Difficulty signifies...?

graeler · February 6, 2003, 14:31

What changes in gameplay do each of the difficulty levels control?

Gibsie · February 6, 2003, 14:53

I was wondering this myseld recently. The only thing I can clearly see is that you get more basic Drones and more beaurocratic drones. I would also guess that the AI gets a bonus in research and construction and mindworms appear more readily, but other than that, I can't see much...

Phenix · February 6, 2003, 14:57

I think there's also a lot more inefficiency on higher difficulty...

Alex · February 6, 2003, 14:58

Mindworms are tougher to defeat, the AI has bonuses in production and research, you have to pay for prototypes (I don't remember if it is from Specialist level on), there are more drones to control and other things that the masters around here will surely add.

Method · February 6, 2003, 17:56

specialist on, you pay for prototypes as alex said. also, changing social engingeering costs more as you go up.

on transcend, the 2nd citizen in every base is a drone. thinker, the 3rd, librarian 4th, talent 5th, specialist 6th, citizen 7th

that, and the AI will cheat a lot

Static Universe · February 6, 2003, 18:02

Difficulty also factors into the ecodamage equation:

http://apolyton.net/misc/column/175_ecodamage.shtml

Static Universe · February 6, 2003, 18:04

DP (Arrgh!)

Gibsie · February 8, 2003, 08:48

How does that AI cheat in this game? All I know is that its missiles have infinite range... which is a killer-cheat in itself

Archaic · February 8, 2003, 09:06

Rushing half finished projects when they don't have the credits or crawlers to do it is a pretty popular thing for the AI from what I've experienced.

Static Universe · February 8, 2003, 13:46

The AI can switch production without a pernalty, and can make production decisions on the humans turn (e.g. you kill their last defender on your turn and AI switches to production immediately to produce a new defender at the beginning of it's next turn). It also knows where all your units are.

Phenix · February 8, 2003, 14:54

Yea if you have an infiltrator for example you can see them changing production to artillery when you bombard them in YOUR TURN.

Capt Dizle · February 8, 2003, 15:48

so what?

Gibsie · February 8, 2003, 17:31

We can't do that: hence it is "cheating".

Capt Dizle · February 8, 2003, 17:42

Ok, since the AI can't think, it you do you're cheating.

Capt Dizle · February 8, 2003, 17:43

If you know how to play the game you can routinely play with just one base and beat the AI. So what if it cheats. Geez.

Static Universe · February 8, 2003, 17:50

I don't object to the AI cheating. I object to the fact that it builds 100 transports but can't seem to land more than two units at a time in my territory.

Capt Dizle · February 8, 2003, 18:19

Yeah, I know. The AI is bad but you have to admit that with complexities of SMAC it would be a ton of work to create an AI that could compete with a human.

Kasparov's problems the the AI is a result of playing a simple game. The AI just use superior computing power to consider possible moves and relies on its massive library to counter.

If you want a game with better AI check out Civ3. The AI isn't really better, its just that the game was dumbed down to make it perform better.

Of course it is so boring that you will be asleep in no time, but still.......

sevencubed · February 8, 2003, 18:26

Quote:

Originally posted by Gibsie
How does that AI cheat in this game? All I know is that its missiles have infinite range... which is a killer-cheat in itself

gibsie, thats true for SMAC, but it was fixed with SMAX. I have verified it by watching the AI several times as it was maneuvering its missiles from one base to another in order to bring them in range.

sevencubed · February 8, 2003, 18:55

Quote:

Originally posted by Phenix
I think there's also a lot more inefficiency on higher difficulty...

That's not true. Inefficiency is not affected by difficulty level. The formula is :

Inefficiency = (Energy * Distance / (64 - ((4 - Efficiency) * 8))

where :
Energy = Amount of energy produced by base this turn.
Distance = Distance from Headquarters
Efficiency = Social Engineering rating +2 if there is a Children's Creche at base.

If denominator reaches zero, ALL energy is lost to inefficiency.

The above can be found in the file "conceptsx.txt" in your SMAC folder directory

sevencubed · February 8, 2003, 19:05

Quote:

Originally posted by TKG

...on transcend, the 2nd citizen in every base is a drone. thinker, the 3rd, librarian 4th, talent 5th, specialist 6th, citizen 7th...

and apart from that, difficulty affects the addition of extra Drones because a faction has exceeded a certain number of bases. Thats "bureaucracy" and the formula works as follows (again from the file "conceptsx.txt" ) :

BaseLimit = (8 - Difficulty) * (4 + Efficiency) * MapRoot / 2

Where:
Difficulty = Player's difficulty level (0 - 5)
Efficiency = Social Engineering rating.
MapRoot = Sq. Root of # Map Squares / Sq. Root of 3200.

For each base a faction builds in excess of this number, one additional drone will appear at some base somewhere in the colony.

Additionaly, disloyal Citizens from captured bases (that is drones) appear more easily depending on difficulty : for approximately 50 turns after you capture an enemy base, you will receive extra drones while you assimilate the enemy citizens. The basic rate is 5 drones minus one for each 10 turns elapsed, but the number may never exceed:
(BaseSize + Difficulty - 2)/4

Datajack Franit · February 8, 2003, 22:10

I gave up Alien Crossfire as the new factions are totally clueless in providing a decent game- playing it with the old Alpha Centauri's ones instead has proved to be goddamn fun

Method · February 8, 2003, 22:15

i find the aliens to be quite a pain, especially if you don't use nerve gas on them. the drones can be annoying in stealing early game SPs (though they suck after that)

knowhow2 · February 9, 2003, 05:58

back to the subject of this thread.......

SE changes cost more; 40 ec on transcend