AI cheating/overpowered hardcore? » Forum Post by Dirty Jack7410

tid242

Join Date 04/2008

+63

Quoting ,

quoting post

So I've restarted a game like I don't even know how many times and was constantly trying to improve my game. I'm playing on Normal difficulty but it always seems like the AI is sky-rocketing leagues away from me in terms of basically everything.

To the point where were some were not only 10s but 100s of times stronger navy, already have planets making resources in the 10s and are travelling across the systems before I even completely surveyed my own system. Whats the deal with this? I am new to this but I've been trying the last 2 days to constantly figure out stuff and make better but it always seems like nothing I do makes a difference when AI has 500 military force and I have 70 cause I just got to my 3rd-4th tech.

The AI is MUCH better than you at exploiting every system at its disposal to get ahead. "Normal" is actually a pretty competent AI. Brad (the CEO of the company) recommended some days back that new players should start on difficulty levels below "Normal" until they figure out how all the systems work together.

This would be my recommendation also. It's worth noting that you can change the difficulty in the game settings while you're playing. So I'd start the game on an easier setting, then when you're doing well you could turn it up to 'Normal' or more...

Hope this helps & Welcome to the community!

-tid242

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Thanks for answering.
Ok I'll take that into account but I feel like i have to restart again :weary:. What exactly is the trick to it? Enemy on the right has a tone of planets so I thought that might be it, but the one on the left doesn't have that many and still have power in the thousands wheres I'm only 400.

(i only have 4k money cause one random AI just gifted it to me. I only now managed to make profit of 15 after for 80% of the game I was in teh negative)

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gypsy2299

Join Date 09/2003

+103

Quoting Dirty Jack7410,

reply 2

Thanks for answering.
Ok I'll take that into account but I feel like i have to restart again :weary:. What exactly is the trick to it? Enemy on the right has a tone of planets so I thought that might be it, but the one on the left doesn't have that many and still have power in the thousands wheres I'm only 400.

(i only have 4k money cause one random AI just gifted it to me. I only now managed to make profit of 15 after for 80% of the game I was in teh negative)

Reduced 36%

Original 1680 x 1050

You also are not playing a race that is for players new to GC4. You are not going to make money with the Xeloxi unless you can raise the loyalty of you people which is low because your race is a bunch of criminals.

It has been recommended to you to play on a lower difficulty till you get used to the mechanics of the game.

You should also play as a happier race. The Terrains, The Mimots, The Atarians, or The Corporate Sector, are easier to play the first few games.

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Did they fix AI surveying Red nodes with no survey just scooping them up with single medium ships? Those are like +10%manufacturing reward each.

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tid242

Join Date 04/2008

+63

Quoting Dirty Jack7410,

reply 2

Thanks for answering.
Ok I'll take that into account but I feel like i have to restart again :weary:. What exactly is the trick to it? Enemy on the right has a tone of planets so I thought that might be it, but the one on the left doesn't have that many and still have power in the thousands wheres I'm only 400.

(i only have 4k money cause one random AI just gifted it to me. I only now managed to make profit of 15 after for 80% of the game I was in teh negative)

Yea, judging by the screenshot, unless you are an expert player, it's difficult to see an avenue for you to win. The Altarians look overwelmingly powerful (the blue guys), and if the Yor (the purple guys) don't get wiped out by the Altarians, it looks like they'll have the sector next to you to themselves. Both outcomes are probably untenable to you...

As Gypsy said, the Xeloxi are a DIFFICULT race to play. Derek (the Lead Designer for the project) was pontificating a month ago about wanting to be able to put a disclaimer on the Xeloxi that inexperienced players are unlikely to be successful using them. Their mechanics are just not intuitive and they suffer from very serious drawbacks.

I agree with Gypsy, turn down the difficulty and play as a more straightforward race to learn the ropes. In addition to those he recommended (there's also another human faction called the "Terran Resistance" that has a female leader, if this is one of the reasons you chose the Xeloxi - instead of the ugly white guy for the Terran Alliance), I would also say that you could consider playing the "Mimot" or the "Corporate Sector" also. As they both have strengths that are VERY easy to utilize (the Mimots get 2 ships instead of one, every time they build one; and the Corporate Sector gets lots and lots of extra money).

After you get the hang of things, then you can try a Xeloxi game. They're an alluring race, but difficult to find success with.

Hope this helps & best of luck!

