Increasing AI difficulty

Warshed · #1 November 26th, 2005, 02:04 AM

I was just wondering. I have been playing SE IV for years now and it seems the AI just never makes any successful incursions into my empire. I have the difficulty at maximum and their benefits at maximum. I even tweak the AI empires to make them awesome, but they still never attack. Even when they could easily wipe me out with their 50+ ship fleets, they never do any incursions. Does anyone know any good mods out there or ways of increasing AI difficulty? They also always make trade agreements with me, and before long all of them love me, so I can just pick them off one at a time in wars.

Renegade 13 · #2 November 26th, 2005, 02:13 AM

You could try the TDM-Modpack. It was made a while ago by some very talented modders who tweaked the AI's to get the most of them. It makes them...quite a bit more difficult in my experience. Especially play against the United Flora Empire or the Tessellate. You can get it here.

Enjoy and welcome to the forums!

Suicide Junkie · #3 November 26th, 2005, 02:22 AM

The best way to increase the difficulty is to replace the AIs with humans on the PlayByWeb server

http://seiv.pbw.cc

Q · #4 November 26th, 2005, 03:40 AM

I made the same observation: The AI is extremely cautious or reluctant to attack if he is not absolutely sure to win the combat. And this seems to be true no matter what mod you use. Even in the AI team setting, where I am the only enemy, mighty AI fleets that could wipe out my warp defences stay just forever motionsless without attacking.
A human player would sacrifice one fleet to destroy the defences and then come back with another fleet to attack the colonies.
That should be one important point to improve in SE V.

narf poit chez BOOM · #5 November 26th, 2005, 04:10 AM

Renegade 13 stole my line!

Oh well. Cheese? [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Cheese.gif[/img]

Xrati · #6 November 26th, 2005, 05:05 PM

Your AI would have to be very complex to assess the attack potential of its fleet and the composition of the defense fleet. A human will just go on an impulse to attack knowing that the attack will weaken the defenses and allow future attacks to be more successful.

Basically, a human will take a chance where the computer will look for certain victory.

Renegade 13 · #7 November 26th, 2005, 11:43 PM

Quote:

narf poit chez BOOM said:
Renegade 13 stole my line!

Oh well. Cheese? [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Cheese.gif[/img]

Always happy to oblige.

Warshed · #8 November 27th, 2005, 02:31 AM

I would PBW if I could, but unfortunately I can't. I am just surprised there is no way to make the computers super viscious so they will attack regardless of whether they may win or lose. The attack though must have at least 20 ships or something. I don't know, something like a genocidal or xenophobic setting for the computers.

Will · #9 November 27th, 2005, 02:55 AM

Quote:

Warshed said:
I would PBW if I could, but unfortunately I can't. I am just surprised there is no way to make the computers super viscious so they will attack regardless of whether they may win or lose. The attack though must have at least 20 ships or something. I don't know, something like a genocidal or xenophobic setting for the computers.

Can't? All that is needed is a 'Net connection, and you seem to have that...

For straight AI though, try TDM, and if that still isn't enough, start handicapping yourself. Like choosing 5000 racial point start, and use 0 yourself.

Q · #10 November 27th, 2005, 03:33 AM

Quote:

Will said:

Quote:

Warshed said:
I would PBW if I could, but unfortunately I can't. I am just surprised there is no way to make the computers super viscious so they will attack regardless of whether they may win or lose. The attack though must have at least 20 ships or something. I don't know, something like a genocidal or xenophobic setting for the computers.

Can't? All that is needed is a 'Net connection, and you seem to have that...

For straight AI though, try TDM, and if that still isn't enough, start handicapping yourself. Like choosing 5000 racial point start, and use 0 yourself.

The problem with PBW is that you need the time to play regularly. You can't play 20 turns a day when you have the time and then not play for a month.
All the tips to make the AI stronger will not change its decisions to attack or not to attack. It will only increase the chance that the attack is successful. I don't think it would be very difficult for MM to change this. Whatever calculation the AI uses to make the decision you could lower the threshold for the attack or even better let this threshold be defined by the AI files. This is however not possible in SE IV.