For the AI version, make the AI with variable difficulty. easy start mode -- maybe add in a mode where you can only populate one planet and then activate the AI but for a full minute the game will catch the AI up with the player somewhat, that way people who are not good at the start can play as well. sandbox mode -- you still have energy and stuff as normal, but there is no enemy to fight, so you can fully destroy planets etc. practice mode -- you are limited to most smaller tech. most advanced thing you can make is the transport ship to start warfare. basically you start in peace with no fighting until you start the fight.
All three of these are confirmed features. They'll be added later. Remember, the game is in beta, it isn't yet complete.
Matter of fact, the "economy scale" option at the bottom of pregame lobby is AI difficulty, as if you make it a decimal number then the enemy gets the decimal use of their economy. So for .5 it cuts the AI economy in half, they start with half AND all mexes they build generate half AND powerplants generate half. On the same note, guess what setting the economy scale to 0 does? That's right, sandbox mode. You will get an AI enemy, but they will be unable to build at all, leaving them stuck.
Well as an ai they build pretty consistently scaled, time by resource. If you set it to half, you just about directly reduce their speed by half. They already don't attack early ish, so it is just as good as a head start.
Oh right. I guess then you have more time to prepare for the next wave. It's just a bit unfair when you become aggressive. Of course, you could scale back both economies by the same amount. ... You don't get a head start, but you get more time to muck around.
I assume it would be obligatory for a single player to maintain rules against an ai whose forced by those rules. As in, just nerf it, then follow your own rules not to attack either. Or do attack if you want, the point is it would be entirely up to you.
Sandbox should have the ability to spawn in enemy units and manipulate their orders. So you could practice strategies against walled in defenses, large blobs, artillery creep,etc etc.....
Sandbox mode already exists... You just set the AI economy multiplier to 0 and they don't get any resources so you can build permanently no matter how long you take the AI can't build anything.
