Too easy or too hard?

from Sins Forums
It seems to me after about 25 or so games (all offline so far--still haven't got my build order or metastrategy worked out like I'd like to have for online play) the game follows one of two prescribed paths: Either I kick his (or their) ass(es) or mine gets handed to me in fairly short order. In larger games, things usually remain more or less strategically static until I bust open my first opponent, at which point it becomes an entertaining if one-sided campaign whereby I pick apart the remaining factions one by one. This is all good fun don't get me wrong, but I can't help but feel as if there's not much middle ground between being challenged and getting my ass kicked. In the games where I choke and die, the writing is usually on the wall as early as my second or third engagement and I lose interest pretty quickly when an Economist or Fortifier (!) AI sends as big a fleet as possible at me as soon as possible, which isn't behavior I'd expect from those presets. Sometimes I feel like the AI personalities would be more accurately described as "Rusher, Rusher, Rusher and Rusher" although this may simply be a function of my habit of playing Unfair computers lately and maybe not having a good build order down. Once I got the hang of the game Hard was just too easy, but the Unfair AI seems like it is sometimes too. I tend to play locked teams and I don't know why anyone would play with pirates active. When I don't play locked teams, it's usually not too hard to finish the missions and I habitually plan out my alliances to maximize my strategic position (of course). The old trick of jumping my fleet to a friendly homeworld and declaring war is fun, but they should do it occasionally too! :LOL: Also, I've noticed that when I load saves, my game has developed the habit of unlocking the teams regardless of my settings to the contrary. Usually when I load up an autosave or a savegame from a locked team game, the first thing I hear is a diplomatic mission from one of my would-be adversaries. Anyone else experienced this?
10,119 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
Also: why are there no line breaks? That message is supposed to be broken up into paragraphs. Talk about making me look like an ass! :SNIFF!:
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
I tend to play locked teams and I don't know why anyone would play with pirates active.
End of quote


Because having pirates adds to the mix. Without the pirates you are missing an aspect of the game. Economist will throw tons of cash at pirates.

Sounds to me like you need to try mixing up the types of AIs and maybe try playing the game outside of your box.
Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
Just because they're an aspect of the game isn't a reason in itself to use pirates. ;p It's like in racing games when you crash and it goes slo-mo so they can remind you the game has a physics engine for thirty minutes- sure, it's an "aspect of the game," but it's still one I'll disable if given the option. I might turn them back on eventually, but I haven't found the mechanic particularly interesting or compelling. It does occur to me that Economist might be largely useless without pirates to play with, but asking me to "mix up the types of AI" is curious since I already used all of them and gave no indication in my OP that I was only using one or two. I mention two of them, but I fail to see how that makes it implicit that I was only using them.