The AI... when will �t earn its "I"?

DavidG · #1 December 22nd, 2003, 02:30 AM

just out of curiosity can anyone name a turn based strategy game with a good AI?
(AI's that can win by just boosting their resources, research etc way higher than the human player don't count)

Of course there are a few simple things that could be done to improve the SE4 AI. One I can think of is for the AI to recognize when it runs into a minefield and not do it 20 turns in a row.

Fyron · #2 December 22nd, 2003, 04:56 AM

Galactic Civilizations has a fairly good AI.

Starhawk · #3 December 22nd, 2003, 05:14 AM

Try playing the AI on high and in a big universe where the Comps have enough time to build their fleets like you do. And start at absolute low tech and with the medium resources and the like. That should give you a challenge because it has given me a challenge and an enjoyable experiance in almost every demo game I've played of SEIV.

Of course some races seem to be stupid like for example the EEE which always underarm their ships compared to EVERYONE else as well as have inferior shields and armor to just about every other race I've ever seen play against them.

I mean this one time I saw a fleet of Jreanor controlled by the AI attack a LARGER fleet of EEE ships and come out victorious!!!

I mean is it just me who thinks the EEE are mentally slow when it comes to arming their warships for war and not just a little girl slapfight?

But there are things like TDM which I am not quite sure if all it does is improve the AI or if it screws around with absolutely everything. Could someone please tell me exactly how TDM works, does it just improve the AI or does it as I stated above screw with building and science and other stuff like that?

Fyron · #4 December 22nd, 2003, 05:18 AM

TDM is an AI mod. It does not change the stock data.

Q · #5 December 22nd, 2003, 06:21 PM

I agree that SE IV is a very rich and therefore complicated game and therefore a good AI will be difficult to programm. But from the business aspect a good AI will be a good sales argument for a game. And if you analyse the major mistakes the AI makes you could improve it considerably.
Just one example: in the decision making of the AI one point seems IMO always to be crucially underated: the distance! The AI sends colonizers half way across the quadrant while a colonizable planet is one move away. Probably because the planet value and atmosphere type has absolute priority. The same for attack locations: undefended enemy colonies are in reach but the AI sends the entire fleet on a mission to the opppsite edge of the empire for reasons I can only speculate.
Make all these decision processes of the AI moddable and MM can leave most of the work to us! But that's probably for SE V.

PvK · #6 December 22nd, 2003, 06:42 PM

I think the "attackers turning around and leaving" phenomenon tends to be the AI Supply Minister, which sends all ships back for supply as soon as they get to about 60% supply, regardless of distance to a resupply depot. A tweak to AI empires' supply abilities would probably tend to help them out with that, a lot.

Programming an effective expert system for such a complex game is a huge task. Making it deal with mods is even trickier.

Moreover, expecting an AI for such a game to prove challenging to smart veteran human strategy game players, even after they have a lot of play experience, without giving the AI advantages, is very unrealistic.

PvK

Gryphin · #7 December 22nd, 2003, 07:17 PM

I would love a more challenging AI espcialy since I am a solitare player when I play at all. There is a second reason I play 5 X games.
eXploration - I want to know what is beyond that next warp point / black area / mountain. What is he enemy hiding? What....?
Run the Graphics Pac with Fyron's System Mod, send your frigate the I. M. Hapless out to explore and kiss it and its crew good bye.

CIV II
Can you remember the relentless Zulus that would attack the closest enemy even if it was on a fortifed hill top defended by catapults? They could have easily by passed it and captured the city producing those catapults. Still they were a fun feisty bunch. Then again there was the time they rained nukes on my cites and we had not even met!!!!!! Talk about pissed!

[ December 22, 2003, 17:19: Message edited by: Gryphin ]