AI is BETTER??

[Daynarr]

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1.) play with research and not all tech available from start-up. The AI will use the tech but will also build lot of (wasted) research facilities.

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I think that this issue should have been fixed with 1.19 patch. Haven't tried it yet though (I always play with the low starting research).

Btw. AI is not harder. It is a MANIAC. More aggressive, huge fleets that really strike, he explores your weak points in defense and uses them. I am currently in war with empire that is 1st on the score list (I am 4th). I have about 4-5 warp points that border his empire. So far he has tried to just storm in, then he tried to get through the black hole, establish a resupply base and then moved 4 carriers in orbit there filling them with fighters (thanks Mephisto ). When that didn't work he now tries to storm my weakest system (and maybe most important one, I have 1 huge colony and lots of research facilities there). So far I have reached about 100 turns and I am constantly on defense. This is a:
-250 system mid-life galaxy
-20 AI players on difficult setting, NO bonus
-Low research at start and high research cost

Also a note, I have very stable partnership and brotherly relation with Ukra-tal. That guy is in war with his 2 neighboring nations, so I have no treaties with them. So far I have noticed that Ai now is much more consistent in politics and making treaties, and won't rush into partnership in 5 turns like before.

Now this is the most interesting game so far for me.

[DirectorTsaarx]

I started a new game after loading the patch (my 1.11 game had reached a point where I had partnerships with the 2nd place player, I'd completely destroyed the AI that started in my home system, and I was on my way to developing ringworld/sphereworld parts). Anyway, in the 1.19 game, I started in the same system as the Terrans, and another AI is on the other side of one of my warp points (as I discovered when they came through the warp point and blew up my colony ship). And the Terrans are definitely aggressive - they attacked one of my homeworlds once a turn for two or three turns straight (about time they kept up an attack...). I'm trying to defend myself with escorts, DUC 1's and CSM 1's when my enemies have destroyers and frigates with CSM 2 or 3 and various beam weapons. Fortunately, some CSM weapon platforms have been saving my planets.

I just wish I had more time to play...

[DirectorTsaarx]

One more point - after reading this thread and a few others, I think we've fallen into the "be careful what you wish for" trap... MM has done a pretty good job of fixing the AI. It's not perfect, but neither am I...

Long live the Moebius Consortium (I hope)!

[Instar]

"Installed 1.19 and Mephisto's mod Lastnight..."
Well, the mod could have caused the trouble, and some of the empires are designed to be less aggressive.

[Tomgs]

The AI definitely puts up a bigger fight especially in the early game if you give it a bonus. I am trying to tweak the AI to expand a bit more and keep up a bit better for the middle and end game. They don't seem to take over other AI worlds often and so after I demolish 2 or 3 empires I usually have a substansial lead. I don't know if there is anything that can prevent that except by artificially limiting what I do but I will try a few things and see. There is a setting that says that the AI only guards 3 systems I will try to increase that number first and see if it expands a bit more. If that dosen't help I will try to change a few ship designs and see if I can get some empires to send some time taking over planets with troops. Is there a setting somewhere that tells them to build more troops?

[Mephisto]

You can tweak the AI into building more colonizers, that's a good way to spread them somewhat (at the cost of some defense...).
Biggest hit to the AI in late games is that they NEVER use planet utilization (they just don't research it). I configured the EA to use planet utilization and they can keep up quite good in later games.

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Originally posted by Tomgs:
The AI definitely puts up a bigger fight especially in the early game if you give it a bonus. I am trying to tweak the AI to expand a bit more and keep up a bit better for the middle and end game. They don't seem to take over other AI worlds often and so after I demolish 2 or 3 empires I usually have a substansial lead. I don't know if there is anything that can prevent that except by artificially limiting what I do but I will try a few things and see. There is a setting that says that the AI only guards 3 systems I will try to increase that number first and see if it expands a bit more. If that dosen't help I will try to change a few ship designs and see if I can get some empires to send some time taking over planets with troops. Is there a setting somewhere that tells them to build more troops?

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[Tomgs]

Mephisto do you edit the default construction vehicles.txt file in the AI folder to do that? I wonder because the default strategies.txt in the AI folder used the correct settings for troop transports but it wasn't being used. The one in the data directory was used instead and it had an incorrect secondary strategy.

Hopefully if they expand a bit more they will have more resources to spend to maintain a larger fleet. At least thats how I do it so we will see.

Actually I almost never use planet utilization either unless I get it from an ancient ruin. I start in low tech usually and by the time I get around to researching that tech I usually am 5 times as powerful as the nearest AI at least and have so many ships its a pain to manage them all. Sometimes one turn will take over an hour at that time. I am considering uping the cost of larger ship hulls and maybe some of the higher end components, I could also increase the expense of the larger weapons mounts to reduce the amount of larger ships in the late game.



[This message has been edited by Tomgs (edited 23 December 2000).]