Difficulty and AI Bonus Settings

[Wisdom]

Ive seen some talk about the AI diffuculty setting and how it should be played on high if you want a decent challenge. But what about the AI bonus?

Do most of you SE4 gurus out there play with the AI bonus on high, or does that make the game virtually impossible to win without alot of luck the save/reload twink. If so, how do the games go?

I mean does the AI bonus on high give you a good challenge or make the game ludicruously hard?

Wisdom

[lwmweb]

I am not a Guru but have played for several weeks at maximum player difficulty and medium bonus. It was better but still not great. My current game I am playing at max player difficulty and max bonus. Whew it is a different game. I will not say impossible but I am in 4th place with 1.2 M points and the first place race has 2.4 M Points. I have gained slightly but I just hope I can conquer a few other races before I run into 1-3 again (I had to close warp points as early on I ran into numero no).

Again I am not a Guru but it appears that the computer players are given a higher level tech start and included in this for the advanced races is the ability to colonize all 3 types of planets. The top races also colonize everything. This is definitely not a slam-dunk.

[raynor]

quote:

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Originally posted by lwmweb:

Again I am not a Guru but it appears that the computer players are given a higher level tech start and included in this for the advanced races is the ability to colonize all 3 types of planets. The top races also colonize everything. This is definitely not a slam-dunk.

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Thanks for the info!

I wonder. Do you get all three colonization techs when a race surrenders to you?

[lwmweb]

In the previous games at medium bonus I have already received these from neutrals or small guys so I do not know. This game I have been forced to research them because I have been hemmed in.

Tonight I will see if I can turn the corner and start the slow climb up.

[raynor]

quote:

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Originally posted by lwmweb:

Again I am not a Guru but it appears that the computer players are given a higher level tech start and included in this for the advanced races is the ability to colonize all 3 types of planets. The top races also colonize everything. This is definitely not a slam-dunk.

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I just realized that I have no idea what the difference is between Empires and Neutral Empires.

Also, how do you introduce an advanced race into the game? Are any of the races shipped with the game advanced races? Or, are these races you have obtained from folks who have done mods?

Thanks!

[lwmweb]

Sorry I was referring to the non Neutral races.

[raynor]

FYI:

I started up a game at max bonus and changed all the AI races to human control. The first AI race had a homeworld outputing 3500 research points per turn. Next, I looked to see if he started with any new techs. He did *not*. But he had 17,500 research points every turn to spend! I verified this with a couple of races. Yep, at max bonus the AI definitely gets to spend 5x whatever his colonies produce.

With that much research coming in, it doesn't take long for the AI to research all the colonization techs.

I started up a max everything game. Right now, it is turn 88, and I'm in 6th place. I'm generating a paltry 36,100 research points per turn from my 12 planets while the Eee Consortium in first place is pulling in 129,500 per turn from his 70 planets.

But the Eee actually get to spend 650,000 per turn!!!

In all my games playing with no bonus, I never came close to amassing that many research points.

All I can say, is I'm glad I haven't met up with them yet. They are also generating 13,000 intel points per turn. If they get to spend 5x that amount, I just don't want to meet them.

One Last interesting point. The Eee are generating 190.4K resources per turn compared to my 32.7K. Here's the real tragedy. Fully HALF of my resource production is from a 20% trade treaty with the #2 player who I'm bending over backwards to please. Ouch! I just realized I probably have a research treaty with him too. I guess that means half my research points are from him too. H-E-L-P!

Thank goodness for Ship Capture. Christmas came early when I captured an Ice colony ship carrying Methane breathers and a Gas Colony carrying Carbon Dioxide breathers. I didn't even have to leave home. They came right to my door! Hurrah, hurrah!

Wish me luck.

[raynor]

Regarding the use of mines...

A lot of folks may voluntarily restrict themselves from building mines at lower bonus levels. But at max bonus, it ain't cheating. I just saw a battlecruiser loaded with Mine Sweeper III's clean up a pretty fair sized mine field... (Remember, this isn't even turn 90 yet)

[DirectorTsaarx]

Sounds like MY current game... except I started with low computer bonus, so maybe it's only 2x computer resource generation. But still, there are three races that have just grown like crazy! 120+ colonies each, etc.

And I had a similar problem to yours early on: I had TWO T&R alliances, and was getting well over half of my resources and research from the trade. Even more important, my own production was not enough to pay my maintenance - so I was in a bit of trouble when the alliances went south. Fortunately, I had a LOT of resource storage built up, so I survived until my new colonies could pick up the resource generation slack (and two remote mining battlestations helped too: net gain of 11kT minerals each per turn!).

[Wisdom]

Holy cow!

The High bonus gives the AI 5x production levels? That's insane.

Well thanks for the feedback. I'll be curious to know how your game goes. I cant imagine you have a snowball's chance unless the AI is really REALLY bad at making tactical decisions. Because strategically, you are LONG dead but just dont know it yet.

So High bonus is 5x. Is medium bonus 3x? and Low 2x? Anyone know?

Wisdom