Overall I greatly enjoy the game in the early stages but it quickly becomes far too easy in the later stages. I find that the AI has not the slightest chance from about the midgame on. Most of the time it is doing well if it manages to bring down one of my ships.
The Last 2 games I played I put the 'view all scores' on so I could track what the AI was doing. It seems that the AI does not favor research facilities for whatever reason. In all of my games the AI players lagged considerably behind in Research Point. When I had 16000, the next highest was 4000. This has a tremendous mushrooming effect on the game that quickly leads to a blowout.
For the record, I am letting it pick its own races etc. They are all stock AI players on the Hard Difficulty, no Computer Bonus (yet).
Last item: Many of the things on the CD Manual dont tell you anything. Items like 'Computer Player Difficulty'...the manual states something to effect of 'controls computer player difficulty level'...REALLY?!?! Wouldnt have guessed...but HOW does it do it? Does it give it cheats? Does it have more info? Does it simply play a tighter game? Same with 'Computer Player Bonus'...what does it actually do?
Please note that I am not really complaining, but even the CD manual is REALLY short info. Most things are like above. It tells you what the BUTTON does, but not the actual effects of the setting. Whats the point of that? Any chance of a more comprehensive manual in the future? If not, well, trial and error has never killed me in the past (yet).
Thanx,
Talenn