|
|
|
 |

April 26th, 2007, 07:54 PM
|
 |
Major General
|
|
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: 500km from Ulm
Posts: 2,279
Thanks: 9
Thanked 18 Times in 12 Posts
|
|
Re: What is wrong with the AI?
Basically, it lets the AI play a different game than the player. Turns it into a F9W9S9 bless monster that has little similarities with the original nation.
Is it fun for a player to go against nations from a totally different game?
Is that really a "satisfying" challenge?
Is it really fun to play against let's say 5 of those nations, which all swamp you with super-blessed summons and have most of its national units not used at all?
I doubt so.
And if someone really needs the challenge of fighting against impossible numbers - there's an easier way to achieve that:
Start a game with AI set to impossible , set research to easy. Hit "next turn" 10x or so without doing anything.
If you're still alive, play normally, but only recruit mages every other turn and never set more than 34% of your mages to research.
Furthermore, I really doubt the idea that the AI "wastes" gold and ressources on units. If there are units in the game which are really a waste to build, than that is a balance issue, not an AI issue. (Yes, there's a BIG balance issue. Yes, I'm gonna do a mod that corrects that.)
I agree that there are units which are somewhat 'special', which the AI can't really make use of. Those might be tweaked, or the devs asked to do something about the AI in that case.
__________________
As for AI the most effective work around to this problem so far is to simply use an American instead, they tend to put up a bit more of a fight than your average Artificial Idiot.
... James McGuigan on rec.games.computer.stars somewhen back in 1998 ...
|

April 26th, 2007, 08:06 PM
|
BANNED USER
|
|
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Kali4nia
Posts: 146
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
|
|
Re: What is wrong with the AI?
Quote:
Arralen said:
Is it fun for a player to go against nations from a totally different game?
Is that really a "satisfying" challenge?
Is it really fun to play against let's say 5 of those nations, which all swamp you with super-blessed summons and have most of its national units not used at all?
|
Yes, yes, probably not.
As far as getting the devs to fix it, fine. Somehow I think some modded AIs that duplicate the playing abilities of the better players might take less time.
|

April 26th, 2007, 08:11 PM
|
 |
Major General
|
|
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Tennessee USA
Posts: 2,059
Thanks: 229
Thanked 106 Times in 71 Posts
|
|
Re: What is wrong with the AI?
I think your observations may be a bit off base. I think a lot of players including the original poster would probably enjoy a mod like the one I linked to.
I think the points you bring up are really just a matter of opinion more than anything else. I see the mod to be as viable solution as your solution you suggest about hitting next turn 10 times.
Take a second look at your posts. They really seem to stem from an opinion you have on how single player games should be played rather than an actual argument that the mod hurts a player's experience.
__________________
BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH NEXT TURN.
|

April 26th, 2007, 08:23 PM
|
National Security Advisor
|
|
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Oxford, UK
Posts: 5,921
Thanks: 194
Thanked 855 Times in 291 Posts
|
|
Re: What is wrong with the AI?
I'd just like to butt in to the discussion, because I got the impression that quite a few players have the impression that most of the MP going on is super-competitive. That isn't my experience at all - I've found there's a lot of role-playing going on, interesting tactics and friendly gaming. Maybe its just a feature of playing the generally larger-and-longer games organised in the forum rather than the blitzes organised in the IRC channel, I don't know.
In any case, I've never felt under pressure to go for a completely optimal game or anything. The variation in player skill, plus diplomacy and role-playing add enough complication to the mix that it's not necessary to go down the min-maxing route.
I would really encourage people who haven't played much MP to join some of the new games organised in the MP forum here, they really are excellent fun and very friendly.
Also the 1-turn-a-day system I find works well, and doesn't take up a lot of time (unless you sign up to multiple games!), although of course it could be difficult for people who have varied schedules, travel a lot etc..
Just to be clear, my point isn't in any way to put down SP or say that everyone should play MP. Just that I wouldn't like everyone to think that all MP games are super-competitive, because that isn't what I've found at all.
|

April 26th, 2007, 09:12 PM
|
BANNED USER
|
|
Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 5,463
Thanks: 165
Thanked 324 Times in 190 Posts
|
|
Re: What is wrong with the AI?
I'm one of the people who has complained about the behaviour of the AI. I feel there are issues with it that should be fixed - I don't think it would take a silly amount of time and it would improve SP for me no ends.
I can mod and have made several mods. I made an AI Mictlan in some random thread but no-one seemed to have any interest in it - it just gave them unlimited bloodslaves basically, since the AI is miserable at blood nations.
The fact of the matter is I can't change the behaviour of the AI by modding. It will still do things seemingly at random, such as throwing 30 assorted troops at a 30 PD province with a missile based army camped there. Result; AI loses 30 or so troops every turn for no gain. That's a matter of behaviour not of the AI needing super troops or extra resources.
Sure if you give all the AI nations insane stats, unlimited resources etc then the game will be harder to play. But for me it wouldn't be any more fun, because the AI would continue to do the same stupid things, it would still send 30 troops against 200, but this time it would win, because the 30 troops would all be seraphs or something insane like that. Or losing 30 troops wouldn't matter at all, since they have 1000 times the gold you do. That to me is not fun.
And no, I don't hate the game. Why would I play and make mods for a game that I hate. I'm just not a fanboy who pretends everything is perfect and constantly moves the discussion away from clear flaws in the game.
On the subject of impossible ai vs normal (with setup by human), I'm now leaning towards the normal human switch ones. Simply because you can give them a thematic setup which is more interesting - they aren't actually stronger, because the AI gets big boosts on impossible, but their behaviour seems better and it's more fun to play against an AI that at least /appears/ to have a coherent plan.
|
Thread Tools |
|
Display Modes |
Hybrid Mode
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is On
|
|
|
|
|