some questions on AI, traits
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Stardock Forums
Stardock Forums
Played parts of a few games, have some questions (all for games with 'normal' difficulty):
- I took a tech bonus of 50% with the 'creativity' ability, and found this to be something of a waste. It seems that picking traits which boost economics, or perhaps production, are more valuable; either one means more money for research, which translates into a flexible bonus that you can turn on and off at will via the sliders.
Also, on normal difficulty I don't have a problem remaining somewhat ahead of the AI in tech so long as the AI is near my size or smaller. However, I've yet to see a game where one AI player hasn't become relatively huge compared to everyone else - which pretty much obviates the research bonus since his larger economy spends alot more in this area anyway.
In any event, I'm wondering if this what other people have seen.
- at normal difficulty, the AI seems to play a 'pay up or die' game of diplomacy. The cycle goes: AI makes a series of unreasonable demands; AI gets annoyed that you won't cripple yourself to assist in his galactic domination; AI declares war; war drags on forever; AI eventually gets bored and offers peace; several turns later, the whole cycle starts over again.
In other words, the AI seems to be stupidly aggressive, wasting valuable resources trying to whack your forces when it could be using them to build its own empire up. It isn't a problem defending against the AI; just identify the planets he has a hankering for and stack high-defense ships on them, occasionally replacing losses.
This cycle has happened in every 'normal' difficulty game I've played so far, often resulting in (at some point) every power being at war with me at the same time. Like I said, it isn't difficult to defend against, it's just...tedious.
So the question is: is this atypical? Is the AI stupidly aggressive only on lower difficulty settings, i.e., should I increase the difficulty to get an AI that does something other than demand stuff, then go to war? If this is typical at all difficulty settings, is there some way to hack the data files to tone down AI aggression, make it play a smarter game?
And finally, kudos to the designers for making the techs modifiable. I detest 'strategy' games where the techs come so fast and furious you're constantly building improvements/upgrading/etc., like in Civ where by the time your army reaches the enemy it's already outdated. One of the first things I did, after the very first game, was change the research point requirements for the techs to slow things waaaaaay down, to get a more moderate, period-based style game. It's quite nice, being able to tinker with the very thing that normally turns me off to most strategy games.
Max
- I took a tech bonus of 50% with the 'creativity' ability, and found this to be something of a waste. It seems that picking traits which boost economics, or perhaps production, are more valuable; either one means more money for research, which translates into a flexible bonus that you can turn on and off at will via the sliders.
Also, on normal difficulty I don't have a problem remaining somewhat ahead of the AI in tech so long as the AI is near my size or smaller. However, I've yet to see a game where one AI player hasn't become relatively huge compared to everyone else - which pretty much obviates the research bonus since his larger economy spends alot more in this area anyway.
In any event, I'm wondering if this what other people have seen.
- at normal difficulty, the AI seems to play a 'pay up or die' game of diplomacy. The cycle goes: AI makes a series of unreasonable demands; AI gets annoyed that you won't cripple yourself to assist in his galactic domination; AI declares war; war drags on forever; AI eventually gets bored and offers peace; several turns later, the whole cycle starts over again.
In other words, the AI seems to be stupidly aggressive, wasting valuable resources trying to whack your forces when it could be using them to build its own empire up. It isn't a problem defending against the AI; just identify the planets he has a hankering for and stack high-defense ships on them, occasionally replacing losses.
This cycle has happened in every 'normal' difficulty game I've played so far, often resulting in (at some point) every power being at war with me at the same time. Like I said, it isn't difficult to defend against, it's just...tedious.
So the question is: is this atypical? Is the AI stupidly aggressive only on lower difficulty settings, i.e., should I increase the difficulty to get an AI that does something other than demand stuff, then go to war? If this is typical at all difficulty settings, is there some way to hack the data files to tone down AI aggression, make it play a smarter game?
And finally, kudos to the designers for making the techs modifiable. I detest 'strategy' games where the techs come so fast and furious you're constantly building improvements/upgrading/etc., like in Civ where by the time your army reaches the enemy it's already outdated. One of the first things I did, after the very first game, was change the research point requirements for the techs to slow things waaaaaay down, to get a more moderate, period-based style game. It's quite nice, being able to tinker with the very thing that normally turns me off to most strategy games.
Max
