How to assist the poor AI

[Flare]

Yes, I know this has been gone over a dozen times or more, but it can stand to be reviewed again. I have seen the treads on Ned style improvements, AI tweaking, ect. However, I have been unable to find those treads. ~Shrugs~ Perhaps I just missed them, but I decided to post anyway. So, what have you done to improve the AI's performance & make it more challenging? Any information would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Kevin

[CEO Aaron]

Pick a faction to play for 100 turns, then pick the lowest ranked faction and switch to it, using the scenario editor. Rinse repeat after another 50 years. This way you have at least 2 robust factions rolling around and you don't have the advantage of any early game wonders. I have yet to win such a scenario, my first AI faction pretty routinely rolls pretty much with impunity.

If that's a little too insane for you, try merely opening up the scenario editor, and seeding each AI starting location with a forest or 3. Or give each opposing AI faction Centauri Ecology at the outset of the game, I can't tell you how many lame duck factions I see rolling around at year 150, and still don't have it.

Perhaps if you feel like making custom factions, crank each AI faction's support allowance by 2, and give them Centauri Ecology as a starting tech. This will help prevent the AI from building themselves out of support.

[Flare]

CEO Aaron, those are ideas that I had not really consitered. ~grins~ At this time, I will decline to try the switching factions play. I will give the others ideas a shot. I guess I was also wondering about how to change the factions around so they are more... "pacifisitic"... Ned had mentioned something like that. Also changing the ratings for Fundy, FM, & power to help the AI. ~sighs~ I had all that stuff printed out & then I did some housecleaning... ~gives a pitiful look~ Stupid move.

[Patashu]

Make custom factions with 1337 bonuses, and maybe free clean reactors when discovered, as they can build themselves into zero production even with +5 support eventually.

[Lazerus]

Dense rainfaill and use the scenario editor to make all AI submissive to each other. They'll all share their techs and gang up on you the instant you declare war on one of them. Quite difficult playing like this especially if you make it even harder by making all AI atrocity victims to yourself so you can't trade, will be under constant attack and you can forgot about ever being elected governor.

[Googlie]

Play some of the "tweaked AI" challenges found at Rynn's gallery:

http://googlie2.tripod.com/rynnsgallery/id6.html

G.

[Qualicide]

The AI strat is pretty ironic. The stronger it is the better it plays. If all the comps are half your power they won't be strong, if all of them are higher than you it is extreemly hard.

[Kaptain Ken]

Download some strong custom factions, and play against them. You can design builder games or warmonger ones.

[Lazerus]

Just give them all +5 everything and pick a normal faction yourself ... I might just try that soon

[Patashu]

Originally posted by Lazerus
Just give them all +5 everything and pick a normal faction yourself ... I might just try that soon

Lately I've been trying the reverse - me having a +5 social bonus ultrapowerful faction, while all the CPUs are ordinary factions. funfunfun

[Lazerus]

I remember trying that aswell when i first started playing, +5 Industry and +5 Economy, ah perfection everywhere lol

[lethe]

Give em FreeAbility clean reactors, and starting tech fusion power. That way all units the AI builds are free from support costs. Yang racks up some truly terrible armies this way, he redefines horde strategies.

Or you can set up a scenario, giving em fully terraformed city-sites or even cities from the start, creating a turn advantage that is hard even for the inept AI to lose.

I often give em five cities with decent terraforming, and myself a city and four pods. It's hard catching up then.

I think there is an option in the scenario editor to tell em to terraform more, don't recall trying it, but size 8 cities shouldn't have one mine, two farms and a forest as their only terraformed squares. I don't know why the AI plain refuses to terraform his territory...

[CEO Aaron]

What bugs me isn't the AI's lack of terraforming, it's the refusal to use more effective terraforming techniques. Even when the AI has Hybrid Forests in each base, they'll still plan those idiotic farme/mine rolling squares for 2/2/0, or at best farm/solar rolling for 3/1/X. Nothing like seeing automated formers bulldozing a terrific borehole and condenser setup I spend 100 turns building.

Still, if there's one thing I'd change about the AI, I'd make all factions at _least_ make researching centauri ecology a priority. I've seen factions trying to learn Air Power when the still haven't deployed their first terraformer. Pathetic.

[thinkingamer]

Originally posted by CEO Aaron
What bugs me isn't the AI's lack of terraforming, it's the refusal to use more effective terraforming techniques. Even when the AI has Hybrid Forests in each base, they'll still plan those idiotic farme/mine rolling squares for 2/2/0, or at best farm/solar rolling for 3/1/X. Nothing like seeing automated formers bulldozing a terrific borehole and condenser setup I spend 100 turns building.

Still, if there's one thing I'd change about the AI, I'd make all factions at _least_ make researching centauri ecology a priority. I've seen factions trying to learn Air Power when the still haven't deployed their first terraformer. Pathetic.

Bout, comp factions start with +1000 credit, +2 support, and you restrict yourself in terraforming with automated terraforming (maybe except with planting forests)?

[Ned]

Flare:

1) make all factions pacifist;
2) give them all a build interest;
3) give them a free terraformer to start;
4) move genejack up in time - I attach it to optical computers (the idea is to get the AI to force a fungal bloom before they build any tree farms);
5) move the ability to build mines back; (I set this to IA). The AI build farm/mines and does not build forests. What a waste.
6) start on a preforested world (dots of forest around);
7) increase the police rating of fundy and power to +1. This allows the AI to avoid being crippled by FM;
8) eliminate choppers or move them to the very last techs;

lately I have added;

9) eliminate pods;
10) use accellerated start (spreads SPs around);
11) use tech stagnation and blind research;
12) use tech steal so that miriam and yang can really be competitive; and
13) use ironman.

[Ned]

Originally posted by Lazerus
Dense rainfaill and use the scenario editor to make all AI submissive to each other. They'll all share their techs and gang up on you the instant you declare war on one of them. Quite difficult playing like this especially if you make it even harder by making all AI atrocity victims to yourself so you can't trade, will be under constant attack and you can forgot about ever being elected governor.

Yeah, but this really changes the game in fundamental ways that take a lot of the fun out of it. One of the things I enjoy most is the diplomacy and gaining submissives. If the AI is that hostile to you, you cannot get them ever to surrender.

For example, if I am Miriam and find myself next to the likes of LAL or Zak, I tend to immediately declare war and go after them until they surrender. I would rather not have to kill them off entirely.

Also, without submissives or pact brothers, the game gets too unwieldly. You have to keep all the bases you conquer. This leads to a lot of time and overhead managing a very large empire. It is easier to play the game by giving bases away.

[MahoTsukai]

try to win the game with a tech victory at highest level, with only one base.

[Ned]

MahoTsukai, and, of course, make "conquest" the only victory conditions available.