-tid242

ps (also, if you have questions about the game, or what's what while you're playing, I HIGHLY recommend joining the GC4 Discord Channel, as there's almost always someone on there to answer questions, bounce ideas off of, etc. https://discord.gg/galciv )

edit: oops, Gypsy mentioned the Corporate Sector already, my bad - but the point remains, they're strong, but I'd recommend Mimots first..

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gypsy2299

Join Date 09/2003

+103

Quoting Zuell,

reply 4

Did they fix AI surveying Red nodes with no survey just scooping them up with single medium ships? Those are like +10%manufacturing reward each.

There are several rewards from Reds not just the one. Rewards of the same type do bunch together at times.

Derek eliminated the guards on the Yellows and buffed the ones on the Reds.

It has been reported that the Buff did not stop the AI from getting the reward though.

Derek did this as even though they received several save games of this bug they were not able to determine what exactly was causing it. The guards will return when the figure it out.

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tid242

Join Date 04/2008

+63

Quoting gypsy2299,

reply 6

Quoting Zuell,

reply 4

Did they fix AI surveying Red nodes with no survey just scooping them up with single medium ships? Those are like +10%manufacturing reward each.

There are several rewards from Reds not just the one. Rewards of the same type do bunch together at times.

Derek eliminated the guards on the Yellows and buffed the ones on the Reds.

It has been reported that the Buff did not stop the AI from getting the reward though.

Derek did this as even though they received several save games of this bug they were not able to determine what exactly was causing it. The guards will return when the figure it out.

I've been playing with Anomalies "off" and it leads to a much more predictable game curve..

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gypsy2299

Join Date 09/2003

+103

Quoting tid242,

reply 7

Quoting gypsy2299,

reply 6

Quoting Zuell,

reply 4

Did they fix AI surveying Red nodes with no survey just scooping them up with single medium ships? Those are like +10%manufacturing reward each.

There are several rewards from Reds not just the one. Rewards of the same type do bunch together at times.

Derek eliminated the guards on the Yellows and buffed the ones on the Reds.

It has been reported that the Buff did not stop the AI from getting the reward though.

Derek did this as even though they received several save games of this bug they were not able to determine what exactly was causing it. The guards will return when the figure it out.

I've been playing with Anomalies "off" and it leads to a much more predictable game curve..

But, but, but, collecting "Goody Huts" is 99% of the fun in 4X games😁

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tid242

Join Date 04/2008

+63

Quoting gypsy2299,

reply 8

But, but, but, collecting "Goody Huts" is 99% of the fun in 4X games😁

Actually, when they're "off" there are actually still a small number just around all the homeworlds. The survey ships are all done collecting them all by turn 50. It actually works pretty well. I also think it spawns no yellow or red ones.

I actually like it...

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tid242

Join Date 04/2008

+63

Quoting Dirty Jack7410,

reply 2

Something else to note. I'm going to make a couple of observations based on your screenshot...

I see that you have 6 Core Worlds and 2 colonies. You really need more colony worlds feeding each core world. While there are no specific numbers, core worlds are pretty terrible with less than, say, 10 colony worlds feeding them. Don't turn every good planet you find into a core world - having enough colony worlds to 'feed' what core worlds you do have is much more important. Your usage of core worlds should be very judicious.

(the above picture is from your screenshot)

All of those unclaimed low-class planets that are on your screenshot? - you REALLY, REALLY want to colonize those!

Again, playing on an easier setting with a more straight-forward race will help you get these types of 'rules of thumb' down adequately, which will help you be more successful.. This game is all about building advantages upon themselves.

Secondly, you probably noticed that your ships are hopelessly outclassed in the game above:

(gunboat from your screenshot)

To put this in perspective, with respect to the power curve of the game, it looks like you're on somewhere around turn 250 judging by the date on your screenshot. Here's a screenshot from a game about 100 turns later in one of my games - I play on "very slow" tech and game pacing, so this might be roughly equivalent as far as development vs turn number (I don't know that we're necessarily comparing apples to apples as far as # of turns).

Here's a screenshot from turn 260 (again with the game settings differences I'm not sure what an equivalent turn would be to your turn ~250)

These are the types of fleets that you should be able to be fielding at something resembling where you are in your game once you have a firm grasp of the game mechanics, and how to best take advantage of the particulars of any specific game to seize any advantages that are to be had.

Again, the game will feel a lot better for you, I think, if you play with a race like the Mimot and on an easier setting for a few games to learn the ins and outs of the various systems..

cheers,

-tid242

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