Before I even begin, here is a shout-out to the Devs at Uber entertainment- the game is coming along great, way better than any other RTS out there currently. Ok, so since the AI is still being developed, I think that instead of simply giving the "easy, normal & hard" difficulties, the options should look more like this: APM: Set the maximum APM an AI can have. Handicap: Set the bonus/reduction % the AI gets to resources. Behavior: Set the AI's different build order/behavior (turtle, aggressive, etc.) If we are allowed to choose these settings instead of the typical "easy, normal & hard" settings, people couldn't complain about AI "being too difficult" or "being too easy". It would also make the AI more interesting in general. Thoughts?
Uber has better plans than this. The AI is going to have different personalities. We don't know what all of the personalities will be, but here's some examples. Aggressive AI: Constantly sending units your way Turtle AI: Cautious expansion and relies on nukes and planet smashing to win Orbital AI: Tends to go hard orbital and tries to claim as many planets as possible We'll see what they all are, but that's the general idea.
Hmmm, I do like the handicap option for the ai (both positive AND negative handicap) & I don't believe they mentioned anything about doing so brian.
They have said many times that they're going to have different AI personalities. The resource handicap is already in the game, and it is going to have additional customization in the future.
I'd love to see a militaristic personality (although I'm not sure if it'd be an easy implement, or even a good idea) By that I mean they sort of treat the game like a game of real-time civilization, where they remain peaceful until you attack them, and even do some sort of muscle flexing when they sense you're close to attacking them, like moving their air force over/near your base, "showing" they have access to nuclear weapons, fortifying areas they own that are close to you, etc. Or even attacking you if they see a tremendous weakness in you. Like I said I'm not sure if this would be a particularly good idea, but the role-player in me says it would be.
WHA-- REALLY?! HOLY **** HOW DID I NOT KNOW THIS? BRB PLAYING SUPCOM TXT ME WHEN THE NEXT UPDATE IS OUT.
What about APM? I'm just saying that if the AI difficulty were this customizable it would be cool. Also, an AI behavior that has it just spamming nukes & smashing planets would be hilarious...
If you reduced APM from the current approximation we'd have to make of it (because APM is an abstract concept for the AI) which would be infinity, then you'd only be able to go down from normal AI. that's not very interesting. The AI doesn't need handicaps right now, it's not strong enough yet.
Sorian said in the 11 hour live stream that the AI currently has an APM similar to that of a pro Starcraft player. He suggested he might look at an APM cap for levels, but he'd need to work on a means for the AI to prioritise its actions first.
