Starbase AI on 'Intelligent' w/ .049
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So I played a game with all intelligent AIs on a large map with common planets for the first time after realizing that bright wasn't challenging anymore. I won. Yeah for for me. Oh and I didn't 'cheat' with any of the cheesy tactics that are available. Here's what I noticed:
The intelligent AI is VERY good at running the numbers. I had to bust my ass to keep up in research, production, morale, military, and social projects. During most of the game I was behind in these areas. Eventually I managed to catch up simply because I was a trading machine.
Once I did catch up, the game was basically over. The computer at one point decided to go to war with me. So I lost a bunch of ships and likely would have lost the game if the AI had wanted to take me out. However I did two things that like any forward thinking player, I knew were critical. I took out all of the computer's resource starbases and then sued for peace. I had to give up some techs and money, but big deal. I then was able to even capture a couple more resources for myself. This, given another 1000 turns, basically was the beginning of the end.
So here's my point. The computer needs to realize that SBs and especially resources are the most important things on the map. Currently, the AI doesn't garrison SBs at all. My garrison strategy is actually opposite to the AI's. I keep nearly all my ships on my SB's and use them to harry incoming ships, but always return them to my SB. This works well for me and I rarely lose a SB.
Plus the AI builds a ton of useless non-upgraded starbases, but I think that's the topic of another thread.. I do believe the new .049 build is a bit better than before though. I actually ran in a fair amount of decently upgraded SBs. If only they weren't so easy to kill...
The intelligent AI is VERY good at running the numbers. I had to bust my ass to keep up in research, production, morale, military, and social projects. During most of the game I was behind in these areas. Eventually I managed to catch up simply because I was a trading machine.
Once I did catch up, the game was basically over. The computer at one point decided to go to war with me. So I lost a bunch of ships and likely would have lost the game if the AI had wanted to take me out. However I did two things that like any forward thinking player, I knew were critical. I took out all of the computer's resource starbases and then sued for peace. I had to give up some techs and money, but big deal. I then was able to even capture a couple more resources for myself. This, given another 1000 turns, basically was the beginning of the end.
So here's my point. The computer needs to realize that SBs and especially resources are the most important things on the map. Currently, the AI doesn't garrison SBs at all. My garrison strategy is actually opposite to the AI's. I keep nearly all my ships on my SB's and use them to harry incoming ships, but always return them to my SB. This works well for me and I rarely lose a SB.
Plus the AI builds a ton of useless non-upgraded starbases, but I think that's the topic of another thread.. I do believe the new .049 build is a bit better than before though. I actually ran in a fair amount of decently upgraded SBs. If only they weren't so easy to kill...