Toughest Races to play against...

[Mephisto]

The Earth Alliance uses only standard technologies.

[Black_Knyght]

While somewhat helpful, are there any non-mod specific answers, or even recent answers, to any of these questions?

[Slick]

That list is still good. The top races on that list are very tough. Give them the AI bonus, a large quadrant, and only pick a few of them so that they have ample time and space to expand to get established and you will have a tough game.

Off the top of my head the top 2 in the Deathmatch use the following:

Final 1st Place Tessellate 27

These guys use Crystal + Religious. Picture large fleets of Baseships with the Talisman using Shield Depleters and Shard Cannons (which skip armor) loaded with Crystal Armor which can negate up to 150 damage points per shot! They also are adept at capturing planets and using Stellar Manipulation.


Final 2nd Place United Flora 23

These guys are Organic for sure and, I think, Religious too. They can amass huge killer fleets with the organic advantage of swarm tactics which is amplified by the AI bonus.

Either of these races, if given the chance to get established, are very tough. Just give them a large map and don't crowd the game with too many players and they will expand quickly.

Check them all out, they all are far better than any stock race and the only thing that the TDM Modpack modifies are the races - all other aspects of the game are stock.

They aren't as good as a human, obviously, but if you start in a bad location, they can kick your butt. It's fun.

[Fyron]

There weren't any mod-specific answers; all of those AIs work in the stock game. Well, you might need to change the formation used to a stock formation for a few AIs from TDM, but they are designed for stock tech tree.

There have not been many (any?) new AIs developed for the stock game since the last AI death match.

[Black_Knyght]

Interesting. I take it then that no one ever tried to improve on how the basic AI operated? Or developed a more challenging AI other than those used in TDM?

[Slick]

The best AI were combined into TDM by 20+ people. Given the constraints of the game mechanics and what portions are moddable, I think these AI are pretty damn good.

[Fyron]

Black_Knyght said:
I take it then that no one ever tried to improve on how the basic AI operated?

Huh? That's exactly what TDM is.

Or developed a more challenging AI other than those used in TDM?

It would be difficult (and perhaps futile) to try to duplicate the 100s of hours that went into optimizing those AIs by the 20+ people that worked on them, all to get essentially the same thing.

[Black_Knyght]

Slick said:
The best AI were combined into TDM by 20+ people. Given the constraints of the game mechanics and what portions are moddable, I think these AI are pretty damn good.

I think you've got the wrong idea about what I was saying here.

I wasn't criticizing the terrific work that's been done, simply observing that it appears that nothing more seems to have been developed since this.

Imperator Fyron said:
Black_Knyght said:
I take it then that no one ever tried to improve on how the basic AI operated?

Huh? That's exactly what TDM is.

Or developed a more challenging AI other than those used in TDM?

It would be difficult (and perhaps futile) to try to duplicate the 100s of hours that went into optimizing those AIs by the 20+ people that worked on them, all to get essentially the same thing.

Again, as I said above, but with the added observation that it appears that that was simply the end of any further efforts in the area of AI development.

Not a criticism, simply an observation spoken out loud.

I guess I need to remember that sometimes I have to to be...selective... when I ask a question or make a comment around here

[Fyron]

They stopped because there isn't a whole lot more that can be developed for stock, non-cheating AI.