Has the AI really improved? Examples please?

Devin D.Bass · #1 February 24th, 2001, 03:20 PM

I've been reading over the posting lately and I've haven't noticed anyone "really" discussing the effectiveness of the new AI.
Is it all that everyone "hoped" it would be?

Are you getting to tough battles?
Have you seen improved use of AI fleets? What the biggest size fleet you've encountered?
How is the Tactical battles?
Are using the 1.50 Mod?
What size galaxy are you using?
Are you giving the AI any bonuses?

Inquirying minds want to know? Details please.

Daynarr · #2 February 24th, 2001, 03:33 PM

Well, the most people don't talk about new AI because they are too busy playing with it right now. My experience so far is that AI is almost twice as powerful than before. Also, I have just discovered that MM has implemented a slight change in code that I have asked for that will enable me to make AI in the next mod deadly (it's about production of multiple designs for the same type of ship). If this trend keeps up, the Ai will become so dangerous that we will have to get a police approval to use it.

Sabre21 · #3 February 24th, 2001, 03:48 PM

Daynarr

Your comment about creating multiple ship designs for the same size of ship? When do you think this will take place? Good news when it happens. I would also like to see the ability to tailor a specific set of ships to a race too. I think we can do facilities and techs by using a racial trait like organic as a template, although I haven't tried it yet myself, it would be nice to add ship types to this racial trait. Has anyone out there tried doing this yet?

LeTharg · #4 February 24th, 2001, 04:19 PM

I'm just a newbie. I played Version 1.19 with no mods and found the AI extremely easy even at high difficulty and high bonus. After going to the 1.27 with no mods, the AI seems better in the following ways that I have noticed:
1. Attacks seem to be with sufficient force to have a chance of winning. Several times AI forces approached a target, did not attack but rather waited for more force to move up and then attacked with sufficient force to win.
2. The AI developed faster and used research more effectively. For example, with 1.19 no AI ever detected my stealth ships. With 1.27, they surprised me by knocking out stealth ships fairly early in the game.

I don't have a lot of experience yet. I've only played one game: large galaxy, high difficulty, low bonus. At low bonus, the victory over the AI was still easy but I felt that at medium bonus I would have had a struggle.

pathfinder · #5 February 24th, 2001, 05:04 PM

ack, same here. both games I have going are early game, but the AI is attacking with multiple ships and mostly awaiting sufficient force. They are also colonizing like freakin' rabbits

I use the 1.27(b) patch with MOD 1.50 and both Sundevil's and God Emperor's MODs. Talk about reasearch! They are doing at least as well and probably better than I do in research.

Str8_Gain · #6 February 26th, 2001, 06:26 AM

I'm currently in a game with No Warp Points and Finite Resources (galaxy size is Large). AI is set at Difficult, and I gave them a Low bonus, and set the number of AIs to Many (currently at 15). For this type of scenario, I'm not terribly impressed.

When I took a peek at the AIs during the early game to see how they were doing, I noted that:

a)in research, they made it to Stellar Manipulation level 3 long before I did, <b>BUT</B> absolutely refused to build any ships exploiting this, which would've given them access to more star systems. The ship designs they had they couldn't construct since they required Grav Quantum Resonator III or higher and Cruiser hulls (and other stuff like weapons and Shield Generator Vs). Meanwhile, I get GQR I and and expanding like crazy (sticking it on a simple Frigate hull), knocking off three AIs (so far) in the process.

b)related to a), I noticed that the AI in general couldn't manage resources worth a damn. In No Warp Point games, it's absolutely vital to hoard resources in the early game, especially Minerals, since Stellar Manipulation components are so expensive. Add Finite Resource to that, and it's even more so, since planet resource values decrease as you mine them out. If you've got no storage ready for them, then they're just wasted. So even if they had a simple ship design utilizing GQR I or a Grav Condenser, they couldn't build it anyway since they'd run out of resources paying maintenance on it, and lose the ship.

I guess the AI needs more tweaking in that sort of scenario. I haven't tried a "regular" game yet with 1.27, so I can't say how well it reacts in that situation. Time for me to get mucking in the text files to see if I can fix it. Any suggestions from modders would be greatly appreciated.