Since Gamma has removed the adjustable AI economics, I find playing the game on easy is way too sandbox and playing the game on normal is just down right frustrating. If the whole point of the game is to be able to mass micro, and build huge bases, I don't know how anyone gets through the first 15 minutes of the game without wanting to throw their mouse at their monitor. While I'm sure the AI is constantly being adjusted, I'd like to suggest a feature that I feel all RTS's could use. In game adjustable AI. Here is how I'd like to play PA. 1. Sandbox, Build a massively awesome base and vibrant economy. 2. Turn the AI up to Hard, let them build up their base/economy 3. have a ridiculously fun massive battle against an intelligent opponent with my ridiculously awesome base. Currently, on Normal AI, I start experiencing small attacks from a random direction (How the AI finds me so quickly is understandably not understandable. Further more, the economy I build is highly deficient in metal despite having 8+ sites, and building an advanced vehicle factory any sooner results in draining resources to the point of halting the economy.
Well your metal does seem a little short. So OP! if you set an area patrol around your base with a air factory set to fighters and bombers, they should be effective against the AI's raiding attacks, and give you a reasonable amount of intelligence about your surrounding area.
oh certainly, Sorian is obsessed with making the AI evil world dictators for life. However, Uber got PA out unusually quickly, and alot of elements still need to be added (like debris from ancient cities, more orbital play, gas planets, etc...), AI used to just make air and do nothing but bombing runs, they have come a long ways. Uber wants different kind of AI personalities as well, like very defensive and turtly AI that wont attack you super early, or crazy aggressive AI that hits you from all sides as soon as possible.
I think this may be an issue of your skill level, rather than issues with the AI. I find the Normal AI to be rather easy. You need WAY more metal than 8+ metal spots. Get back to me when you have 30+. (depending on planet size) I have 8+ metal before 4 minutes is up. Check out PA Matches tutorials section. It'll help you get better. You should also watch some gameplay on PA Matches while you're at it. Watching the pros is a great way to learn. Also, additional AI settings are a confirmed feature and are being worked on. So the poll is kinda pointless since it's already confirmed.
While I disagree with you on the difficulty of the AI, I still like this idea, changing the AI's eco rate in-game would be pretty nice, if for nothing else, cathartic potential. But as a tip - just remember that there's absolutely no such thing as too much construction so long as you have the economy to support it. Build everything everywhere, and when you run out of space to build, build on another planet. Opponent already building on another planet? Break their stuff and build your own. Opponent breaking your stuff? They're not going to stop, so retaliate!
I find the AI inconsistent. I set it to Easy yet it acts like its on Hard sometimes. But im not an expert by far and thus, I make mistakes and generally blame this on myself. Anyways I like this idea but on the fact that its to add an extra way for people like myself to have a better experience learning different ways to expand and manage eco. I really find following what most players do really ... boring. I watch players doing there expansion and it really leaves me feeling like there's not enough different expansion strategies besides what units your choosing to start with. Now im again not an expert and as such its not important I feel this way, as most seem to shake off opinions like this because they like games of 30mins or less. I love a game that takes an hour or more with an expansion time of 20-30mins before I get into heavy fire. But so far things are starting to look like there's no hope for me to have these kinds of games even with the system manager as good as it is. The end product will always be a win in my book even if I end up feeling like the games are always to short or if I always lose. So overall theres another opinion on this subject. Go ahead and mock me, as im sure someone will feel im trying to make the game change just for me. But maybe, just maybe when we have local games against the AI we can have a way to handicap them? Or maybe a Peace time, so that we can build up a nice and big base to fight with instead of having the AI raid us all the time and mess up the base expansion?? Oh well ill be happy with whatever uber decides. Go easy on me if you do wanna mock me, since im only trying to add some opinions after playing alot of RTS and having the hardest time trying to get the eco management in this game vs the expansion.
That's because the behaviour of the ai is not affected by the difficulty at all. It simply scales its resources (half resources on easy, double the resources on hard).
