GalCiv AI: Beta 3E - how is it feeling?
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One of the quieter changes in beta 3E which you may have noticed based on looking at the stats is that the AI is playing the exact same game you are. I.e. it's not cheating (other than the plot dictated planetary exploration which is counter balanced by not having the AI build colony ships via the purchase mechanism on lower AI settings).
Obviously, the first question is - are you being challenged? The Drengin AI is currently the only one of the major AIs with the updated AI engine and it does need tweaks still as..well it's based on my strategy and I'm finding flaws in my own strategy.
I'm hoping to do a few things in the next builds:
1) Put some data into the technology tree so that it is more intelligent in what it chooses.
2) Make sure it researches the techs in the right path (i.e. it's not researching communication theory for instance).
Now, I hope you guys understand one of the downsides of having a non-cheating AI - that there are sometimes when even a very intelligent AI will lose given the right circumstances. Even the best of players will lose if things are stacked against him or her. The Drengin don't always win since they might get stuck in a corner surrounded by other AI players.
The AI also has one thing it still needs to handle - it doesn't handle those random events you get (i.e. it just doesn't get events). I'll be trying to get that into beta 4.
Hopefully the diplomacy along with the AI's general foreign policy has gotten somewhat cleaner. I am...worried that one of the imposed restrictions on them - they dont' get to war as early may make things a bit too easy on humans. I also have intentionally had it not go after transports over other ships.
Next week the multiple AI personalities will start going in so in beta 4 each one will have its own style of play. Then we can have them play each other and see which strategies work out the best.
The AI still has quite a bit more work to be done on it before we ship but hopefully at this point you find the AI as good if not better than most shipping strategy games. The next step is to make sure the AI is better than any other strategy game currently available. Where we define better not as being harder but playing more intelligently -- more like a human. Obviously we could make the AI beat any human player in 5 minutes, just give them 10X the resources you get.
Obviously, the first question is - are you being challenged? The Drengin AI is currently the only one of the major AIs with the updated AI engine and it does need tweaks still as..well it's based on my strategy and I'm finding flaws in my own strategy.
I'm hoping to do a few things in the next builds:
1) Put some data into the technology tree so that it is more intelligent in what it chooses.
2) Make sure it researches the techs in the right path (i.e. it's not researching communication theory for instance).
Now, I hope you guys understand one of the downsides of having a non-cheating AI - that there are sometimes when even a very intelligent AI will lose given the right circumstances. Even the best of players will lose if things are stacked against him or her. The Drengin don't always win since they might get stuck in a corner surrounded by other AI players.
The AI also has one thing it still needs to handle - it doesn't handle those random events you get (i.e. it just doesn't get events). I'll be trying to get that into beta 4.
Hopefully the diplomacy along with the AI's general foreign policy has gotten somewhat cleaner. I am...worried that one of the imposed restrictions on them - they dont' get to war as early may make things a bit too easy on humans. I also have intentionally had it not go after transports over other ships.
Next week the multiple AI personalities will start going in so in beta 4 each one will have its own style of play. Then we can have them play each other and see which strategies work out the best.
The AI still has quite a bit more work to be done on it before we ship but hopefully at this point you find the AI as good if not better than most shipping strategy games. The next step is to make sure the AI is better than any other strategy game currently available. Where we define better not as being harder but playing more intelligently -- more like a human. Obviously we could make the AI beat any human player in 5 minutes, just give them 10X the resources you get.
