Derpy AI and a couple of other things

I was surprised to read about this "new and more evil AI". I just played my first game and it was very lonely. When I finally found the AI, there was a small base with a giant pile of tanks just sitting there waiting for me to kill them. Not as evil as I would like, certainly no challenge. A few tier 1 boats were enough to wipe out everything the AI had by firing volleys into the base. The AI commander then walked over to my base and stood in front of my missile launchers so as to make it very convenient to kill him. The AI definitely needs a lot of work.
Also, Sound effects are a little tepid not very engaging. And the sound mix seems "off". Sounds that seem to belong in front go to rear channel. Yes, I checked, I'm set to 5.1 and the windows speaker setup test made the sounds come out of the correct speakers.
Can we get a key to hold to replicate the function of the middle mousebutton? If I missed this somewhere I apologize, but I'd rather hold CTRL to pan around than the middle scrollwheel.
Textures could use some life, very very bland. Even for the cartoonish setting, still very bland.
Oh, and shadows seem to get weird on the landscape. Odd hash patterns when sun is at low angles. Land casting shadows onto itself seems to be the issue.

This is on a new build. Intel 4770k processor, intel Z87 chipset, 16GB ram, crossfired radeon 7950s, onboard sound. Running 2560x1440 in uber mode.

The game doesn't support 5.1 its only stereo.
And if the AI gets a good spot to start where it can expand nicely it will thump you harshly.
But the AI has issues on some starting spots and also with moving units occasionally.
Sorian (the AI developer) knows about these issues
he works tirelessly to make his AI more nasty every release, so don't worry Sorains AI will start PWN'ing you soon

Seriously, im an Elite player and i get pwn'd by sorian occasionally when his AI programming gets the right conditions to start

I can't wait until all these AI threads turn into "sweet-mother-of-mercy-please-make-the-AI-not-wipe-the-floor-with-me" threads.

Sorry but how? I'm an average player and I only get pwn'd by Sorian if I

a) Have a really terrible start
b) Play the AI in a ffa, focus my efforts on one AI, and give the other too much momentum.
c) Do something really stupid and destroy my economy early to mid game.
d)Do nothing.

And then it takes a horrific amount of time for him to actually kill my commander or destroy my base.

You were playing a water planet. The AI can't build naval yet. I don't think it can even "see" naval units.

So yeah. Play on a large moon or metal planet. Add lots of AI players.

Make an earth planet size 400 with height of 0-20 and water at 28-30.
try that and tell me if AI is more agressive.
I don't get many agressive battles from the AI unless its starting conditions are somewhat perfect.
But i have had sorians AI pwn me a few times when it has the right start and doesn't glitch or freeze up. it put up eco so fast i couldn't knock it down.
then it nuked me before i sniped the commander.

Oh it's not that it isn't aggressive enough - it's that I absorb its aggressiveness and rip it to pieces.

Do you have a planet seed for that map?

I will try to find the planet that yeild best AI battle for me.
It's still a bit random on when the AI is actually strong enough to put up a decent fight.
Also i set the AI eco to 2 or higher having the same rate as me gives me an advantage, i think where as sorians AI is programmed, so like you i tear it to pieces under normal play so i bump up the difficulty.

@stormingkiwi
This one is good for me with AI eco @ 2

also i think there needs to be 1 moon size below 350 in the system too, or AI stalls when looking to go to space to thump you with a moon.

Awesome.

Yeah that's true. I hate it when I start right next door, because then I just pelter creep and eco raid my way to victory.
I tend to set the AI eco to 1.5, and then add more AI/increase the size of the planet to add difficulty.

Because while 1 AI may gut the other, I generally find that there's always a bigger fish, and defending against multiple targets.

Maybe I should go to smaller planets and just start amping the economy up.

Cheers

Wow. I set up this system - I picked a system I had already created, and was already using seed 3348 Earth. Pretty cool.